Bernie Sanders, Graham Platner's most prominent backer, has told the scandal-hit Democrat to get out of Maine's Senate race, and the party's chosen challenger to Susan Collins is refusing to go.
Sanders confirmed to CBS News and PBS NewsHour that he "recommended he step aside," ending weeks of silence from the Vermont senator whose endorsement helped turn Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer, into the left's answer to an entrenched Republican incumbent. The recommendation followed an accusation from Jenny Racicot, who told CNN's Jake Tapper that Platner let himself into her home uninvited in 2021 while heavily intoxicated and had sex with her against her will. Asked by Tapper whether what happened to her was rape, Racicot said, "by definition, yes, absolutely yes."
Platner denies it. His campaign said in a statement that "these allegations are very serious and Graham vigorously denies them," and he has so far refused to withdraw, canceling scheduled town halls instead of facing voters directly. Racicot told CNN she did not report the incident to police at the time and only came forward after connecting with Cheyenne Hunt, a Democratic social media influencer and attorney who has helped surface similar allegations against other lawmakers and candidates.
Platner was never supposed to be a problem for Democrats. He was supposed to be the solution. A political newcomer running as an anti-establishment veteran, he built a campaign that excited the party's progressive base and drew Sanders' backing in a state where Collins has survived four terms partly by outperforming her party with moderate voters. Democrats need Maine to have any real shot at retaking the Senate majority, and Platner was their vehicle.
That bet is now falling apart in public. Sen. Elizabeth Warren pulled her endorsement and said "there can be no tolerance for sexual assault," adding that "the best path forward is for Graham Platner to step aside as the Democratic nominee," according to the Washington Post. Rep. Ro Khanna, who had stuck with Platner through earlier controversies over old social media posts, cut him loose too, calling the allegations "very serious and credible" and saying Platner "should drop out from the race." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, joined the calls for him to exit, according to The Hill.
None of that has moved Platner. A candidate who built his entire brand on straight talk and authenticity is now the only major figure in his own party still defending his position, and he is doing it by dodging his own supporters rather than answering them.
A vetting failure with the Senate majority at stake
Racicot is not the only accuser. CNN also reported a separate account from a former girlfriend, Lyndsey Fifield, describing alleged violence, which Platner likewise denies. Neither claim has been tested in court, and Platner has been given no chance in this article to say more than what his campaign has already stated on the record. But the sheer volume of prominent Democrats abandoning him within days tells its own story: a party that spent months elevating an unvetted first-time candidate as its answer to Susan Collins is now scrambling to undo that decision in the middle of the race.
Collins, for her part, has run as a survivor of tough Maine campaigns before, and Republicans have made clear they intend to let this scandal do the talking rather than pile on. The bigger question is whether Maine Democrats have any mechanism left to swap nominees this close to the general election, or whether they are stuck defending a candidate none of their national leaders will defend anymore.
Platner has given no indication he plans to step aside. Whether the Maine Democratic Party can force the issue, and whether voters will get a chance to weigh in on a replacement, is now the only question that matters for a Senate majority Democrats cannot afford to gamble away.
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