Wednesday, July 8, 2026

The Graham Platner waiting game

Maine Senate Democratic nominee Graham Platner's campaign is all but toast at this point. 

After Politico published its bombshell report that alleged Platner sexually assaulted an ex-partner, which Platner vehemently denies, he lost the support of almost every major supporter.

Chief among them was his political mentor, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).  

The perfect tell is that other Democrats are not even waiting for him to jump out of the race. Former Maine Senate president Troy Jackson has already filed. Maine Beer Company co-founder Dan Kleban also said he's in as well. Expect more people to jump in soon. 

And the Maine Democratic Party and the Platner campaign are engaging in a war of words about the negotiated terms of surrender. 

"While the Platner campaign remains focused on distracting from the job of defeating Susan Collins in November with false accusations against us, the Maine Democratic Party remains hyper focused on developing a representative, transparent and inclusive process to select a new nominee when he chooses to withdraw from the race," Devon Murphy-Anderson, the party's executive director, said on social media.

Jackson, a Sanders-style populist who campaigned with Platner, said on Meet the Press that he would not want Platner's endorsement. 

Still, Platner has an incredibly powerful piece of leverage right now: he alone is the only person who can vacate the ballot and as long as that's an option, he has the ability to negotiate how he will exit this primary. 

If this all feels familiar, it's because it is. This month marks two years since President Joe Biden stepped aside as the Democratic nominee for president and Vice President Kamala Harris replaced him. 

Read more here. 

By Eric Garcia

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