JULY 10, 2026
Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner suspends campaign after rape allegation, party moves to find replacement
Graham Platner, who won the Maine Democratic Senate primary on June 9 with 71.9% of the vote, suspended his campaign on Wednesday, July 9, following a Politico report published July 6 detailing a rape allegation from his then-girlfriend in late 2021. Senator Bernie Sanders, who had been one of Platner's most prominent endorsers, called on Platner to step aside within 24 hours of the report's publication. Under Maine law, the state Democratic Party has the right to hold a two-week process to select a replacement nominee only if Platner withdrew before 5:00 p.m. on Monday, July 13.
Graham Platner announced his withdrawal from the Maine Senate race at 8:10 p.m. on Wednesday, July 9, in a posted video — roughly 53 hours after Politico published an account from Jenny Racicot alleging that a drunken Platner forced her to have sex in late 2021 after she had communicated that she did not consent. Platner denied the allegation throughout the period leading up to his withdrawal.
The Maine Democratic Party moved quickly after the Politico report appeared at 3:18 p.m. on Monday, July 6. The party called on Platner to withdraw within two hours of publication. When Platner did not immediately comply, party executive director Devon Murphy-Anderson stated publicly that Platner and his advisers had "no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, nor in determining what this process looks like." The legal deadline — 5:00 p.m. on July 13 — drove the urgency: a withdrawal after that point would leave the party unable to place any replacement candidate on the November ballot.
The allegation's details were reported with some complexity. Politico reported that Racicot said she had exchanged texts with Platner telling him not to come over that night, and that she later deleted her messages with him as she tried to move on. Racicot shared with Politico private messages she had exchanged with an acquaintance in 2023 about the incident, and said she had discussed it with a therapist and a later partner. At midday Wednesday, DropSiteNews reported that, before publication, a Politico reporter had told the Platner campaign that Racicot had been "texting [Platner] about needing her glute massaged" — a detail Politico did not include in its published story. Racicot told CNN's Jake Tapper that Platner had "taken something that I said as an invitation" before she subsequently texted him not to come over.