The Finger-Pointing Begins in Maine

As the pressure builds on Graham Platner to cut short his Senate campaign over allegations that he sexually assaulted an ex-girlfriend, the Maine Democratic Party is accusing his team of trying to exert undue influence over the selection process for his replacement.

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Per Maine law, as long as Platner withdraws from the race by the July 13 deadline, the state party will be able to replace him on the ticket. If he refuses to do so, however, Democrats have no mechanism to force him off the November ballot.

Platner has not yet said that he will step aside, even as the national and state Democratic party, prominent House and Senate Democrats — including his strongest supporters, Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and Representative Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) — and major donor groups all rush to withdraw their support for his faltering campaign.

The floodgates opened in response to a bombshell report, published Monday in Politico, in which an ex-girlfriend of Platner’s said that he arrived at her home uninvited and intoxicated late one evening in 2021 and forced himself on her. Lyndsey Fifield also previously made abuse allegations against Platner, but was more easily dismissed by Platner and his supporters because of her previous ties to the Republican Party.

Platner issued a statement on Monday maintaining his innocence but conceding that he was considering the best path forward for his campaign in light of the allegation.

Devon Murphy-Anderson, executive director of the Maine Democratic Party, released a video statement and a press release Tuesday night in which she accused Platner and his team of trying to strong-arm the party into choosing their preferred replacement, if and when Platner does drop out.

“Graham Platner’s team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like. We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner’s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the US Senate, nor in determining what this process looks like,” Murphy-Anderson said.

“We have also reiterated that Graham Platner must drop out of this race, so that Democrats in Maine can focus on defeating Susan Collins this November. We look forward to making this process public as soon as Graham Platner formally withdraws from this race.”

The Platner campaign denied trying to influence the replacement process in a statement provided to Politico.

“The Platner campaign has reached out to the party to try and understand what this process would look like,” the spokesperson said. The Platner campaign did not immediately respond to National Review‘s request for comment.

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Despite the Platner campaign’s denial, a person familiar with the campaign’s internal discussions told the New York Times that the candidate would demand veto power over his replacement as a condition of dropping out.

“If he was to step down 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.”

State Senator Joe Baldacci similarly criticized Platner for meddling in the process.

“Guess what after you have put the Democratic Party in a shambles and undermined all Democratic candidates running for office in Maine, then you should have no say in who will be your successor,” Baldacci posted on X.

Murphy-Anderson said the party “has been working around the clock to develop a process to replace our U.S. Senate nominee that is open, inclusive, transparent, and fair.”

The Maine contest remains critical for Democrats in their push to regain control of the Senate, as party leaders view five-term Republican incumbent Senator Susan Collins as vulnerable.

If Platner drops out of the race, Democrats will have until 5 p.m. July 27 to name their replacement candidate.

But even if Platner steps aside, Democrats are not looking at a deep pool of qualified replacement candidates. At least one possible replacement candidate — former Maine Senator Troy Jackson — is facing his own allegations regarding the mistreatment of women. Other possible replacements include: Nirav Shah, who served for four years as the director of the Main Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a stint that overlapped with the Covid pandemic; and Shenna Bellows, Maine’s current secretary of state, who recently finished fourth in the state’s Democratic gubernatorial primary.

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