Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, a self-described “working-class Mainer,” attended one of the nation’s most exclusive prep schools — a Connecticut boarding academy charging more than $75,000 a year, records show.
Platner graduated from the Hotchkiss School, an elite institution whose alumni include Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, former CIA Director Porter Goss, Clinton adviser Strobe Talbott, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, and news anchor Chris Wallace, according to the Washington Free Beacon. (RELATED: DUKE: Nazi Tattoo Coverup Can’t Hide The Oyster Farmer’s Contrived ‘Working-Class’ Act)
The Ellsworth American reported in 1999 that Platner had enrolled at Hotchkiss, located in Lakeville, Connecticut, roughly 60 miles from Yale University, the Free Beacon reported.
Hotchkiss, ranked the nation’s top boarding school earlier in October, boasts a 287-acre farm and sprawling athletic complex with indoor tracks, squash and tennis courts, and an Olympic-sized rink, according to the Free Beacon.
My name is Graham Platner and I’m running for US Senate to defeat Susan Collins and topple the oligarchy that’s destroying our country.
I’m a veteran, oysterman, and working class Mainer who’s seen this state become unlivable for working people. And that makes me deeply angry. pic.twitter.com/QZfAm528N1
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) August 19, 2025
By 2002, Platner had transferred to John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor — another private institution that reportedly would have cost about $12,000 a year in today’s dollars.
“What I like best is just the education,” Platner told the paper at the time. “Being a private school, you get much more attention.”
A John Bapst yearbook listed Platner as “Most Likely to Start a Revolution,” featuring a photo of him holding a paper demanding to “Free” Chechnya, Kosovo, and Palestine, according to the Free Beacon.
Platner also penned a Bangor Daily News op-ed comparing post-9/11 terrorist groups to “freedom fighters” and arguing that “every terrorist is portrayed as evil” by the media.
Those writings undercut the candidate’s image as a plainspoken oyster farmer fighting for working Mainers.
In his campaign launch video, Platner described himself as “a veteran, oysterman and working-class Mainer who’s seen this state become unlivable for working people. And that makes me deeply angry.”
Platner has also drawn scrutiny for a tattoo resembling a Nazi emblem, his past involvement training members of the Socialist Rifle Association in firearms, and for boasting about an “antifa supersoldier” label on his “armor.”
Platner’s campaign did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.
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