State Representative Alma Hernandez (D-20) and The Kari Lake War Room X account have condemned Senator Ruben Gallego's (D-AZ) endorsement of controversial Maine candidate Graham Platner.
Platner, who is running to replace Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), first gained attention late last year. His platform is marked by left-wing populism and emphasizes his previous service in the Marine Corps.
Where the controversy arises is through his past as a Reddit user, where he allegedly endorsed political violence, displayed contempt for police and rural Americans, and dismissed instances of rape and sexual assault in the Armed Forces.
However, the most well-known incident attached to Platner is the tattoo he received on the left side of his chest, which has drawn accusations of being a Totenkopf, the skull-and-crossbones symbol of Nazi Germany's Schutzstaffel (SS), which perpetrated numerous war crimes, including the Holocaust, during the Second World War. Platner has since covered the tattoo.
Despite the controversy, Sen. Gallego, a fellow Marine veteran, recently shared his endorsement, saying in a statement, "Graham Platner is the kind of fighter Maine hasn't seen in a long time, someone who tells you exactly what he thinks, doesn't owe anything to the special interests, and wakes up every day thinking about working families."
State Rep. Hernandez, however, called the endorsement "absolutely shameful."
"I can't imagine ever endorsing someone with a literal Nazi tattoo. Dems MUST be better at vetting serious candidates, and elected officials should be more careful about who they back," she wrote in a social media post.
The Kari Lake War Room similarly weighed in on the endorsement, "Ruben Gallego just endorsed an outright communist with a Nazi tattoo to be the next Senator from Maine, in case you were wondering how his moderate “reinvention” is going. We told you so."
