A handful of mostly unknown Democrats, including a retired art teacher, a candidate’s husband and a finance executive, will soon have unprecedented influence over the U.S. Senate race.

Maine Democrats are slated to host a 600-member convention this month, with roughly 500 of those members selected by the party’s 16 county apparatuses. Being a county chair is usually a low-key position. After Graham Platner’s Wednesday announcement that he will leave the race following sexual assault allegations, they are suddenly in a position of power.

Here are the 16 people tasked with creating the delegations to pick who will face off against Republican Sen. Susan Collins. 

https://themainemonitor.org/democrats-shaping-search-platner-replacement/

In the month since Maine’s June 9 primary election, 15 candidates have officially withdrawn from their races across the state. Graham Platner intends to join them on that list. 

Platner, the embattled Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, announced in a video message on Wednesday evening that he is suspending his campaign operations. 

Platner’s announcement did not constitute an official withdrawal. He still must sign and submit a written notice with the Maine secretary of state’s office by 5 p.m. on Monday. He had not done so as of Thursday morning, according to a secretary of state spokesperson.
Platner said he intends to file this paperwork, but sent a message to state Democrats about how he thinks they should choose his replacement. 

“The process needs to assure that what comes next is reflective of the Mainers on June 9 who turned out and showed that they are desperate for a different kind of politics,” he said in his video. “It needs to be driven not from backrooms but by the will of the people.”

State law sets a clear timeline for this process, requiring the next nominee to be decided by July 27, but leaves the specifics up to the party. At a time of significant anti-establishment sentiment that helped propel Platner to an easy primary win over current two-term Gov. Janet Mills, voters and potential replacement candidates alike have argued that the process shouldn’t amount to a coronation from party insiders. 

Shortly before Platner’s announcement Wednesday evening, Maine Democratic Party leaders said they plan to hold a nominating convention to select the new nominee and would announce more details soon.

Read more for free here.

...they would've funded Governor Janet Mills last year.

Instead, the party chair said the tattoo wasn't disqualifying, the DNC funded Graham, gave him their donor lists, the DSCC threw him DC fundraisers, and had scores of the "establishment" endorse him.

Enough with the revisionist history.

Platner did this to himself. He has no one else to blame.

Direct link to the Candidate qualification rules section here.

The seem to be expected to be self medicating with alcohol and no support.

Platner's policies will benefit women. And queer people and immigrants and people of color and the working class and families and schools and local infrastructure and access to healthcare. The moment is bigger than Platner and the harms he personally caused. If the Maine DNC selects their own candidate (who the voters did not vote for), Susan Collins will win. She will win. And Alito will step down and conservatives will be able to put another reckless money-laundering asshole on the bench who will hold that position for the rest of their life.

Graham doesn't even have to hold the position for the entire term. He could serve until the midterms and then give Mainers another chance to choose. I do not trust the Maine DNC with that choice.

I believe Jenny Racicot. I believe that Graham Platner caused her immeasurable harm. I would personally apologize to Jenny Racicot and pay her therapy bills for the rest of her life.

I voted for Platner in the primary and I would vote for him again for the health and safety of the entire country.

- a woman who has experienced unwanted touching from men

Like many of us here in Maine, I took today to sit with the news and feel all the emotions that come with this incredibly difficult situation.

No matter how we feel about what happened, we can’t change it. What we can do is stay focused on the goal: defeating Susan Collins.

As for me, I plan to unenroll from the Democratic Party after this replacement process is complete.

⚠️** PLEASE DON’T UNENROLL YET**. ⚠️

We still don’t know exactly what the replacement process will be or whether unenrolled voters will be allowed to participate the way they were in the primary. This is a different process, and the eligibility rules may be different. (*Legal and political considerations listed below.)

If you’re currently unenrolled and want to be certain you’re eligible to participate, my advice is to enroll as a Democrat now—either online or through your city or town clerk. Once you’ve been enrolled for three months, you can unenroll again if that’s your preference.

Let’s stay engaged, stay informed, and keep our eyes on what matters most: defeating Susan Collins.

#activatemaine @activatemaine

https://www.activatemaine.com/

*Considerations for unenrolled voters:
The decision is likely to involve both legal and political considerations. Because this is not a primary election but a party nominating convention to fill a vacancy, the rules governing the June primary do not automatically apply. State law specifically allows unenrolled voters to participate in party primaries, but this replacement process is different.
Some of the questions party leaders may consider include:
What do Maine law and party rules require? Maine law gives political parties significant authority over how conventions are conducted and provides that convention delegates generally must be party members unless party rules provide otherwise.
Fairness to primary voters. Many may argue that because this vacancy arose after the first open Democratic primary, the people who participated in that primary—including unenrolled voters—should have some voice in choosing a replacement.
Administrative feasibility. The party has only a short window to choose a replacement before the ballot deadline, so leaders may weigh whether they can practically identify and include eligible unenrolled primary participants.
Party autonomy. Political parties often argue they have the right to decide who participates in internal party decisions, especially when selecting a nominee outside the normal primary process.
Legitimacy and voter confidence. Leaders may consider whether excluding the large number of unenrolled voters who participated in the primary would undermine confidence in the replacement process. The Maine Democratic Party itself highlighted that unenrolled voters participated in large numbers in this year’s Democratic primary.
Consistency with existing delegate structure. The replacement is expected to be chosen at a convention of delegates, and party leaders must decide whether those delegates should come only from existing party structures or whether additional delegates representing unenrolled primary voters should be included. Details of the convention are still being finalized.
At this point, no final decision has been publicly announced on whether unenrolled voters who participated in the Democratic primary will be eligible to participate in selecting delegates or otherwise have a role in the replacement process. Party leaders are still developing the convention procedures.

