Gloom sets in for Platner supporters

Support for the candidate craters after new sexual assault allegations. Support for his platform remains strong.

July 8, 2026

By John Epstein

Platner celebrated a resounding victory in the June 9 Democratic primary but this week faced new allegations of sexual assault from a woman he dated nearly five years ago. Calls to withdraw from the U.S. Senate race continue to grow. Photo by John Epstein.

BLUE HILL—Just four weeks ago a large, joyous crowd in the Blue Hill YMCA gymnasium cheered and waved “Graham Platner for Senate” signs as the candidate stepped on stage to celebrate his resounding victory in the June 9 Democratic primary. As his campaign geared up for the general election, polls showed him two points ahead of five-term Republican Senator Susan Collins. But then came Monday’s news—first reported by Politico—of a Maine woman’s credible claim that Platner, with whom she’d been having an on again/off again relationship – sexually assaulted her in 2021.

Almost immediately, Platner signs began disappearing from the driveways and yards across the Blue Hill Peninsula. The candidate quickly released a video in which he “categorically” denies the allegations, but admits that he needs “to reflect and find a path forward” for his campaign.

National and state Democratic Party leaders have said the path forward requires Platner to drop out, but he only has until 5 p.m. on Monday, July 13, to make his decision. If he withdraws by then, the Secretary of State can declare a vacancy on the ballot, giving the Maine Democratic Party time to select another candidate. If that happens, the party will have two weeks, until July 27, to select its new candidate.

The Maine Democratic Party leadership, chaired by Charlie Dingman, issued a statement “calling on Graham Platner to withdraw as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.”

“We are entrusted with deciding who represents our values and who carries our banner. That responsibility requires judgment, leadership, and a willingness to act when circumstances demand it.

“This Senate race comes at a pivotal moment in the struggle against a government, supported by Senator Collins, that serves the interests of the wealthy and powerful at the expense of ordinary Maine people. It is essential that we refocus this campaign on that struggle,” the statement said.

Other support for Platner evaporated within hours of the new allegations.

The Maine chapter of Planned Parenthood said in a statement, “The accusations against Graham Platner are damning and Platner’s failure to address them or Jenny Racicot directly is disqualifying.”

Locally, the grassroots group Indivisible Peninsula also pulled its support, but acknowledged that Platner’s ideas were ideas worth pursuing for the state and the country.

“We cannot lose sight of the goal which remains: to defeat Susan Collins and to enact the policies advocated by Graham that galvanized so many,” said Brooksville’s Clare Potter of Indivisible Peninsula in an email to The Rising Tide.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, Representative Ro Khanna of California, and Senator Bernie Sanders have campaigned for Platner in Maine, supporting a candidate who has been plagued by allegations of bad treatment of women. Now all three have called for him to quit the race. So, too, have Hannah Pingree, the state’s Democratic nominee for governor, and the gubernatorial candidates she defeated in the primary: Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former State Senate President Troy Jackson, and former Director of Maine’s Center for Disease Control, Dr. Nirav Shah.

Should Platner decide to drop out, Maine Democrats will have to come up with a process for choosing a new candidate. As reported by The New York Times and The Bangor Daily News, the process could involve caucusing delegates from the various county Democratic organizations in a mini-convention. But what that might actually look like is unclear at the moment.

“I haven’t heard anything,” said Jonathan Hall, a delegate for the Hancock County Democrats, who lives in Brooksville.

Jackson has filed the preliminary paperwork to be the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat should Platner drop out.

Shah stated on social media that he is conferring with his family about running for the Senate and stated that “anyone running for this nomination should agree to at least one televised debate and hold multiple public town halls across every corner of the state.” It is not clear how that would happen since the replacement nominee must be chosen by July 27 under state law.

The New York Times reported that Platner has been negotiating with the Maine Democratic Party seeking assurances that any replacement nominee shares his progressive agenda. Both Jackson and Bellows had been strong supporters of Platner’s platform.

In news reported late Tuesday afternoon by The Washington Post, Lyndsay Fifield, who said she dated Platner from 2013 to 2015 and previously accused him of physical abuse, now alleges that he refused to wear a condom during intercourse with her. In 2018, Fifield organized a group of women called “Ladies for Kavanaugh” who supported Brett Kavanaugh in his successful bid to become a Supreme Court justice. He was accused by women of sexually abusing them.

Despite the new allegations, some Platner supporters still stand behind him.

“If Platner doesn’t resign, I would still vote for him, and I’m a feminist,” said Eliza Hill, also a Maine Democratic Party delegate, who attended the party’s state convention in May. “There are more important issues, like beating Susan Collins,” she added.

Indeed, in interviews with The New York Times, Bangor Daily News, and CNN, Maine women who have supported Platner have expressed diverging opinions about his continued candidacy. While many say he should drop out immediately, a significant number say they can look beyond his past behavior because of the policies he advocates and the way he has galvanized a movement.

On Maine Public Radio’s “Maine Calling” show, a woman who said she had been in a marriage with a physically abusive man for five years said she would still vote for Platner because of his leadership and advocacy of universal health care and affordable housing.

Others said they were waiting to see what Platner says in the days ahead.

Robin Jettinghoff, a Penobscot resident who volunteered for the campaign and who was on stage with Platner for his primary night victory party in Blue Hill, said she finds the timing of the allegations – days before the deadline for him to either drop out or stay in the race – to be suspicious.

“All of us were so excited about his energy and intelligence and the way he brought people together,” Jettinghoff said of Platner’s groundswell of supporters over the past several months. “The timing of this announcement feels so contrived somehow. There have been other opportunities where this could have come out. There’s a general sense that the Democratic party never really embraced Graham. Yet this is the most exciting campaign for decades…Why this particular moment?”

For now, Jettinghoff’s campaign sign for Platner remains standing in her yard.

“All of us are feeling betrayed by the system, but we can’t quite believe we’ve been betrayed by Graham,” Jettinghoff said. “I’m not ready to go there yet.”

–John Boit contributed to this story.