Platner earns backing of influential, big-spending Democratic veterans group in Maine Senate race

WASHINGTON — As he works to consolidate support among national Democrats, Graham Platner, now the party’s presumptive nominee for US Senate in Maine, has picked up the backing of a significant player in party politics.

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VoteVets, the most influential Democratic-aligned veterans’ political organization, is endorsing Platner, according to a statement exclusively shared with the Globe.

Retired US Army Major General Paul Eaton, a senior adviser to the group, noted Platner’s extensive military service, which included four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Marine.

“Graham knows the cost of service and what happens when we let leaders in Washington march us into failed forever wars,” said Eaton, who criticized incumbentRepublicanSenator Susan Collins for failing to stop President Trump from harming the economy and putting US troops in harm’s way in the Middle East.

“The choice in this race couldn’t be more clear …. We look forward to helping him win this race and bringing much needed accountability to Washington,” said Eaton.

In a statement, Platner accused longtime lawmakers like Collins of approving military actions abroad while defense industry interests profit, “and now they’re trying to do it again with another forever war in Iran,” he said.

“I’m running to end the forever wars and the careers of the politicians who keep supporting them, and I’m honored to have the support of VoteVets in this fight,” Platner said.

(Collins initially supported Trump’s strikes on Iran, for which he did not seek congressional approval; she has since advocated for measures, which have so far failed, requiring the approval of Congress for Trump to continue the war.)

For Platner, who now carries on his shoulders Democrats’ hopes to flip their most favorable state on the Senate map this year, the VoteVets endorsement is notable.

For one, the group historically devotes considerable resources to supporting its candidates’ campaigns — meaning Platner can now likely count on some substantial additional backing in his challenge of Collins, a formidable campaigner.

In the 2024 election cycle, VoteVets spent $50 million helping to elect candidates it endorsed, the group says. That included nearly $3 million in ads boostingthen-Representative Ruben Gallego, the Arizona Democrat and Marine veteran, who won a contentious Senate race. They also spent $1.5 million helping Derek Tran, a US Army veteran, defeat GOP incumbent Michelle Steel in a Southern California congressional district.

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Though it has endorsed a range of candidates, VoteVets is most closely associated with championing more moderate, center-left military veterans who have found success defeating Republican incumbents in the Trump era. Last year, the group gave a $500,000 contribution to former representative Abigail Spanberger in her successful campaign for Virginia governor.

The group’s backing of Platner, a populist progressive, points to his potential to expand his political tent. In the primary race, he boxed out the party establishment choice, Governor Janet Mills, while arguing for a drastic shakeup of the party’s policy positions and political approach more broadly.

This year, VoteVets has faced some heat for dropping a huge amount of cash — $8 million — in Iowa’s contentious Senate primary to boost state Representative Josh Turek, who is seen by some Democrats as the most electable choice in the Republican-leaning state. (Turek, a US Paralympian, is not a military veteran.)

Turek’s opponent, state Senator Zach Wahls, shares some similarities with Platner — he’s a progressive with the backing of organized labor, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has also sharply criticized Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Wahls has accused VoteVets of working on behalf of the party establishment in the race, while the group has denied the charge, according to The Washington Post.

VoteVets has been a major outside player in elections since the group was formed in 2006 amid political backlash to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is the most active group in terms of recruiting, and then supporting, Democratic military veterans and national security officials who run for office.

Platner’s military service in those conflicts — a core aspect of his biography — shaped his political worldview. Despite personally opposing the Iraq invasion, Platner enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2003 at 18 years old, and then endured some of the heaviest fighting of the conflict. He has spoken during the campaign of the traumatic toll of those deployments, his struggle to re-acclimate to civilian life, and ultimately becoming disillusioned with US foreign policy and the high cost of military intervention abroad.

Last weekend, Platner held a veterans-focused town hall in Portland, with veteran supporters and leaders from Veterans For Responsible Leadership, another group that has backed his candidacy.

Elsewhere in New England, VoteVets endorsed Representative Seth Moulton, of Salem, in his primary challenge against incumbent Senator Ed Markey, of Malden. VoteVets has long been a key backer of Moulton, who served four tours of duty in Iraq as a Marine Corps officer.

The group is also backing Maura Sullivan, a Marine veteran and former Obama administration official who is running in the open primary in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, as well as Luke Bronin, the former Hartford mayor who is challenging longtime Representative John Larson.

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