WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) – Few Americans would abandon their party’s candidate over controversies such as Democrat Graham Platner’s Nazi-linked tattoo in Maine or Republican Ken Paxton’s fraud indictment in Texas, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, highlighting deep partisan divides that make winning paramount.
Two-thirds of party-aligned respondents said they sometimes have to vote for a candidate they don’t like just to stop the other party from winning power, according to the six-day poll completed on Monday.
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That principle will be put to the test in a Maine primary election on Tuesday, when Democratic oyster farmer Platner hopes to become a candidate for a Senate seat seen as crucial to Democrats’ hopes of winning a majority in that chamber in November.
In a nationwide poll, just 17% of Democrats familiar with Platner said his tattoo of a Nazi-style skull-and-crossbones would stop them from voting for him if they could vote in Maine’s election.
The same share of Republicans nationwide said they would refrain from voting for Texas Attorney General Paxton, who was indicted a decade ago on charges of defrauding investors, if they could vote in the state’s Senate election in November.
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Either election could help determine which party controls the Senate, where Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority. Campaigns for Platner and Paxton did not respond to requests for comment.
The poll gathered responses from 4,531 U.S. adults nationwide, including 546 Democrats familiar with Platner and 712 Republicans familiar with Paxton. It had a margin of error of 2 percentage points for respondents overall and 4 points for Republicans and Democrats familiar with the two candidates.
LESSER OF TWO EVILS
Some 76% of poll respondents, including similar shares of Democrats and Republicans, said they often had to vote for the lesser of two evils in U.S. elections.
Platner has apologized, opens new tab for the chest tattoo, which he says he got while drinking with fellow Marines nearly two decades ago. He said he was unaware the tattoo’s design was associated with Nazis and covered it with another tattoo last year after he launched his campaign.
The Supreme Court is entering the final stretch of its term, with major rulings still expected on some of the country’s most divisive social issues.
The Reuters/Ipsos survey was conducted as further scrutiny fell on Platner, including reports that he exchanged sexually explicit messages with women while he was married. Platner has apologized publicly for the text messages, while calling reports about them and other past behavior politically motivated.
Despite the controversies, Platner is seen as a strong contender to oust Republican Senator Susan Collins. Platner has campaigned with a populist message that Maine has become unaffordable for working-class people, and he has won endorsements from heavyweight allies including Chuck Schumer, a moderate and the top Democrat in the Senate, and Bernie Sanders, a progressive independent U.S. senator who caucuses with Democrats.
Platner’s rise reflects increased political polarization in America, with voters feeling they “just have to focus on not putting the other side in power,” said Mia Costa, a Dartmouth College political scientist who studies political psychology and partisanship.