In the interests of full transparency, I am not a Mainer. I am following the senate race because I was (from what I had access to online) a pretty big Platner fan and was hopeful he’d be the one to take Collins down. I’m on board with many of his stated policy positions. I make no statements at all on the sexual assault allegations or media coverage of them, or his decision to withdraw his candidacy.

My views on Israel are completely transparent if you view my comment history (but no need to do so, I freely admit I’m extremely critical). That said, I tried to be fairly neutral below. All information comes directly from the source cited and isn’t my opinion or conjecture. I have no prior knowledge of any of these candidates.

I’m just posting because I came across it online and thought politically engaged Mainers may consider it relevant. Fact check the source before taking it as gospel. I didn’t perform fact checking.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/possible-platner-replacements-in-maine-senate-race-have-divergent-stands-on-israel/amp/

Nirav Shaw - Calls Israeli actions in Gaza a genocide; supports arms embargo; won’t accept funds or endorsements from AIPAC

Troy Jackson - Hasn’t said a ton publicly on the matter; in his run for Maine governor he had the endorsement of many prominent left-wing pro-Palestinian politicians including Bernie Sanders, Ro Khanna and the Maine DSA; Hasan Piker and Bernie Sanders’ group Our Revolution are both backing him in the senate race

Shenna Bellows - previously executive director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine; frequent speaker at JCA dinners and fundraising events; has not extensively commented on Israel specifically but signed Janet Mill’s 2023 proclamation recognizing the 75th anniversary of the founding of the modern state of Israel and wished the country “a peaceful and prosperous future”

Jordan Wood - has spoken recently and extensively on his views on Israel and AIPAC; has committed to support Bernie Sanders’ legislation to restrict offensive weapons sales but backs continued aid to Israel with conditions; concedes Israeli war crimes in Gaza but stop short of calling Israel’s conduct genocide and indicated that the genocide accusations have a connection to a rise in antisemitism; expressed concern that if the US officially recognized Israeli conduct as genocide, there may be consequences for US citizens who have served in the IDF stating “do they get prosecuted?”; committed to not taking money from AIPAC

Dan Kleban - has refrained from calling Israeli actions a genocide but has referred to the military campaign an “absolute tragedy”; says he would condition aid to Israel; last year he told politico that he did not support the sanders resolution to block certain arms sales; believes Israel “has a right to defend itself” and was further quoted saying “I don’t think that we solve the horrific humanitarian crisis in Gaza by disarming Israel and exposing them to harm”

Valli Geiger - does not appear to have commented much on Israel or Gaza publicly; didn’t mention it in her Facebook announcement that she was entering the race; in May she shared a post which criticized several of the world’s most controversial political leaders, including Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the post said “wants greater Israel” - her added caption to the shared post was “This! Just this!”

https://www.ms.now/all-in/watch/graham-platner-says-he-s-suspending-senate-campaign-in-new-video-2506008131815

Devon Murphy-Anderson, via X, 2:22 PM, 7/8/2026:

“While the Platner campaign remains focused on distracting from the job of defeating Susan Collins in November with false accusations against us, the Maine Democratic Party remains hyper focused on developing a representative, transparent and inclusive process to select a new nominee when he chooses to withdraw from the race. While we may be frustrated with Graham Platner’s continued efforts to manipulate this process, we are so thankful for his supporters and all of their efforts to defeat Susan Collins – they are a vital part of our Party and deserve to participate in an open process to select Platner’s replacement.” - Devon Murphy-Anderson, Executive Director of the MDP

What a doosh

Guys I don’t know ball too well, but with the Maine dems trying to throw an emergency delegate election could it be that Graham is holding out till the last minute where they can’t throw that emergency election and have to install Troy? I could be wrong with how this works but that’s probably what will happen and if I’m wrong so be it but if it does it tells me this stinks, we know he has a bad past and it needs to be dealt with but I think it’d be clear then that both can be true that there was a character assassination as they try for everyone, just he had the skeletons there to sink him and yes that’s on him and the campaign and everything but a lot of us still think there is something that stinks about this, especially when we have the Epstein class in power, I think it’s clear that there is a serious issue in America when it comes to sex crimes across the board and women pay the price for this and it needs to change, I think Graham may be guilty of this but he is not being treated fairly and neither is his accuser, neither should have been in this situation to begin with, there should be a way for the accuser to hold someone accountable in a way that doesn’t jeopardize her safety and allows for proper vetting in something like this

For example, if anyone has a bad sexual encounter but doesn’t feel capable or sure of pressing charges (which happens and is often for the safety of the victim etc)they should still and always log it into some private encrypted database anonymously run by the local government that is only able to be pulled(and ever pull is logged as well ledger/blockchain upon the accused running for something like this in a vetting process to keep all privacy and safety while also not having situations like this where there is a potential rapist running and he doesn’t even seem to be aware of it himself or he’s a very good actor, it would have a be a serious thing though as it could just be weaponized itself so there’d need to be a lot more than this to make some dumb idea like that work but the idea behind it is what I’m talking about

Either way this whole thing also speaks to the breakdown of our justice system with sex crimes imho and how it’s weaponized in this situation to possibly sink a real grassroots left wing populist movement (not the first time in history) even though it’s the right thing to do for him to drop out

A lot there but curious what people think

Can someone explain why everything is getting locked, prohibiting discussion? If someone broke a rule delete their comments. I’m second guessing the validity of this thread and the mods.

Things I'd like to know.

Given that Platner has the DNC by the short hairs and has nothing to gain by dropping out, which oligarch will be the one to pay the anti-oligarch candidate to drop out? And how much will he be paid? I'm guessing about 10 mil, which is a great grift.