Hold Mallory McMorrow’s Social Media Posts to the Same Standard as Graham Platner’s 

Mallory McMorrow is the latest U.S. Senate candidate in the crucible for old social media posts. CNN dredged up deleted Twitter (now called X) posts from 2014 to 2020—a period that spans her move from California to Michigan, her election to the Michigan state Senate, and Donald Trump’s 2016 victory in the state.

The posts show McMorrow missing California; venting about Michigan’s weather; seemingly wishing for the demise of Michigan’s signature product, cars; defending “coastal elites”; and dreaming of a separation from “Middle America.” (Some of the posts were uncovered last year by the New York Post.) 

Polls show the U.S. Senate Democratic primary in Michigan is a tight three-way race, and McMorrow’s rivals—both Wolverine State natives—did not hesitate to use their X accounts to pounce on the revelations. Abdul El-Sayed slyly posted, “Born in Michigan, hallelujah / Raised in Michigan, hallelujah / Believe cars should exist, hallelujah.” U.S. Representative Haley Stevens was far more direct, sharing a link to the CNN report and adding: “I have pretty thick skin about people making fun of the way I talk or the clothes I wear. . .So what actually ticks me off? Someone who wants that job—representing Michiganders—talking crap about us and our state.” 

McMorrow finds herself in a similar position as Graham Platner, the insurgent Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine, once did. Last October, a few months into his campaign, media outlets uncovered a trove of offensive Reddit posts from 2013 to 2020.  

What happened to Platner is now familiar. His supporters not only accepted his apology, but they also argued that Platner’s unvarnished past underscored his authenticity and distinguished him from the highly vetted candidates favored by the party establishment.  

Mischa Ostberg, the tattoo artist who covered up a symbol with Nazi origins inked on Platner’s chest, told the Associated Press that Platner’s mistakes show “he’s a regular person like all of us.” Ryan Grim, the outspoken co-founder of Drop Site News, declared, “this is a crucial moment for the Democratic Party. If they decide that normal people with some small skeletons in their closet (or inked on their chest) are not welcome, they are finished. Because they’ve tried the other way and it didn’t work.”  

The 41-year-old Platner, in an interview with Semafor, made his own electoral case on the grounds of age and gender: “How do you expect to win young people? How do you expect to win back men when you go back through somebody’s Reddit history and just pull it all out and say: ‘Oh my God, this person has no right to ever be in politics?’ Good luck with that. Good luck winning over those demographics.” 

The strategy worked. Money kept coming into Platner’s coffers. He lapped Janet Mills, the 78-year-old incumbent governor who became the personification of establishment gerontocracy, in primary polls. Seeing no path forward, Mills suspended her campaign yesterday, effectively surrendering the Democratic Party nomination to Platner. 

The 39-year-old McMorrow, however, shows that it’s not just Millennial men who can be messy on the Internet.  

We now have another crucial moment for the Democratic Party. Will the Platner standard be applied to McMorrow?  

Perhaps the same standard should not apply when there are material differences in controversial statements. But Platner’s were the more disturbing of the two, as he alone veered into racism, misogyny, and homophobia. Still, there is a politically treacherous overlap regarding their observations of rural and white working-class voters, constituencies that can determine elections in their respective states.  

Soon after the 2016 election, McMorrow favorably shared a Twitter thread that argued, “All of this talk about coastal elites needing to understand more of America has it backward. It is much of white working-class America that needs to reach outside its comfort zone and meet people not like them.” McMorrow added, “I’m from rural New Jersey, this rings 100%. Empathy should go both ways, but Trump’s base fears what they’ve never seen.” In 2020, Platner posted a comment in a Reddit thread titled, “white people aren’t as racist or stupid as Trump thinks,” offering an opposing view: “Living in white rural America, I’m afraid to tell you they actually are.” To my eye, based on the statements, McMorrow deserves as much, if not more, latitude than Platner.  

Perhaps the same standard should not be applied if two candidates handled their situations with dissimilar degrees of political dexterity.  

McMorrow hasn’t yet apologized and instead is adopting a posture of nonchalant defiance. When CNN flagged a tweet of McMorrow’s that read, “Yesterday it was nearly 50 and now the sky is just shitting ice on everything. I don’t like you, Michigan,” the McMorrow campaign issued the following response, “The Michigan sky does in fact sometimes shit ice. She stands by that.” (Lee Devito, editor-in-chief of the Detroit Metro Times, defended McMorrow along the same lines: “To that, I say: sounds like she’s one of us. Whom among us hasn’t lamented Michigan’s long, cold, and grey season?”) 

Last year, McMorrow’s spokesman offered this statement to the New York Post: “Mallory grew up in the social media era, and, like most normal people, she engages in self-deprecating humor. These are normal tweets by a normal person, something Washington needs a lot more of.” That tracks with arguments made on Platner’s behalf, which testify to his authenticity.  

Unlike McMorrow (so far), Platner did post a video apology, seeking to assure voters he has matured in the past several years. However at other times, as in the Semafor interview, he comes across as less apologetic. “That was me trying to get a rise out of people on the Internet,” Platner said on the Pod Save America podcast, “Those weren’t even reflective of my opinions back then.” On The New Yorker Radio Hour, Platner noted that he didn’t apologize for everything he ever said: “I made a lot of comments that I’m not ashamed of. It’s not as though I have this ream of comments in which I look back and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I was a terrible person back then.’” While their scandal management strategies are not identical, both candidates downplay their posts as the stuff of everyday Millennials.  

The only reasons for holding McMorrow to a double standard would be unfair reasons, such as gender. Some might be more inclined to defend Platner than McMorrow because they prefer his policy positions. For example, he supports single-payer health care and cutting off all aid to Israel (as does one of McMorrow’s opponents, El-Sayed). She supports a public health insurance option and only cutting off aid for offensive weapons to Israel.  

Of course, no one is obligated to support McMorrow’s candidacy if they disagree with her positions. But ethical standards should be consistently applied. If they are not, the next candidate to get a raw deal might be yours.