Lisa Lerer

Who's a total political unknown.

The only elective office he's ever held was being chair of the planning committee for his thousand person town in coastal Maine.

He's an oysterman.

He is fashioning himself as a working class candidate who understands authentically the kind of economic struggles we've been talking about that many voters face.

And poll after poll just showed Plattner blowing Mills out of the water, just leading her by 20 points, by 30 points.

And basically, I headed up to Maine for a four-day reporting trip on this primary.

And as I was headed to the airport on the end of this trip, the news broke that Janet Mills was not even going to go to the primary, that she was dropping out of the race.

The reason she gave was that she had simply run out of money to run an effective campaign against Plattner.

But there was also a sense that he was unbeatable for her in a way that I think really reflects what the Democratic Party wants right now.

They are.

Look, this is someone who has a pretty long documented history of very controversial comments online.

After he served as a combat soldier in Afghanistan and Iraq, Plattner said that he was suffering from PTSD and anxiety and depression.

He was drinking too much.

And he took to Reddit and posted a lot of comments that one would think would be very objectionable to Democratic voters.

He used disparaging language about race and gender and sexuality.

He questioned reporting rape in the military.

And beyond all his comments, it also was revealed that he had a tattoo on his chest for 20 years that was a Nazi insignia, which he said he didn't know what it was at the time.

He's gotten it covered up.

But these are a number of issues that one would think would be almost disqualifying in a Democratic primary.

But the fury at the party establishment is so great that Democratic voters in Maine appeared willing to take a chance on this untested candidate rather than stick with their two-term Democratic governor.