Graham Platner wants Susan Collins’ Senate seat. He also wants you to know — or rather, he wanted you NOT to know, which is why he deleted his Reddit account — that he considers a 2014 Hamas raid on Israeli soldiers “a damn fine looking and successful raid” that was “well executed.”
Welcome to the 2026 midterms, where the Democratic frontrunner in a marquee Senate race sounds like he’s doing color commentary for a terrorist operation.
Platner is not a fringe candidate. He is leading the Democratic primary in Maine. He is the guy the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is banking on to flip one of the most important seats in the country. And his archived Reddit posts, surfaced this week by Jewish Insider, read like a Hamas recruitment flyer translated by a poli-sci major.
The posts are specific. In response to footage of a 2014 Hamas tunnel raid on an Israeli military position, Platner wrote: “That was a damn fine looking and successful raid.” He added that it was “well executed.” In separate posts, he described Israeli military operations in Gaza as “genocide.” He did not use quotation marks around the word. He meant it.
When the posts surfaced, Platner’s campaign did what campaigns do — issued a statement expressing “support for Israel’s right to exist” while declining to address the specific language. His Reddit account, which had been active for years, was deleted within hours of the Jewish Insider report. The internet, being the internet, had already archived everything.
Here is the part that matters for Maine voters and for the national Senate map. Platner is not running in Dearborn. He is not running in a district where praising Hamas might play to a constituency. He is running in Maine — a state with a tiny Arab-American population, a deep-blue coastal strip, and a purple interior that went for Trump in 2020’s second congressional district. The Hamas comments are not a play for votes. They are a window into what the man actually believes when he thinks nobody important is reading.
And what he believes is that a Hamas raid was “damn fine looking.”
This is the Democratic bench in 2026. In California, they have a governor who buys his own book. In Arizona, they have a senator wiping earwax on staffers. In New York, they have a mayor opening a $30 million government grocery store. And in Maine, they have a Senate frontrunner who watches Hamas footage the way most people watch NFL highlights — impressed, analytical, and rooting for the home team.
The Jewish community in Maine is small but vocal, and they are not amused. Neither are the independent voters in CD-2 who already feel uncomfortable with the Democratic Party’s post-October 7 drift. Platner’s comments don’t just hurt him — they hurt every Democrat running downballot in a state where “damn fine looking raid” is not a phrase you can explain away with a press release.
Susan Collins has not commented. She doesn’t need to. The man running to replace her just did her campaign work for free. Write the name down. Graham Platner. Maine. Senate. 55-28. “Damn fine looking raid.” He deleted his Reddit account. The voters should delete his candidacy.