By Nolan D. McCaskill
WASHINGTON, July 7 (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Tuesday urged Maine’s embattled Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner to end his campaign following a sexual assault allegation on Monday that Platner has denied.
“I have spoken with Graham Platner about the best path forward for Maine,” Sanders, a prominent progressive backer of Platner and his biggest national ally, said in a statement.
“In light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside.”
Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, joins a growing list of Democrats abandoning Platner after a woman accused him of forcibly having sex with her nearly five years ago. Senate Democratic leaders and their allied super PAC have said they won’t invest in Maine, a critical battleground state that Democrat Kamala Harris won in 2024, if Platner remains on the ballot.
Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, meaning Democrats need to net four seats to win control. Losing Maine would make that path significantly harder, requiring the party to hold seats in Georgia and Michigan — states President Donald Trump won in 2024 — while flipping four seats in Republican-held states such as North Carolina, Ohio, Alaska, Iowa and Texas.
While Trump only won North Carolina by 3 percentage points, he carried the other states by a double-digit margin, underscoring Democrats’ uphill battle.
Platner has remained silent after saying in a social media video on Monday that he was taking time “to reflect on the best path forward.”
He can be replaced on the ballot if he drops out by July 13. The Maine Democratic Party would have until July 27 to select a new nominee.
CANDIDATES VIE FOR SENATE RUN
Potential candidates, including Democrats who lost last month’s primary for governor, were already positioning themselves for a likely Senate run on Tuesday.
Former state Senate President Troy Jackson filed federal paperwork on Tuesday to form an exploratory committee that allows him to start fundraising, the Bangor Daily News reported.
Nirav Shah, the former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the party should hold an open and transparent process to select a new nominee.
“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,” he said in a statement on X that notably emphasized he is “not an establishment politician” or “an insider.”
REPUBLICAN INCUMBENT WELL FUNDED
The Democratic nominee will face Republican Senator Susan Collins, who chairs a panel that oversees the nation’s federal discretionary spending, in November.
Collins, 73, has a nearly $10 million war chest and is backed by multiple super PACs. The Senate Leadership Fund has pledged to invest $42 million in Maine, and Pine Tree Results PAC has spent almost $7 million boosting her campaign.
The Pine Tree Results PAC has canceled its ad reservations for next week, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact, which suggests Republicans expect Platner to drop out this week.
In a statement on Monday, Collins called the allegations against Platner “appalling.”
“Nevertheless,” she said, “it is not up to me to choose the Democratic nominee for Senate.”
(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill. Editing by Michael Learmonth and Deepa Babington)
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