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Do you want to run for an office that will be heavily contested in the general election? Begin considering your decision with the Bible.
Really. Specifically, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 8, verse 17: “For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.” (The New King James Version.)
Roman Catholics have long been urged to reflect often on “the four last things”: death, judgment, heaven and hell. The “judgment” comes along with the consideration of a man’s or woman’s entire life. The fundamental premise about the nature of God is that God knows all things — that he is omniscient (as well as omnipresent and omnipotent).
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That has not always been the case with political media. Sometimes the national and even local press were complicit in hiding facts known to some but not widely shared. President John F. Kennedy’s escapades were well known to many in the Beltway’s elite media and perhaps in Massachusetts, but those who knew and liked or even loved him were not about to tell. That is perhaps the most famous example of media complicity in burying scandals, but it’s a bipartisan tradition to not launder some dirty garments in public.
Now more than ever, every candidate must be warned again and again that Luke 8:17 is very much true and indeed inevitable for every candidate in every race in which any opponent has the means to dig deep.
That era is over. President Obama is said to have believed “if you can win, you should” as an explanation for playing hardball in politics. Lots of Republicans live by the same rule. Politics is far, far from actual war or even life-and-death struggles, but as Finley Peter Dunne’s famed creation Mr. Dooley put it, “politics ain’t beanbag” either. It’s a rough-and-tumble game, and lots of lives get upended, if not even more seriously wrecked, when national attention turns to the backstory of every candidate on whom the searchlights turn.
Now more than ever, every candidate must be warned again and again that Luke 8:17 is very much true and indeed inevitable for every candidate in every race in which any opponent has the means to dig deep. As the number of media platforms has grown and grown, so too has the number of reporters eager for a “scoop” or anything close to one.
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Producing the soiled linen on any candidate — “R” or “D” — produces clicks and thus heightens the profile of the journalist with the byline. No rumor is too outrageous to check out. And every old girlfriend or boyfriend, business competitor or colleague, and even family member with a score to settle views campaigns as an opportunity not to be missed.
Graham Platner, a progressive Maine Democratic Senate candidate suspended his campaign on Wednesday, July 8. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Which is why every would-be candidate ought to subject himself or herself first to self-scrutiny and then to a gauntlet of “friendly” professionals who specialize in digging up “opposition research.”
If an unflattering story exists, it can be found, and it will be found. And it will be on every front page.
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Which brings us to the people who recruited Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner. Platner dropped out of the race for Senate in Maine on Wednesday night. Platner owns his own life story. Whatever he did and didn’t do cannot be undone or made up for. It’s just the facts of every life, and no life is going to emerge unscathed from searching — and often searing — reviews.
This is what candidates have to fully grasp. It will all come out. Every bit of the bad and not much of the good. Forewarned is forearmed.
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In his classic book, “Hardball,” former MSNBC host Chris Matthews brought up this old but true bit of wisdom: If you have a political problem, hang a lantern on it.
Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic Party Senate nominee Graham Platner. Platner announced on July 8 that he was dropping out of the race. (Graeme Sloan/Getty Images ; Sophie Park/Getty Images)
Call attention to the very worst parts of your life and bio at the start of a campaign. If your candidacy can’t survive self-disclosure and apology, your candidacy will fail, and the failure will be all the more painful when it arrives.
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But if his one-time backers didn’t lay out these tough facts about the hard realities of politics in 2026, the now former candidate may be more angry with them than he is with himself at this point.
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If he was misled about what could be papered over, it wouldn’t be an irrational response.
But Platner’s saga is already a tale worth telling every candidate in every race coming down the road in the years ahead: “[N]othing is secret that will not be revealed.”
Hugh Hewitt is a contributor and host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show” heard weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Channel’s news roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.
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