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Maine U.S. Senate candidate Jordan Wood says the moral test for public office isn’t about perfection — it’s about what people do once their mistakes are exposed. In an interview with The Advocate, the former congressional chief of staff and only out gay candidate in the race said fellow Democrat Graham Platner’s history of antigay posts and his Nazi-era tattoo aren’t just poor judgment. They’re disqualifying.

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“I believe deeply in second chances,” Wood said. “But what I saw was someone who doesn’t understand what’s wrong with these statements — how offensive and threatening they are, not just to LGBTQ people, but to people of color and women.”

The controversy has rattled Maine’s Democratic primary. Platner, a Marine and Army veteran and political newcomer, admitted to posting homophobic slurs and crude antigay jokes on Reddit as recently as 2021. He apologized for misogynistic and racist comments on Reddit before that. And, he covered up a tattoo he’s worn for 18 years that resembles the Nazi Totenkopf symbol, which he said he got in his 20s during his time in the Marines.

Related: Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner admits using ‘indefensible’ antigay slurs in unearthed Reddit posts

Wood, 36 and married to a Jewish man, said the timing and persistence of those choices matter as much as the acts themselves. “If he had written this as a teenager, it’d be one thing,” he said, referring to the Reddit posts. “But this was 2021. The fact that he was my age when he used that language, that’s what matters.”

He said that if an adult was using that language then “that’s not a youthful mistake — that’s who you are choosing to be.”

Wood said the episode illustrates a larger reckoning facing his generation. He said that today most people live online. 

“There’s no such thing as a clean slate anymore. But accountability isn’t about punishing the past. It’s about what you do after you learn why something was wrong,” Wood said. “If someone said something hateful when they were young and later worked to understand and make amends, that’s grace.”

That accountability is something Wood discussed when it came to his former boss, former California U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, a Democrat running for governor, after videos recently surfaced of her scolding staff and reporters. Those clips sparked debate about leadership, gender, and temperament in public service.

Related: Maine Gov. Janet Mills confronts Donald Trump to his face over anti-trans sports order at White House

“She’s tough, yes, but she’s also decent and accountable,” Wood, who served as Porter’s chief of staff as far back as the COVID-19 pandemic, said. “She owned it. In this digital age, everyone’s worst moment can go viral. That doesn’t mean we stop believing in redemption.”

“You earn forgiveness,” he said. “You don’t demand it.”

“Courage, not just concern”

Wood’s campaign slogan, “Courage, not just concern,” doubles as a pointed critique of Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who’s often expressed alarm over right-wing extremism before voting in line with it. Wood cited Collins’s record as proof that concern without conviction has consequences: her vote to confirm nearly every one of President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and Pam Bondi, who helped the Trump team challenge the 2020 election results, as attorney general of the United States. Collins also backed a procedural motion on a bill that would have banned transgender girls from participating in school sports, and she supported Republican measures that weakened the Affordable Care Act before voting against its final repeal in 2017.

“She’s always ‘concerned,’ then votes the other way,” Wood said. “We need leaders who act, not just empathize.”

His platform focuses on anti-corruption reforms, universal health care, and affordable housing — the kinds of policies, he said, that make democracy tangible. 

“We don’t save democracy by talking about it,” he said. “We save it by showing that it still works. That it can solve problems for ordinary people.”

Related: Maine Gov. Janet Mills hits back after Trump sues state for transgender sports policies

Wood also praised Maine Gov. Janet Mills, another Democratic contender for the Senate seat, for defying President Donald Trump’s attacks on transgender youth, saying she “showed what leadership looks like when others were ready to throw trans kids under the bus.” Earlier this year, at the White House, Mills refused to accept Trump’s attacks on trans kids in Maine, telling him, “I will see you in court,” when the president threatened the state’s funding.

Wood said Mills’s example helped him make protection of LGBTQ+ rights — especially trans rights — a centerpiece of his campaign. 

“When a lot of Democratic leaders were blaming the loss of the presidential election on trans people, Gov. Mills stood up and said enough,” he said. “She reminded people that the law doesn’t bend to prejudice. That’s courage.”

Wood said he would bring the same approach to the Senate, promising to defend trans people from renewed federal attacks under the Trump administration. 

“As a gay parent, I know how this goes. They start by targeting trans kids, but they don’t stop there,” he said. “Once you let them rewrite the rules for one group, they’ll come for every marginalized community. I will never give in to that.”

Inspired by his daughter to run

Long before launching his campaign, Wood helped create End Citizens United, a grassroots reform organization formed in the aftermath of Citizens United v. FEC, the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that opened the door for unlimited corporate and dark-money spending in politics.

The group, which began as a small network of organizers and law students, pushed for campaign-finance transparency, public financing of elections, and limits on corporate influence. It organized educational efforts and advocacy campaigns to pressure Congress for reform.

“I started at End Citizens United because I saw firsthand how that decision warped our democracy,” Wood said. “It turned elections into auctions. It allowed billionaires and corporations to drown out the rest of us.”

The son of a Baptist pastor and a public-school teacher, Wood came out after college. 

Away from politics, Wood’s life looks a lot like that of many young families in Maine. He and his husband are raising their 10-month-old daughter in the small coastal community of Bristol. 

“She’s one of the inspirations for my campaign,” he said. “I want her to grow up in a country that, like the one I grew up in, keeps trying to be better: more just, more kind, more free.”

Though the campaign keeps him busy, he said he cherishes quiet time at home with his family. 

“When I’m with her, I read to her — the New York Times, whatever book I’m reading,” he said with a laugh. “She doesn’t understand a word of it yet, but just being with her is the joy.”

Jordan Wood (L) with his husband and daughter.  Courtesy Jordan Wood

When he’s not on the trail, Wood said he loves playing pickleball and tennis, walking along the coast, and spending time with neighbors in his lobster village. 

“I barely leave the state now, and that’s okay,” he said. “Maine is the kind of place where you actually want to stay put.”

Related: Government launches investigation into Maine hours after Democratic governor stood up to Trump’s ‘bullying’

He also spoke about his own tattoos — both symbolic of his values and the lessons he’s drawn from experience. “One is the Obama hope logo,” he said. “That campaign got me into politics, and that symbol still reminds me why I do this work — that democracy and hope are intertwined.” 

His second tattoo, a small seashell, commemorates his completion of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in northern Spain. 

“It’s the emblem of that journey — a reminder of reflection and purpose,” he said. “It’s about carrying meaning, not regret.”

“You can’t delete who you were online,” he said. “But you can show who you’ve become. The real measure is what you do after the screenshots.”

In a political era defined by exposure and denial, Wood’s challenge to his party is quietly radical: integrity as the new electability.

“I know it would be easier to stay quiet,” he said. “But that’s not who I am. And it’s not who Maine is.”