Democrats Battle the Clock — And Each Other — To Replace Platner

Democrats are feuding over potential replacements for Graham Platner, their embattled nominee in Maine’s critical Senate race, who lost nearly all of his political support this week after a woman accused him of sexual assault.

The oyster farmer denied the allegation Monday but said he is “taking the time to reflect” on his next steps ahead of a key deadline for being removed from the general election ballot next week. If he does withdraw from the race, Maine Democrats would then have until July 27 to find a replacement.

The Democratic nominee will face Republican Sen. Susan Collins in one of the nation’s most hotly contested races, which will help decide the balance of power in the Senate.

Potential candidates include Democrats who unsuccessfully ran for governor in last month’s primary: former state Senate President Troy Jackson, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Nirav Shah, former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Others include former Senate candidates Dan Kleban and Jordan Wood, who dropped out early in the race.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who suspended her Senate campaign in April, is viewed as an unlikely candidate given the margin of her primary loss to Platner — she won less than 20% of the vote — and fears that she wouldn’t excite the base in a general election. Outgoing Maine Democratic Rep. Jared Golden also is not expected to enter the race.

“Graham Platner tapped into something real — voters hungry for change showed up with real passion and energy,” Hannah Pingree, the Democratic nominee for governor, said in a statement Monday. “That energy doesn’t have to go away. It needs a new candidate to carry it forward.”

Progressives favor Jackson, a fifth-generation logger from a rural area of Maine who could appeal to independent and Republican voters. He’s ideologically aligned with Platner, regularly appearing with him on the campaign trail. And he, too, was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who on Tuesday recommended to Platner that he step aside.

But Jackson’s association with Platner could carry risks. Republicans will undoubtedly seek to exploit connections to him.

“The Democratic nominee, if there is a new one, has to be someone who is independent minded from Platner, otherwise they will be viewed by voters as a protege,” Maine State Sen. Joe Baldacci, who ran for Congress this year, said on X. “Any connections to Platner will doom that person’s campaign from the very beginning.

That could create an opening for other candidates with fewer ties to Platner.

Kleban, who launched a bid last year to try to unseat Collins, is fielding calls from supporters encouraging him to consider replacing Platner on the ticket, a person familiar with the conversations told NOTUS.

After the news about the sexual assault allegations against Platner, Kleban posted on X: “For the sake of our state, he needs to step aside immediately. Mainers deserve a Senator who will fight for them against the DC establishment while also doing what’s right.”

Kleban is close with Pingree, serving as her finance co-chair during the gubernatorial primary.

Shah, who has also received calls from supporters urging him to enter the race, said Tuesday on X that “anyone running for this nomination should agree to at least one televised debate and hold multiple town halls.”

It’s not clear exactly how Democrats would select a replacement for Platner. One option is a state convention, with delegates picking the new nominee. The Maine Democratic Party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“If a process for selecting a new nominee becomes necessary, it will be open, transparent, and inclusive,” the party said in a statement Monday. “The sooner this process can begin, the more time we will have to administer an intentional and inclusive process for Mainers and Democrats.”

Adam Green, cofounder of the Progressive Campaign Change Committee, warned in a statement that “a small caucus of party insiders cannot be trusted to nominate the shake-up-the-system outsider this moment calls for.”

“The best way to expedite a smooth transition and ensure a win in November is for the Maine Democratic Party to promise Democratic voters who voted for bold change that their mandate will be honored. Not allow crusty insiders like Chuck Schumer an establishment do-over,” Green added.

Schumer, who originally backed Mills in the race, has called on Platner to “immediately” withdraw and “allow Maine Democrats the opportunity to choose a new candidate who can defeat Susan Collins.” He followed up with a threat, making clear the party “will not invest in the Maine Senate race if Platner remains on the ballot.”

There’s no indication yet of Platner’s plans. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment. One Platner aide told The New York Times on Monday that if he were to step aside, “it would only be with a guarantee of being replaced by a candidate who he believes is true to the values and vision and policy agenda of the campaign that Maine voted for.”

But Democrats in and out of Maine didn’t take kindly to the suggestion that Platner might have a hand in picking his successor.

“After you have put the Democratic Party in shambles and undermined all Democratic candidates running for office in Maine then you should have no say in who will be your successor,” Baldacci wrote in a social media post.

“I don’t have a strong preference but the fact that Platner thinks he can handpick his replacement is absurd,” added Adam Jentleson, founder of the D.C. think tank The Searchlight Institute, in another post. “Dems should not be bullied by Platner and the folks around him, who knew he was credibly accused of rape but lied to us and tried to suppress it.”

Nearly every Senate Democrat who endorsed Platner withdrew their support of his campaign Monday as the party dissolved in a series of recriminations over his candidacy.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania), a vocal critic of Platner even before the latest allegations, called on Sanders to apologize for elevating Platner. Sanders also supported Fetterman during his 2018 campaign for Pennsylvania lieutenant governor and backed his 2022 campaign for the U.S. Senate.

“I would really call Bernie Sanders to apologize for pushing this kind of predator more than anyone he helped him elect, and now apologize to the victims,” Fetterman said in an interview on Fox News. “I don’t know why you want to keep pushing these kinds of people. Maybe he should consider sit a few out.”