Graham Platner Drops Out of Maine Senate Race Following Sexual Assault Allegation

Graham Platner officially ended his Maine Senate campaign on Wednesday, just days after saying he was reflecting on the best path forward in response to new sexual assault allegations against him.

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On Monday, Politico reported on allegations made by Platner’s former girlfriend that he “forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections.”

Platner shared a video statement on X Wednesday evening explaining his decision, and maintaining his innocence. He dismissed the allegation as “false” and said it “placed an immense amount of weight” on him.

“We believe that for the movement to continue, it can’t be me. And for that reason, we are suspending campaign operations,” Platner added. “We’re not doing it because of the allegations; we’re doing it because of the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power.”

Jenny Racicot told the outlet she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner for more than two years when he entered her home in Maine uninvited in late June 2021 “deeply intoxicated” and “forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop.” The report says she cut off contact with Platner after telling him the encounter was not consensual.

“I remember him grabbing my pelvis and being really forceful of me,” she said. “I remember the specific moment where I thought to myself, like, ‘This is no longer my choice.’”

In a previous video statement earlier this week, Platner called the allegations “categorically false,” but said his campaign was “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.”

However, the allegation caused Platner to bleed support among Democrats — who had previously stood by him throughout several earlier scandals — leaving him virtually no path forward to continue in the race. Several Democratic lawmakers rescinded their endorsements of Platner on Monday evening, after Politico published its report, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said it would not spend any money in the state if he is the nominee.

Platner claimed Wednesday that the allegations were timed to put pressure on him to drop out of the race before a July 13 deadline.

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“It’s not the false allegations, though, that have brought us to where we are. It’s the fact that they’re being used by the political establishment to put structural pressure on us.”

“We live in a political system that is not built for normal people. It is a system that is built structurally to make sure that movements like ours cannot flourish. That if they begin to succeed, they can be crushed,” he said, later mentioning that there are “large forces working against” him to “personally accuse [him] of the worst thing that a person could do” and accusing the “corporate media and political establishment” of acting as “judge, jury and executioner.”

Yet the allegations surfaced on Monday follow several other scandals involving the political newcomer, including other allegations of abuse.

Platner’s campaign has been plagued by scandals since October, when CNN and several other outlets uncovered Platner’s past Reddit posts and comments, which included offensive comments about police and sexual assault survivors. Later controversies centered on his Nazi tattoo, his marital infidelity, and his past treatment of women.

Platner has attributed the Reddit commentary to his struggles with PTSD following his time in Iraq and Afghanistan and has denied or dismissed the other accusations.

While the former oyster farmer joined the race to unseat incumbent Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Republican, as a political outsider with focus on issues that appeal to a progressive, populist base, including affordability, universal health care, and labor union relations, it eventually became clear that Platner’s past made him a political liability for the Democratic Party.

Platner dropped out just days before a July 13 deadline for Democrats to begin the process to replace him. The party will now have until 5 p.m. July 27 to name their replacement candidate.

However, 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 Maine 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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