Gov. Tim Walz is throwing his support behind a controversial U.S. Senate candidate in Maine who for years had a Nazi-linked tattoo on his chest.
“I’ll be in Portland tomorrow with [Graham Platner] to kick off his campaign to retire Susan Collins. Let’s go win this thing,” Walz wrote in an X post Thursday hours after Platner’s primary opponent, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, dropped out of the race.
I’ll be in Portland tomorrow with @grahamformaine to kick off his campaign to retire Susan Collins.
Let’s go win this thing. https://t.co/yW37rlP0ss
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) April 30, 2026
As such, Platner is expected to be the Democratic Party’s candidate to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in November.
However, Platner’s campaign has already been rocked by various controversies, especially the revelation that he had a tattoo of a Totenkopf, which was the symbol used by a Nazi SS unit that guarded concentration camps.
In various interviews, Platner has said that he got the tattoo (which he has since had covered up) on a military deployment and was unaware of its Nazi connection.
However, a former acquaintance told Jewish Insider that Platner referred to the tattoo as “my Totenkopf” while a former campaign staffer said Platner is a “military history buff” who “knows damn well what it means.”
Walz has frequently deployed Nazi-related accusations against President Donald Trump and his administration, even saying the country is being taken over by “Nazis and fascists.”
As a vocal opponent of the president, the Minnesota governor often finds himself on the receiving end of Trump’s attacks. For instance, in November, the president referred to Walz as “seriously retarded.”
Walz told the Star Tribune that the president’s use of that term makes him a “bad human being.”
But Platner himself regularly used the word in online posts and during an interview published just a few weeks ago.
The National Republican Senatorial Campaign highlighted Walz’s support for Platner in a press release this week.
“Fraudster Tim Walz is teaming up with fraudulent Graham Platner to promote his record of racism, sexism, homophobia, and antisemitism,” said NRSC Regional Press Secretary Samantha Cantrell. “No matter how hard Walz tries, Platner is way too radical for Maine.”
Minnesota Congressman Pete Stauber also weighed in, writing on X: “Minnesotans are seeing once again that Tim Walz not only enables fraud, he IS a fraud, campaigning with a Democrat who promotes his own Nazi tattoo. Walz is the most unserious governor in our state’s history.”
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
