Gallego endorses Senate candidate who once had Nazi-linked tattoo

As a Democrat who won handily in a state that went to Donald Trump in 2024, Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego has been enjoying a year-plus of mostly good press. National outlets have painted him as someone with the keys to turning the Democratic Party around. He’s been floated as a presidential candidate in 2028. The gist of it all has been: This is a guy who knows how to win.

But that hasn’t made Gallego immune to pushback. Though he’s recently talked a good game about the brutality, cruelty and general thuggery of Trump’s mass deportation regime, he (and fellow Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly) caught a lot of heat from progressives for supporting the Laken Riley Act, which required the jailing of undocumented immigrants merely accused of minor crimes. And on Monday, Gallego made another controversial choice.

On social media and in a Washington Post article, Gallego lavished his endorsement on Graham Platner in Maine’s U.S. Senate race. A military veteran and an oyster farmer, Platner is running in the Democratic primary against Maine Gov. Janet Mills for the chance to take on incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins in November. Gallego is the second sitting senator to endorse Platner, behind Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

“(Graham Platner) is the kind of fighter Maine hasn’t seen in a long time, someone who tells you exactly what he thinks, doesn’t owe anything to the special interests, and wakes up every day thinking about working families,” Gallego wrote on social media. “He’s a Marine, and reflects the grit and independence that defines Maine, and that’s exactly why I’m proud to endorse him.”

And on paper, Gallego’s affinity for Platner makes sense. They are both combat veterans disillusioned by their experiences fighting America’s wars in the Middle East. Since entering the Senate, Gallego has tacked more to the center than he did as a U.S. representative, but Platner promotes the same brand of progressive politics that Gallego used to espouse. And Platner seems to have the common touch that people ascribe to Gallego.

On the other hand, Platner also had — until alarmingly recently — a tattoo on his chest closely linked with Nazi Germany. Specifically, according to the Associated Press, “the initial tattoo image” — a black skull and crossbones — “resembled a specific symbol of Hitler’s paramilitary Schutzstaffel, or SS, which was responsible for the systematic murders of millions of Jews and others in Europe during World War II.”

The 41-year-old Platner has said he got the tattoo while drunk on leave in Croatia in 2007 and had no idea what it signified. A plausible explanation, perhaps, but it then stayed on his chest for the next 18 years. It was only after news reports about that tattoo surfaced last year, Platner has claimed, that he learned the significance of the skull. He got the tat covered up with an image of a dog and a Celtic knot.

The tattoo reports came on the heels of other reports about Platner’s controversial online posts from more than a decade ago in which, as the AP sums up, he “dismiss(ed) military sexual assaults, question(ed) Black patrons’ gratuity habits and criticiz(ed) police officers and rural Americans.” Platner apologized for the posts. He said he made them while struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression after he left the military.

A bridge too far?

Those posts have been deleted, Platner stayed in the Senate race and plenty of people have accepted his explanation that the posts no longer reflect who he is as a person. But he didn’t cover the Nazi-linked insignia until after he’d already started running for Senate. And for a not-insignificant number of people on the left, that’s a bridge too far.

“I don’t care if he gets up there and votes reliable party line,” wrote Andy Craig of the Unpopulist on BlueSky. “He’s still a damned nazi and if you aren’t willing to draw a hard moral line at that, if you make excuses and whataboutisms for it, you’ve fallen into the abyss.”

Wrote David Roth of Defector in October, when the tattoo story popped up: “Platner seemed authentically contrite in his response, and will have the rest of his life to either make good on that sense or disprove it; I also don’t think I could vote for someone with a Nazi symbol tattooed on his chest, or a candidate deluded or arrogant enough to believe that he might somehow be sworn in as a senator without ever having to reckon with it.”

In Arizona, some of that pushback has been aimed at Gallego. Alma Hernandez, a Democratic state representative from Tucson, wrote on X that Gallego’s endorsement “is absolutely shameful. I can’t imagine ever endorsing someone with a literal Nazi tattoo. Dems MUST be better at vetting serious candidates, and elected officials should be more careful about who they back.” Hernandez, who is Jewish and a staunch supporter of Israel, also blasted Platner for being antisemitic. Though there is an important distinction between criticizing the actions of the state of Israel and demonizing Jews as a whole, Platner has given detractors plenty of ammo on the latter score by quote-tweeting notorious neo-Nazi Stew Peters (and deleting it soon after) and appearing on the YouTube show of a conspiracy theorist who has spouted antisemitic tropes.

This is admittedly a lot of “oops, that’s a Nazi thing” missteps for a single Senate campaign.

To the Washington Post, Gallego praised Platner’s “authenticity.” The only time he addressed Platner’s tattoo was to cast it as an opportunity for growth. “For him, it was a growing experience and actually it was beneficial that it happened as early as it did because I think it has made him a better candidate,” Gallego told the Post.

In a statement provided to Phoenix New Times, Gallego said he endorsed Platner because “Graham is the only Democrat running that can win Maine.” He referenced Platner’s military background, saying that the Senate “needs to reflect the experiences and expertise of those who have been the boots on the ground.” Gallego also praised Platner’s abilities as a communicator.

“I know Graham can draw people into politics right now who have been really unhappy with the two parties and feel forgotten,” Gallego said. “Those are the people we need to come out in an election year, and I believe Graham is the only candidate who can really do it.”

Platner is an undeniably talented political talker, and it remains to be seen how much his blunders will affect his race against the more centrist Mills. A recent University of New Hampshire poll had Platner with a 38-point advantage over Mills, though other polls have shown Mills with a slim lead. Perhaps Gallego’s endorsement will push Platner over the finish line. Perhaps Platner will go on to a terrific, effective political career.

But it’s not unfair to wonder whether “guy who had a Nazi tattoo for two decades” is the best Democrats and Gallego can do.