Who Is Graham Platner? Senate Hopeful Calls for Investigation of Donald Trump
Maine's Senate hopeful Graham Platner has promised to investigate President Donald Trump's second administration if he wins in November.
The oyster farmer leads fellow Democratic candidate Governor Janet Mills in numerous polls ahead of a June 9 primary and also polls higher the Republican incumbent, Senator Susan Collins, in a hypothetical one-on-one race ahead of November's midterm elections.
Platner has run on a strong anti-Trump platform, thus becoming one of the leading voices calling to investigate the president's handling of the Iran War, immigration raids across the nation and the sagging economy.
On April 7, 2026, Representative John Larson, of Connecticut's first district, introduced 13 articles of impeachment against Trump in the House of Representatives.
While the articles of impeachment are unlikely to pass through the House Judiciary Committee, Larson argued that Trump has "blown past every requirement to be removed from office" by threatening on April 7 that "a whole civilization" in Iran would end unless the Strait of Hormuz was opened. (Trump subsequently agreed to a temporary ceasefire with Iran through the intervention of Pakistan.)
Impeachment calls have come from outside of Washington D.C. as well. Hollywood icons Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep have both publicly demanded legal action against Trump if Democrats win the 2026 midterm elections, while a prominent group of the president's most previous supporters - including Candace Owens, Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson - have also criticized his conduct of late. (Trump called the trio "stupid people" while firing back via Truth Social on April 9.)
Keep scrolling for more about Platner's campaign promises about Trump and his background.
Graham Platner Has Called for an Investigation into President Donald Trump
Speaking to NBC News in April 2025, Platner vowed to block the Trump administration's conservative policies should he win Maine's Senate seat.
"I want to shut the White House down," Platner said. "I want us to, for the next two years, be dragging every single person in the White House, every single person in all these agencies that have been conducting themselves in illegal and unconstitutional ways. They need to be dragged by subpoena in front of Senate committees over and over and over again."
He accused the administration of "murder" for "dropp[ing] a bunch of bombs on boats in the Caribbean all last fall" as part of "Operation Southern Spear" against drug traffickers in late 2025.
"We drag people who are involved in putting ICE agents in our streets, murdering American citizens, terrorizing communities," Platner insisted.
He also accused the Trump administration of "rank corruption" and said the president has "absolutely" committed impeachable offenses.
As for whether he'd support impeachment, Platner told NBC News, "I will say this, though, on that front: If we don't have the votes in the Senate to convict, I don't think we should waste our time with it."
Graham Platner Wants to Make Fundamental Changes to the Supreme Court
Platner told NBC News in April 2026 that there is "a compelling case" to pursue impeachment against conservative-leaning Supreme Court judges, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. (Impeachment requires a majority vote in the House and two-thirds support in the Senate.)
"[There] are absolutely reasons for removal," he argued.
The Maine politician wouldn't rule out supporting efforts to "pack the court," or change the number of judges on the Supreme Court to achieve a balance in ideologies.
"[I'm] definitely open to doing more, including adding seats on the court," Platner said.
Graham Platner Addressed Having an Offensive Tattoo
The oyster farmer is a lifelong resident of Maine, having grown up in the coastal town of Sullivan. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2003 and served three combat tours of Iraq throughout his military career.
He told "The Takeout" podcast" in April 2026 that he came out of the military in a "hyper-masculine, hyper-violent place." Platner confirmed that he and other Marines got a skull-and-bones tattoo while on leave in Croatia, not knowing it had Nazi symbolism. (He has since had the offensive tattoo covered over.)
"Once I left and came out [I] interacted in the civilian world with lots of different people with very different experiences than my own," he explained. "Many of those beliefs and thoughts and even just language changed significantly over time."
Graham Platner Paused His Campaign to Pursue IVF with His Wife
Platner announced in January 2026 that he was putting his campaign on pause in order to accompany his wife, Amy Gertner, for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments in Norway. (Platner tied the knot with Gertner, a school teacher and paid campaign adviser, in 2024.)
"The expense of this [treatment] in the United States is astronomical, $25,000 for a first attempt," he explained in a campaign video.
Platner and Gertner clarified that they were seeking treatment in Norway because one round of IVF treatment only costs $5,500 there.
"Graham has great sperm," Gertner quipped in the video. "The infertility was something that was part of my body."
The Senate candidate noted that his and Gertner's experience with IVF costs have inspired him to "build power in order to go get things that working people in this country need, like a universal health care system that provides fertility support."
Graham Platner Sees Himself as the Heir to Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders
Vermont Bernie Sanders, a progressive stalwart in the Senate, officially endorsed Platner's Maine campaign in August 2025 and has appeared with him at rallies.
"When you listen to how we talk about organizing, when you certainly look at our theory of politics around wealth inequality, our theory of politics around how the system has been structured to benefit the ultra wealthy at the expense of working people - I very much feel like I do fall in the legacy of Senator Sanders," Platner told NBC News. "I very much want to see this politics continue into the future. That's why I'm doing this."
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This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 1:04 AM.