Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner suspends campaign after sexual assault allegation
After being accused by a former girlfriend of sexual assault, Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner announced that he is suspending his campaign in a video posted on social media Wednesday in which he continued to deny the allegations and blasted the political establishment for derailing what he called a movement.
In the video, Platner, an oyster farmer and military veteran, said he is suspending his campaign and will withdraw from the ballot in Maine's Senate race, which had been one of the most closely watched in the country as Democrats seek to take back the Senate.
"What comes next needs to come from the people of Maine," Platner said in the video, saying his replacement on the ballot should be done in an open, transparent way. "We believe that for the movement to continue, it can't be me. For that reason, we are suspending campaign operations."
Earlier in the video, he said, "I learned about this through press inquiries, with no time to truly respond, no time for investigations before a corporate media system and the political establishment got to act as judge, jury, and executioner. Accusations are supposed to be the beginning of things, not the end."
Platner's announcement came after Politico published a report on Monday containing allegations from Jenny Racicot, a former girlfriend, that Platner forced her into having sex without her consent after repeatedly telling him to stop while they were dating five years ago.
After the article was released, Platner released a video calling the allegations "categorically false," noting that he was "taking the time to reflect on the best path forward."
Platner's announcement Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign came following days of pressure from Democrats.
A number of prominent Democrats -- including Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer; Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Ed Markey, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ruben Gallego; Rep. Ro Khanna and Maine Democratic gubernatorial nominee Hannah Pingree -- called on Platner to drop out of the race on Monday.
Platner said he felt the Democratic political establishment would not let him continue to be in the race, and said he was not leaving the race due to the allegations against him.
"The brutal political reality is that they are going to take everything away from us, those in power who have the ability to do so are using these allegations as an excuse to take away all of the things that we need to run a campaign," he said. "We are going to lose our ability to fund raise, we are going to lose our ability to access voter data, we are going to lose all of the things that any campaign needs on the basic level simply to function."
Platner was slated to take on longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the general election in November. After the allegations against Platner surfaced on Monday, Collins said, "These allegations are appalling. Nevertheless, it is not up to me to choose the Democratic nominee for Senate."
Platner had until July 13 to formally withdraw from the race to allow for Maine Democrats to choose a replacement. Once withdrawal paperwork is submitted, the Maine Democratic Party has until July 27 to pick another Democratic nominee. A replacement for Platner has not yet been publicly identified.
Leaders from the Maine Democratic Party confirmed Wednesday -- before Platner's announcement -- that the party had voted to hold a convention among party members to choose a nominee to choose his replacement.
Sens. Sanders and Warren were early supporters of Platner's campaign. Platner, who had hardly any political experience, heavily focused his campaign messaging on being an outsider who could take on wealth inequality and defeat Collins, whom he called "spineless and corrupt."
Platner faced several scandals since he launched his campaign, including sending sexually explicit texts to multiple women and previously having a tattoo with Nazi symbolism. Platner said he didn't know his tattoo had a Nazi association and covered it up when he learned about its meaning.
Platner responded to the Wall Street Journal report about his explicit text messages, saying he and his wife "went through something hard -- because of me" and added that "people don't care about gossip or headlines, they care that you're fighting for their hospitals, their paycheck, their kids."
He became the Democratic nominee in June after receiving more than 70% of the vote in the primary. His main rival, sitting Gov. Janet Mills, suspended her campaign in April after performing poorly in polls against Platner, but she never endorsed him or filed paperwork to withdraw from the race.
