{"id":5354,"date":"2026-07-09T18:36:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T18:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5354"},"modified":"2026-07-09T18:36:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T18:36:25","slug":"inside-the-insurgent-rise-and-rapid-downfall-of-graham-platners-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5354","title":{"rendered":"Inside the insurgent rise and rapid downfall of Graham Platner\u2019s campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Soon after news broke Monday that a woman who had previously dated Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner accused him of rape \u2014 an allegation he has denied \u2014 his campaign reached out to former Sen. Barbara Boxer.\n <\/p>

Read more What we know (and don\u2019t know) about how Maine Democrats will replace Graham Platner<\/a><\/p>\n

\n The retired California Democrat had drafted an op-ed backing Platner and criticizing the record of her former Republican colleague, Maine Sen. Susan Collins. As droves of his allies began rescinding their endorsements and calling on him to drop out Monday, Platner\u2019s campaign wanted to know if the article should still run, Boxer said.\n <\/p>\n

\n She told them no.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI still feel the way I do about Susan Collins, but I can\u2019t support Graham Platner based on what\u2019s come out,\u201d Boxer told CNN on Wednesday. \u201cI fought my whole life protecting women and can\u2019t do it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Until this week, Platner had been able to withstand an onslaught of controversies over his old social media posts, a tattoo that resembles a Nazi symbol, his infidelity and accusations of unsettling behavior with former romantic partners. His stunning political rise, supporters said, showed that people can change and that his movement was stronger than the establishment forces that viewed him as a weak general election candidate.\n <\/p>\n

\n But for many of those remaining supporters, a sexual assault allegation was a bridge too far.\n <\/p>\n

\n Platner finally accepted political reality on Wednesday night and announced he was suspending his campaign, after an ordeal that dragged out for over two days. But he accepted virtually no blame in a defiant 11-minute video \u2014 either for the allegations, which he maintains are false, or for the predicament he put Maine Democrats in. They now have less than three weeks to coalesce around a new nominee in one of the most critical races for the battle for Senate control.\n <\/p>\n

\n A handful of advisers had urged Platner to strike a gracious tone to his supporters in that video \u2014 even while denying the allegations \u2014 but he did not follow that guidance. A disagreement in language, along with his reluctance to accept his political fate, contributed to the delay in stepping aside, a person close to the campaign told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThose in power, who have the ability to do so,\u201d Platner ultimately said in his recorded video message, \u201care using these allegations as an excuse to take away all of the things that we need to run a campaign.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The release of the video was timed to coincide with an all-hands staff video conference call Wednesday night. On that call, a participant said, Platner struck a far more conciliatory tone and thanked his young staff for dedicating themselves to his movement.\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet, as he did on the video, he stopped short of apologizing.\n <\/p>\n

\n For most staff members, the first time they watched the video was after their campaign call with Platner. His tone was widely criticized by Democrats, who feared it could sow deeper divisions, rather than attempt to bridge the party divide.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAll about him \u2014 and ego,\u201d one disappointed Democratic staffer told CNN. \u201cNot an ounce of humility.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Now, Democrats face an uncertain path forward in the only state Kamala Harris carried in 2024 where they have a shot at unseating a GOP senator. Once Platner formally files his paperwork to withdraw, the Maine Democratic Party has until July 27 to present a new candidate to the secretary of state. Party members voted Wednesday to hold a nominating convention, but details about when it will be and how the process will unfold are still being decided.\n <\/p>\n

\n Those questions about the process speak to a broader concern among those who support Platner\u2019s politics, even if they no longer back him: will his replacement be another political outsider?\n <\/p>\n

\nNew candidates started entering the race before Platner announced he was stepping aside. Some in the progressive movement have started rallying behind former state Sen. Troy Jackson, who finished third in this year\u2019s gubernatorial primary, during which he shared a stage with Platner and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.\n <\/p>\n

\n Jackson, who filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday, has already sought to distance himself from Platner, and said he wouldn\u2019t seek his endorsement.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate, but I just don\u2019t want it,\u201d Jackson said on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press Now\u201d Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n A campaign haunted by controversy\n<\/h2>\n
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\nCampaign stickers for Graham Platner sit on a table during a \u201cFighting Oligarchy\u201d tour stop held by Sen. Bernie Sanders on the University of Maine campus in Orono, Maine, on May 24.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Joe Raedle\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Platner kicked off his longshot bid for the Senate nomination last August with a gritty campaign launch video that showed him farming oysters, chopping wood and railing against billionaires, what he said are corrupt politicians and an oligarchy crushing working class people in Maine and across the country.\n <\/p>\n

