Graham Platner officially withdraws candidacy for US Senate in Maine | Maine
Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maine, officially withdrew his candidacy Friday afternoon, ending a scandal-plagued campaign.
Maine’s secretary of state confirmed that Platner had filed paperwork to remove his name from the November ballot, two days after publicly announcing that he planned to drop out of the race.
One the letter was shared Platner called for the continuation of the movement built under his name, outlining the populist ideals on social media that underscored his rapid rise to the national political scene and garnered broad support in the state. He expressed his gratitude to those who supported him and called for a “new kind of politics.”
“People are desperate for change. To fix this broken system. To advance the American experiment,” he wrote, noting the more than 156,000 votes he received in the June 9 primary election. “My name may be on the ballot, but that ballot belongs to the people of Maine.”
Platner’s letter did not mention the sexual assault allegations made against him this week, leading to the suspension of his candidacy. He denied the allegations in an 11-minute video released Wednesday, saying the Democratic establishment “is using these allegations to destroy everything we need to run a campaign.”
“This is all false,” Platner said about the allegations. “What was claimed did not happen. It is not true.”
But the accusations follow several other scandals that have dogged the oyster farmer and veteran sailor even as his support has grown. Platner also struggled with the resurgence of old social media posts containing racist, sexist and homophobic language, which he attributed to struggling with PTSD. He was also questioned about the removal of a tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi emblem.
Democrats have just a few days left to choose a new candidate to replace five-term incumbent Republican senator Susan Collins, as several candidates have already begun vying for the spot. Maine is seen as a must-win state in the Democratic party’s mission to take control of the Senate.
Former Maine state senator Troy Jackson; Shenna Bellows, Maine secretary of state; and Nirav Shah, former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The party is reportedly rushing to prepare a nominating convention before the July 27 deadline to complete November voting.
“Graham Platner’s departure today was the right thing to do,” state party chief executive Devon Murphy-Anderson said. said NBC News. “The allegations against him were very real and extremely credible.”
