Graham Platner built his short-lived political career attacking billionaires. But it was the billionaires who built his campaign, funded his efforts, made excuses for his scandals, and ultimately owned the mess in Maine.
Platner’s campaign came to an end around July 8 after a woman he previously dated came forward alleging he assaulted her in 2021. Platner has denied these claims as “categorically untrue,” but it’s not the first scandal his billionaire-funded campaign has glossed over.
Throughout the last several months, Platner faced accusations of sending sexually explicit messages to multiple women, alleged abuse of other former girlfriends, and deleted Reddit posts in which he disparaged sexual assault victims and American military veterans.
Platner’s donors and allies had every opportunity to walk away earlier. But each time, the dark money groups, activist organizations, donor networks, and fellow Democrats continued to endorse and fund the candidate.
While Platner’s campaign is now over, voters deserve to know who paid for such a disturbing and dangerous candidacy.
The billionaires who funded Platner in the first place made excuses for almost every one of his scandals—until now.
Just days before he collapsed, Platner’s team was raising alarms that while the campaign had been “able to go toe-to-toe — and at times outspend” Republican incumbent Susan Collins, it was being “completely blown out of the water by outside, out-of-state money.” In response, national Democrats, particularly the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said they were preparing to step in and help him raise more.
The billionaire basher called in the billionaires to bail out his campaign, regardless of his scandalous history.
But despite his rhetoric on the campaign trail, reliance on money from billionaires is nothing new for Platner. The campaign has received millions of dollars' worth of support from organizations backed by at least 31 of the world’s top billionaires.
One of the most notable billionaire backers of Platner's is Hansjorg Wyss, a Swiss billionaire worth $4.8 billion. Wyss, a foreign-national megadonor, cannot legally donate to American elections. But through his nonprofit, Berger Action Fund, Wyss gives tens of millions of dollars to left-leaning groups like the Sixteen Thirty Fund—a group that’s been labeled the left’s “preeminent dark money hub” — including more than $200 million since 2016.
Wyss’ money runs straight through Platner’s operation. The Sixteen Thirty Fund has sent $5 million to the Maine People’s Alliance, the activist group Platner was an active member of before running for office, and whose deputy director, Ben Chin, now runs his campaign. Another Sixteen Thirty-funded group, Unrig Our Economy, has spent millions of dollars on advertisements directly supporting Platner’s campaign. Nearly $375 million has come from billionaires including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg via the same donor network.
Now, the same donor class that built Platner is bailing on him. Platner spent nearly a year telling Maine voters he’d throw billionaires in jail for looking at a political ad “the wrong way,” while simultaneously building his Senate run with their money. He even said, “Nobody works hard enough to justify $1 billion.” But in reality, Platner built his campaign on billionaire money.
The only way Platner survived this far is because the same billionaires who funded his campaign are the same ones who turned a blind eye to his scandals and who are now turning on him.
Maine voters were tired of the schtick before this week. Now they’re watching the billionaire-funded machine behind it fall apart and wondering why it took this long.