Maine Democratic US Senate candidate Graham Platner on Saturday said that a campaign ad that aired during a Boston Red Sox game was “taken down” after it took aim at the team’s ownership.

The ad in question features Platner discussing the role that private equity firms play in the US economy, including sports teams.

“Private equity is destroying our favorite baseball team, stripping them for parts,” Platner says at the start of the ad. “Private equity is buying up our homes, our sports, and our lives. I will reverse the private equity curse.”

Private equity is taking our homes. It’s taking our hospitals. It’s taking beloved local businesses and stripping them for parts.

And now private equity is running the Red Sox into the ground.

Our new ad ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/w7LapElpdA
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) May 22, 2026

Platner concludes the ad by saying that he approves this message “because I miss Mookie Betts,” the star player whom the Red Sox traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020 in a deal that was widely decried by local fans as a salary dump.

According to Platner, his campaign began airing the ad Friday on the New England Sports Network (NESN), the cable TV station owned partially by Fenway Sports Group, the conglomerate that owns the Red Sox.

However, he said that “midway through the game the ad was taken down” by NESN, after which the Red Sox proceeded to blow a 4-0 lead, losing to the Minnesota Twins by a final score of 8-6.

Platner, an oyster farmer and upstart candidate who has never before held political office, became the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for the 2026 US Senate race in Maine last month after his top rival, Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills, dropped out of the race.

In recent weeks, Platner has pivoted to challenging incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has held the seat since 1996 and is now running for her sixth term in office.

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