Graham Platner finally relented to intense pressure, announcing he was bowing out of the Maine Senate race.
In a video posted to social media on Wednesday evening, a defiant Mr. Platner blamed his campaign woes on the Democratic Party establishment, including in Washington, trying to crush the left-populist movement that swept him to victory in the Senate primary and a November showdown against incumbent Republican Sen. Susan M. Collins.
“We believe that for the movement to continue, it can’t be me,” he said. “For that reason, we are suspending campaign operations.”
He added that “I intend to file the paperwork to withdraw” in the next few days.
Mr. Platner’s 11-minute video, the sound on which suggested it was recorded near a road, oozed anger and defiance, reiterating his claim that the rape charge that has dominated the campaign “was all false” and “did not happen.”
He said the false charges were “being used by the political establishment” to coerce him and to crush “movements like ours.”
“The brutal political reality is that they are going to take everything away from us,” he said. “We are going to lose our ability to fundraise. We are going to lose our ability to access voter data [and] all the things that any campaign needs on the basic level to function.”
“They would rather see Susan Collins win,” he said of the Democratic establishment in the state and nationally.
His exit cleared the way for Democrats to install a new nominee against Ms. Collins in a marquee contest that could help determine control of the Senate next year.
The decision came after the 41-year-old Mr. Platner huddled with advisers amid mounting calls to quit after an accusation of rape against him. The calls to bow out even came from democratic socialist Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, the far-left icon who helped legitimize his “working-class” candidacy.
Mr. Platner’s exit was overdue in the eyes of most Democrats.
State party officials were openly frustrated with him dragging out his exit and accused his team of trying to tip the scales in the process of choosing his replacement.
In his Wednesday video, during which he choked up several times, Mr. Platner said that whatever happens next, the process of replacing him “needs to be open, transparent and democratic.”
He told the Democratic Party in Washington to stay out because they did not secure him the nomination, rather the progressive and socialist voters he mobilized did.
“My name might be on the ballot right now, but that ballot line belongs to the people of Maine,” Mr. Platner said.
He spoke in conspiratorial terms of backrooms and deal-makers.
“People in D.C. need to stay in D.C.,” he said. “Decisions should not be made by people in places of political power.”
State law includes a provision for Democrats to replaceMr. Platner before the general election.
The state Democratic Party held an emergency meeting Wednesday, during which more than 100 state committee members signed off on holding a nominating convention, in the event of Mr. Platner’s withdrawal.
Mr. Platner’s video was posted less than an hour later.
According to the statute, party officials may select a new nominee if a candidate who won the primary withdraws by 5 p.m. on July 13. The replacement candidate must be named by July 27.
The jockeying to replace him is already underway.
Dan Kleban, co-founder of the Maine Beer Co., who briefly ran for the Senate this spring before endorsing Gov. Janet Mills’ failed bid, announced Wednesday he was running to replace Mr. Platner.
“It’s time for a new generation of leadership in Washington, one that’s not beholden to the establishment that has failed us time and again,” Mr. Kleban said in a statement.
Former state Senate President Troy Jackson, meanwhile, filed paperwork to form an exploratory committee. Former public health chief Nirav Shah, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, and Jordan Wood, who lost his bid for the party’s nomination in the 2nd Congressional District primary, also have expressed interest.
Some hoped that Rep. Jared Golden would give it a go, but that seemed unlikely. When he announced earlier this year that he was not seeking reelection, he made it clear he was ready to put Congress in his rearview mirror.
The July reshuffle has upended a race that Democrats likely need to win to have any chance of flipping control of the Senate. Republicans have a 53-47 seat edge, and Vice President J.D. Vance’s tie-breaking vote means Democrats need a four-seat net gain.
Mr. Platner’s exit caps a wild ride for a first‑time candidate who electrified the party’s base, steamrolled Gov. Janet Mills in the June primary, and weathered early concerns about his past — including his behavior toward women.
He apologized for some of those episodes, eventually rolling them into a broader message that if voters believed in transformative politics, they had to believe in the power of people to change.
But a fresh rape allegation from Jenny Racicot this week erased any realistic path to defeating Ms. Collins, who is seeking a sixth term.
Ms. Racicot, a 41‑year‑old Maine resident, told Politico she dated Mr. Platner on and off for two years, and said he showed up drunk at her home uninvited late one night in 2021 and forced her to have sex with him despite her repeated objections.
Mr. Platner, a former Marine and oyster farmer, denied the allegation in a video posted on social media, calling it “false,” but acknowledged he was reassessing his future in the race.
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful of the political reality it will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins,” he said.
But Mr. Platner could not stop the bleeding. After dragging his feet, Mr. Sanders broke his silence Tuesday afternoon, signaling that the far-left coalition that has helped lift him was abandoning him.
“I have spoken with Graham Platner about the best path forward for Maine,” Mr. Sanders said in a social media post Tuesday. “In the light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside.”
Mr. Planter had already been dogged by inflammatory Reddit posts about the tipping habits of Black people and women blacking out at bars. There was additional blowback over his Nazi symbol tattoo that he later covered up, and sexually explicit texts he sent to women after getting married.
Things intensified last month when The New York Times reported that three women — one of whom was Ms. Racicot — had been romantically involved with Mr. Platner and described his unsettling and volatile behavior, saying he drank heavily and was unfaithful.
But he still sailed to victory in the June primary.
His chief rival, Ms. Mills, dropped out of the race in late April after it became clear she had a losing hand.
Not missing his presence will be Sen. John Fetterman, Pennsylvania Democrat, who described the evening’s events as “the trash took itself out.”
He also said on Fox News that many in the party establishment now need to answer a very pointed question: “why did you go in on this dirtbag?”
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