\n His pitch was that his background \u2014 as an oysterman and a Marine veteran \u2014 would help him appeal to a broader swath of the electorate than other candidates. A wave of media profiles asked whether he could beat the party establishment, which had thrown its weight behind Gov. Janet Mills, and help reshape a party that was struggling to speak to White working class voters.\n <\/p>\n

\n Some argued he was the future of the party. But within weeks, his past started to catch up to him.\n <\/p>\n

\n News outlets unearthed old, since deleted Reddit posts. He\u2019d called himself a \u201ccommunist,\u201d criticized White rural Americans as racist and called \u201call\u201d police \u201cbastards,\u201d CNN\u2019s KFile reported. In some of the most widely condemned posts, Platner downplayed sexual assault. He\u2019d written that women worried about rape shouldn\u2019t \u201cget blacked out f****d up around people you aren\u2019t comfortable with\u201d and should \u201cjust take some responsibility for themselves.\u201d Platner disavowed the old posts and said he didn\u2019t want to be judged for the worst things he\u2019d said on the internet more than a decade ago.\n <\/p>\n

\n Weeks later, it emerged that Platner had a skull and cross bones tattoo that closely resembled a Nazi symbol. He apologized and announced that he\u2019d gotten it covered up.\n <\/p>\n

\n Amid this early swirl of controversies, Maine Beer Company founder Dan Kleban and former congressional aide Jordan Wood dropped their own bids to back Mills, who had entered the race after weeks of speculation. (They\u2019ve both since thrown their hats back in the ring.)\n <\/p>\n

\n But despite her long record in public service and broad name recognition, Mills struggled to gain traction against Platner.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMills barely ran a campaign, and she should have said no,\u201d said a Democratic strategist who works on Senate campaigns, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly. \u201cThere were other candidates who would have run a great campaign that could have stepped up if she didn\u2019t want to run the aggressive campaign necessary.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In March, Mills\u2019 campaign went negative, and began airing an attack ad blasting Platner\u2019s old Reddit posts dismissing sexual assault. \u201cGraham Platner: the closer you look, the worse it gets,\u201d the narrator says.\n <\/p>\n

\n It was too little, too late. The governor suspended her campaign at the end of April, clearing a path for Platner.\n <\/p>

Read more New Mexico attorney general says DOJ is withholding \u2018critical\u2019 information related to Epstein\u2019s Zorro Ranch<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Unsettling behavior with women\n<\/h2>\n
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\nGraham Platner speaks during a campaign event in Portland, Maine, on May 17.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Joe Raedle\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n As more details of Platner\u2019s past behavior emerged, he and his allies sought to frame his campaign as a tale of redemption, accountability and second chances. His past mistakes, he said, were fueled by his PTSD from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, which he has spoken about openly.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cPlatner has said that he is not proud of who he was, and he has taken responsibility,\u201d Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Platner supporter who called on him to drop out this week, told WCVB late last month. \u201cHe has asked the people of Maine to judge him, not for the worst things he did in the darkest part of his life, but based on the work he has done since then and his commitment to be out there fighting for working families every day.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Warren and others stood by Platner after The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported on May 30 that his wife, Amy Gertner, had warned the campaign during its vetting process last year that he\u2019d sent sexually explicit texts to other women early in their marriage. (Gertner said she thought she was confiding in a trusted aide, and said the couple had done the \u201chard work\u201d to move past the infidelity.)\n <\/p>\n

\n Days later, during a meeting with Democratic senators at the party\u2019s Senate committee headquarters in Washington, Platner addressed concerns from his potential future colleagues. At one point, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith asked Platner directly if there were any more allegations about his conduct with women that could possibly come to light. He responded, \u201cNo.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Platner\u2019s coalition also stood by him when, days before the June 9 primary, The New York Times reported that some women he\u2019d previously dated accused him of displaying unsettling \u2014 and in one case physically threatening \u2014 behavior toward them. Platner said in a statement that he\u2019d been \u201copen about what was a very dark period of my life where I struggled with undiagnosed PTSD, too often self-medicated with alcohol, and was a far from perfect boyfriend.\u201d He said he took responsibility for that but denied the physically threatening behavior.\n <\/p>\n

