JTA — As Graham Platner wrapped up his campaign for the Maine Democratic Senate nomination Tuesday, he ended it the way he began: by taking aim at AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby and political funder.

The Democrat’s first online ad, released in August, boasted that, unlike his competitors, he would never get AIPAC’s endorsement because he believed Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Last week, he suggested that AIPAC funding meant his Republican opponent was “bought and paid for by Benjamin Netanyahu,” drawing allegations of antisemitism from a range of Jewish groups.

Along the way, Platner has courted multiple rounds of controversy over Israel and Jews. And in the race’s final days, new reports about Platner’s past behavior toward women have fueled anti-Israel rhetoric among some of his supporters — and further splintered Democratic support for the oyster farmer and political neophyte whose spirited run for office has alarmed many Jewish leaders.

Now, Mainers are heading to the polls with Israel and antisemitism allegations looming large.

Platner, 41, ran as a populist promising to inject progressive energy into a Senate race where both the incumbent Republican and the establishment Democratic pick, Governor Janet Mills, are in their 70s. (Mills suspended her primary campaign as Platner soared in polls, but she remains on Tuesday’s ballot.) In an election cycle when anti-Israel rhetoric is surging on the left, Platner — who has Jewish extended family, including a stepbrother who lives in Israel and works on Israel policy issues for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies — embraced the stance by making genocide accusations a key part of his stump speech.

That has earned him support in some corners. In a viral video from a rally over the weekend, a Platner supporter dismissed concerns about his tattoo of the Totenkopf symbol, a skull-and-crossbones image worn by Nazi concentration camp guards, which Platner tattooed over earlier this year amid criticism even as he insisted that he hadn’t known it was a Nazi symbol.

Then the supporter asserted that if Platner had a different tattoo, it would have been a dealbreaker for her: an Israeli flag.

“I don’t support genocide, and he doesn’t either, and that would show that he’s being inconsistent,” the woman told the New York Sun.

At a Graham Platner rally in Portland. “Would an Israeli flag tattoo be a deal breaker?” “Honestly yeah, because I don’t support genocide.” https://t.co/93SQVwHOXH pic.twitter.com/CKrpQwkmxO — Caroline McCaughey (@TheCarolineMc) June 8, 2026

At a Graham Platner rally in Portland.

“Would an Israeli flag tattoo be a deal breaker?”

“Honestly yeah, because I don’t support genocide.” https://t.co/93SQVwHOXH pic.twitter.com/CKrpQwkmxO

— Caroline McCaughey (@TheCarolineMc) June 8, 2026

The exchange exacted disbelief from some. “Are you kidding me? A tattoo of the Israeli flag is worse than a Nazi symbol?” tweeted Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, who is Jewish. “This should not be welcome in the Democratic Party!”

Pro-Israel donors have responded accordingly, shoring up the war chest of Republican Senator Susan Collins.

“Susan Collins’s latest financial report just came out. A staggering one-third of her money raised this quarter came directly from AIPAC,” Platner tweeted on June 1. “Senator Collins is bought and paid for by Benjamin Netanyahu, and she votes accordingly.”

Collins has described herself as broadly “pro-Israel” but also recently provided a crucial vote for a measure to end the joint........

© The Times of Israel