By VDC staff
Vermont Republican Party Chair Paul Dame is urging Sen. Bernie Sanders to explain or retract his endorsement of Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Planter after reports surfaced about Planter’s Nazi tattoo.
Planter is running in the Democratic primary in the 2026 United States Senate election in Maine, seeking to unseat Republican Susan Collins. Gov. Janet Mills is the frontrunner for the Democrat nomination.
Axios reported Tuesday that Planter, already under scrutiny for controversial Reddit comments offensive to blacks and sexual assault victims, has faced new criticism after acknowledging the tattoo, which he said dates back nearly two decades. While some Democrats have withdrawn their support, Sanders has reportedly continued to back Planter’s campaign.
“Senator Sanders owes his followers an apology, an explanation or a retraction of his public endorsement of Graham Planter for U.S. Senate in Maine,” Dame said in a statement released Tuesday. “While Mr. Planter claims that he is ‘not a secret Nazi,’ many questions remain about why Planter did not remove the Nazi tattoo that he has worn for 19 years.”
Online sources say that Platner recently disclosed that he has a skull-and-crossbones ‘totenkopf’ tattoo associated with Nazi symbolism, which he, while serving in the U.S. Marines, got while drunk on leave in Croatia in 2007. The tattoo on his chest appears in several photos seen on the internet. He claims he was unaware of its meaning at the time and has faced scrutiny over this revelation during his campaign.
Dame cited EMILY’s List President Jessica Mackler’s characterization of Planter’s comments as “unacceptable and disqualifying,” and called on Sanders to clarify his stance.
“Senator Sanders must address these several issues and state publicly whether he will continue to support the problematic Planter, or whether he will join other Democrats in calling for him to step out of the race,” Dame said.