Josh Gottheimer

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., publicly called Tuesday for Maine Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner to surrender the nomination he is expected to win that same day, the most direct push yet from a sitting House Democrat to clear the way for a different challenger to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

On CNN's "News Central," Gottheimer told anchor John Berman that "the issues are just going to keep piling up" and that Platner "should get off the ballot" so the Maine Democratic Party can install another nominee.

Gottheimer cast his appeal as part of a broader push against the party's left flank, telling Berman that "socialists are not part of the Democratic Party" and pointing to Platner's primary as "a great case in point of a major concern."

He ticked through what he called disqualifying conduct: a candidate who "abused women," a Nazi tattoo Gottheimer said Platner knew the meaning of, and what he characterized as "pro-Hamas" and "extremist" comments.

"In Jersey, we'd throw him off the ballot or bury him under the Meadowlands," he said.

Platner denies the physicality allegations and denies knowing the tattoo's meaning before reporters raised it last fall. Berman flagged both denials on air.

The cable hit landed a day after Platner's former political director laid out a detailed indictment of the candidate in The Washington Post.

Former Democrat state Rep. Genevieve McDonald, who ran political operations for the campaign from August to October 2025, wrote that Platner "is not someone who would be good for Maine or for the country" and argued that "Maine voters don't have to accept" the premise that he is the only viable challenger to Collins.

McDonald urged Democrats to use the party's convention process to install a different nominee if Platner wins and then withdraws.

The pressure follows weeks of damaging disclosures.

Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer, has confronted reporting that he sent sexually explicit messages to multiple women early in his marriage, a New York Times account in which former girlfriends described him as demeaning and at times physically rough, and renewed scrutiny of a chest tattoo resembling the Nazi Totenkopf.

Platner has acknowledged a troubled stretch after his combat tours but called the physicality allegations "simply not true" and politically motivated.

Newsmax has reached out to the Platner campaign for comment.

Gov. Janet Mills remains on Tuesday's ballot but suspended her campaign earlier this spring after Platner consolidated a polling lead.

Polling indicates a race that has tightened since the revelations broke.

A University of Massachusetts Lowell/YouGov survey of 650 likely Maine voters, conducted online May 13-26 and weighted to demographic and political benchmarks, showed Platner leading Collins 48% to 43% with a 4.9% margin of sampling error; however, the field period ended before the sexting reports surfaced.

A subsequent Fabrizio, Lee & Associates poll of 800 likely Maine voters, sponsored by the Republican firm and conducted June 1-3 with a 3.5% margin of sampling error, found the two tied at 46%; mode and weighting details were not publicly disclosed.

Collins, in office since 1997, is unopposed in Tuesday's GOP primary.