The race to replace Graham Platner is on, as Maine Democrats on Monday announced a June 25 convention to field a replacement for the scandal-plagued Senate candidate.
As the field of candidates to take on Senator Susan Collins jockey for endorsements, one of the state’s leading progressive organizations finds itself at a crossroads about the role it wants to play in a race that could decide control of the Senate.
“A lot of people were really despairing after the Platner news dropped, because we felt betrayed,” says Wesley Pelletier, a key member of the Maine chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and a Portland City Councilor.
While Graham Platner was never a member of the DSA, his platform aligned closely with the organization’s priorities: universal healthcare, affordable housing, abolishing ICE, suspending military aid to Israel.
Yet the Maine DSA had a complicated relationship with Platner. Even before sexual assault allegations ended Platner’s campaign last week, DSA members had enough concerns about his past to be wary, to the point that the chapter had stopped short of formally endorsed him.
