From Nazi Tats To Kissing Cousins: Maine Democrats Go Full Jerry Springer

In the span of a few weeks, Maine Democrats replaced their U.S. Senate nominee amid a cascade of personal controversies, with a guy who’s been banging his 2nd cousin for years. 

Platner’s Collapse

Graham Platner, a Marine Corps veteran and oyster farmer, had emerged as a progressive populist challenger to five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins. He secured the Democratic nomination in June 2026 despite a string of earlier controversies that included inflammatory Reddit posts, reports of sexually explicit texts sent to women while married, and a chest tattoo resembling the Totenkopf (a skull-and-crossbones emblem associated with Nazi SS units and concentration camp guards).

Platner said he got the tattoo in 2007 while drinking on leave in Croatia with fellow Marines and claimed he did not know its Nazi associations until the campaign. Multiple former romantic partners disputed that account, saying he had referred to it as “my Totenkopf” years earlier. Exes also described patterns of rough physical behavior, crude comments about women, and fantasies involving dominance through rape.

The decisive blow came in early July 2026, when a former girlfriend, Jenny Racicot, alleged that Platner had sexually assaulted her in late 2021 while intoxicated. Platner denied the claim, calling it false. Facing pressure from party leaders and the withdrawal of key support, he suspended his campaign and formally withdrew, clearing the way for a replacement under Maine party rules.

Enter Troy Jackson

Maine Democrats moved quickly. On July 25, 2026, they selected Troy Jackson, a fifth-generation logger from the remote Allagash area in the St. John Valley, former state Senate president, and progressive with strong union ties. Jackson had previously run for governor with support from Sen. Bernie Sanders and positioned himself as a working-class alternative. He won the special nominating process decisively and now faces Collins in a race that could influence Senate control.

Within days of Jackson’s formal selection, independent reporting from The Maine Wire (followed by national coverage in the New York Post and Daily Wire) revealed that his longtime partner, Lana Pelletier – his high school sweetheart and the mother of his two adult sons, Chace and Camden – is his second cousin by blood.

Genealogical records and local knowledge show they share great-grandparents Thomas Pelletier and Edith Thibodeau:

• Jackson’s maternal grandmother (Albertine Pelletier O’Leary) and Pelletier’s paternal grandfather (Louis A. Pelletier Sr.) were siblings.
• This makes Jackson’s mother (Colleen McBreairty) and Pelletier’s father (Louis “Louie” Pelletier Jr.) first cousins.
• Therefore, Troy Jackson and Lana Pelletier are second cousins.

 Oh… 

When your debate partner says he wants to introduce you to his wife and cousin but there’s only one person with him…. pic.twitter.com/9bqUuovFbs

— Magills (@magills_) July 31, 2026

The pair has been together for decades, raised two sons (who are simultaneously third cousins), and never obtained a marriage license. Jackson has sometimes referred to Pelletier as his wife in older materials but more often as his partner; she works as a clinical care specialist for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. The relationship has been an open secret in the small, isolated Allagash community for years.

Second-cousin relationships and marriage are legal under Maine law with no special restrictions (unlike first-cousin unions, which face additional requirements). Genetic experts generally view the increased risk of inherited disorders as negligible compared with the general population. Such pairings are not unheard of in sparsely populated rural areas with limited dating pools and deep family interconnections.

Political Optics

The sequence was immediate and unsubtle. Critics and online commentators framed it as Democrats trading one set of personal liabilities – allegations of abusive behavior toward women and a Nazi-linked tattoo – for a nominee whose domestic life involves a blood relative of the second-cousin variety.

Just caught up with Troy Jackson in DC — asked him for some dating advice since he apparently knew the right places to take his cousin

@townhallcom’s @storm_paglia pic.twitter.com/PbmdKOaR6B

— Matthew Foldi (@MatthewFoldi) July 31, 2026

Defenders noted that nothing illegal occurred, that the relationship predates Jackson’s political career by decades, and that focusing on it distracts from policy differences with Collins.

Jackson has built his brand on authentic North Woods working-class roots. The revelation does not change the formal legality of his long-term partnership, nor does it involve any allegation of non-consent or criminality. It does, however, underscore how personal histories – whether tattoos, relationship conduct, or family trees – can rapidly dominate a high-stakes Senate race once they surface.