Things had been going well for Graham Platner.

The military veteran and oyster farmer’s bid to dethrone Republican incumbent senator Susan Collins has continued gaining steam. Polls — though they are sparse — generally show him with a sizable lead over his Democratic primary challenger, Governor Janet Mills, and a series of potentially campaign-ending scandals had appeared firmly in the rearview mirror.

But Platner complicated his apparent path to November this week when he amplified an antisemitic conspiracy theorist online and fumbled a response to a question about his controversial tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol.

Jewish Insider reported on Thursday that Platner shared a social-media post from Stew Peters, a far-right conspiracy theorist with a history of espousing racist and antisemitic beliefs including the promotion of Holocaust denial. On X, Peters shared a clip of President Trump speaking during his State of the Union address about the possibility of a military conflict with Iran. The footage appeared to show both Democratic and Republican members of Congress clapping, prompting Peters to write, “War with Iran is the only thing republicans and democrats have both given a standing ovation for. Let that sink in.”

Graham initially shared Peters’s post, adding his own comment. “As always, there’s one thing that brings Republican and Democratic politicians together: sending other people’s children to........

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