Carol Eisenberg is a lawyer who lives on Peaks Island.

Sending a Democrat from Maine to help flip the Senate blue and replace Trump supporter/apologist Sen. Collins is a priority. I’ve given both Democratic candidates, Gov. Janet Mills and newcomer Graham Platner, a fair opportunity to earn my vote in the June 9 primary. I have long supported the governor, but I was curious about Graham Platner’s candidacy and open to what he might bring to the race.

However, when his past online comments became public, I was shocked and deeply disturbed, especially by this comment: “Rape is a real thing. If you’re so worried about it to buy Kevlar underwear you’d think you might not get blacked out f—-d up around people you aren’t comfortable with.”

I’ve been surprised to hear people dismiss my concern with the excuse that young people make mistakes. To be clear, this post was not written by a teenage Graham Platner. He made this comment when he was nearly 30 years old. I believe a statement this insensitive should be disqualifying at any age. Hearing it from someone who was already a grown adult, someone who had spent years in the real world, is alarming, particularly when that person wants to represent me and my values in the U.S. Senate.

Since these comments surfaced, I’ve paid close attention to how he has responded. What I’ve seen has only reinforced my concerns.  Every soft apology has come with a caveat. Every explanation redirects the blame. When questioned, he remains unwilling to take responsibility. Again and again, the focus isn’t on the survivors of sexual violence or the harm caused by his statements. Instead, the focus is on himself — how difficult this reckoning has been for him and how unfair the scrutiny feels.

For years, women have been told to accept excuses like these:
“He has such a bright future ahead of him.”
“Should he really have his life destroyed over this?”
“It’s just locker room talk.”
“Boys will be boys.”

When Donald Trump was first elected in 2016 in spite of his egregious comments about women, many of us were fearful of the message it would send to our sons and our daughters that men still face no real consequences for their actions and words.  Nominating Graham Platner will send a similar message, because when we ignore statements like his, what we are really saying is that our values are negotiable, that they can be set aside the moment a charismatic candidate arrives promising change.

I know there are plenty of women who ardently support Graham Platner. But it is also worth remembering that Donald Trump’s 2016 victory was made possible in large part by overwhelming support from white women.  Let’s not make that mistake again.

Not only is Gov. Janet Mills a proven leader with decades of experience and a long record of winning tough statewide races, but she has a remarkable history of breaking barriers for women in Maine, serving as Maine’s first female district attorney, the first female attorney general and now the state’s first female governor.

Gov. Mills has endured decades of misogyny in politics, and she clearly continues to face it today. Yet she has never backed down from the fight, and she is opening doors for generations of women to come. Her commitment to advocating for women is also deeply personal. She is a survivor of domestic abuse herself, and she spent years prosecuting cases to hold abusers accountable and protect survivors.

She founded the Maine Women’s Lobby and has helped make Maine one of the safest states in the country for reproductive health care. When she fought to ensure access to life-saving abortion care in Maine, she faced enormous opposition — but she pushed forward anyway, ensuring that women in our state would not be forced to leave or face impossible financial barriers in order to receive critical medical care.

Platner’s comments are not only deeply troubling, I believe they make him unelectable in a general election. His comments and his failure to take real responsibility for them makes the prospect of having him represent me, other women and the myriad of survivors in our state deeply alarming.

I will be proud to cast my vote for Janet Mills in June and in November.