\n As some Democrats wavered, Mills \u2014 who had already dropped out \u2014 reminded voters she was still on the ballot. Platner went on to win a landslide victory, with 72% of the primary vote.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf you believe, as I do, that we can change our politics and change our country, then you must also believe that people can change,\u201d Platner said during his election night speech. \u201cAnd the reason I believe that is because I have lived it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Platner had done what seemed impossible nearly 11 months earlier. He\u2019d defeated a two-term governor who was recruited into the race by Senate Democrats\u2019 campaign arm. He\u2019d held his coalition together even as voters gained a fuller understanding of his past.\n <\/p>\n

\n But some Democrats feared that there could be more shoes to drop about his treatment of women that would be a liability in his race against Collins, a five-term senator who\u2019s prevailed in tough races before.\n <\/p>\n

\n Speculation grew in recent days that a more serious allegation was set to drop and Platner cancelled campaign events.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been hearing whispers of this rumor since last fall,\u201d said the Democratic strategist who works on Senate campaigns. \u201cNot specifically rape, but the idea that there are problematic interactions with women.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\nJenny Racicot sits for an interview with CNN in Bangor, Maine, on July 6.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
CNN<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n On Monday, Jenny Racicot told Politico and CNN that Platner entered her home without permission and raped her while he was heavily intoxicated nearly five years ago when they were in a casual dating relationship. Platner denies the accusation.\n <\/p>\n

\n But he soon began hemorrhaging support, including from his most devoted supporters.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI have spoken with Graham Platner about the best path forward for Maine,\u201d Sanders wrote on X Tuesday afternoon. \u201cIn light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The final days of the campaign were spent navigating an exit strategy and feuding with state and national Democrats. Platner and his team demanded his supporters have a voice in shaping the process to replace him, while party leaders balked at his attempt to wield control over what comes next.\n <\/p>\n

\n Platner\u2019s campaign manager, Ben Chin, sent a text blast to supporters Wednesday, accusing the state party of allowing the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee \u201cto send staffers to plan a potential nominating process behind closed doors.\u201d The DSCC denied the claim in a statement.\n <\/p>\n

\n A setback for the cause\n<\/h2>\n
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\nAmerican flags are seen on a table at the primary election event for Graham Platner in Blue Hill, Maine, on June 9.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
CJ Gunther\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n The fallout from Platner\u2019s rise and fall has left Democrats wondering why they didn\u2019t heed the warning signs some in the party saw months ago.\n <\/p>\n

\n Platner lost some supporters along the way, as a core team of out-of-state strategists guided his campaign. Genevieve McDonald, his former political director who quit the campaign last October, said she was one of his campaign\u2019s \u201cfirst gaslighting casualties\u201d in a Washington Post op-ed that ran the day before the June 9 primary.\n <\/p>\n

\n McDonald, who has been criticized by the campaign for speaking to The New York Times about her conversation with Gertner about Platner\u2019s sexual messages to other women, has become one of his most vocal critics.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cDemocrats are being sold a narrative that Platner is the only choice for the race against Republican Sen. Susan Collins,\u201d McDonald wrote. \u201cMaine voters don\u2019t have to accept that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And this week, some national Democrats quickly pointed to \u201cred flags\u201d from early in the campaign.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt was clear from very early on that he had questionable moral character, that he had red flags in his past, and that those were going to be a serious barrier to his ability to win a general election,\u201d said Jessica Mackler, the president of EMILY\u2019s List, an organization that endorses women who support abortion rights and backed Mills.\n <\/p>\n

\n The collapse of Platner\u2019s campaign isn\u2019t just a disappointment to progressives in Maine, but the broader movement, advocates argued.\n <\/p>\n

\n Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said the goal isn\u2019t just to elect \u201cshake up the system economic fighters\u201d in the 2026 midterms, but to show the Democratic Party that those kinds of candidates can win in swing states ahead of the 2028 presidential primaries.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf the effect is that we nominate someone who loses the presidential election next cycle, because we fail to prove that bold, inspiring people can win, that\u2019s really unfortunate,\u201d Green said. \u201cIt definitely set back the cause.\u201d\n <\/p>

Read more An outbreak of diarrhea caused by a parasite has hit at least 1,400 people. Here\u2019s how to stay safe<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

CNN\u2019s Dana Bash contributed to this report. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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