Dropping Out
The Democratic candidate who challenged incumbent Republican Susan Collins will be replaced by the state party in the coming weeks
Graham Platner, the Democratic party’s nominee for Senate in Maine, ended his campaign today amid allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2021. “We believe that for the movement to continue, it can’t be me,” Platner said in a video. “And for that reason, we are suspending campaign operations.”
Democrats will now have to select a replacement candidate for the November election against incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins.
In the 11-minute video, which he posted to social media, Platner repeatedly denied the accusations made against him, while calling on Maine voters to continue the fight. “I learned about this through press inquiries with no time to truly respond,” he said. “No time for investigations before a corporate media system and the political establishment got to act as judge, jury, and executioner.” He noted that he wasn’t sure what would happen with the nomination, but that voters should stay true to the ideals his campaign represented. “What comes next,” he said, “needs to come from the people of Maine, needs to come from the voters who on June 9… voted for a politics that would actually represent them, voted against the political system, against the donor class, against the entrenched forces.”
