Actor Patrick Dempsey rules out Maine Senate run after Platner campaign collapse

Actor Patrick Dempsey said Wednesday he will not seek Maine’s U.S. Senate seat, ending days of speculation that followed the collapse of Democratic nominee Graham Platner’s campaign.

In an op-ed published in the Portland Press Herald, Mr. Dempsey, a Lewiston-area native best known for playing Dr. Derek Shepherd on “Grey’s Anatomy,” wrote that he had been asked “a question more than once” in recent days about a potential bid. He said he gave the idea “real thought” before deciding against it.

“After a lot of thought, I realized the answer is no,” Mr. Dempsey wrote. “Not because public service isn’t honorable — it absolutely is.”

Mr. Dempsey’s name emerged as a possible replacement for Mr. Platner as the Democrat’s Senate campaign unraveled over the past week. Mr. Platner, an oyster farmer and military veteran who won his party’s June primary by a wide margin, announced Wednesday that he would suspend his campaign after a woman told Politico he had forced her to have sex with her despite her objections. A second woman later made a similar accusation to The Washington Post. Mr. Platner has denied both allegations.

In the wake of the first allegation, Senate Democratic leaders moved quickly to distance themselves from Mr. Platner. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said the committee would not invest in the race if he stayed on the ballot. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, both early backers of his campaign, urged him to step aside, as did Rep. Ro Khanna and Sen. Ruben Gallego, who withdrew their endorsements. In his video announcement, Mr. Platner said his campaign was ending not because of the allegations but because of what he called political pressure from party leaders.

Mr. Dempsey, who founded the Dempsey Center, a Maine nonprofit that provides free cancer care, pointed to that work as the reason he believes he can better serve his home state outside of elected office. He noted the organization draws support “without asking who you voted for.”

“That’s the America I know,” he wrote. “That’s what I want to see in the leader we send to the Senate.”

While he did not endorse a candidate to replace Mr. Platner, Mr. Dempsey wrote that Maine Democrats should select a nominee who “offers a new approach to how we govern ourselves.”

Under Maine law, Mr. Platner must formally withdraw his name from the ballot by 5 p.m. Monday for the Maine Democratic Party to name a replacement. State committee members voted Wednesday to hold a nominating convention of roughly 600 delegates to select a new nominee if that vacancy is created, though the party has not yet released details on how delegates will be chosen. Under state law, Democrats would then have until 5 p.m. on July 27 to formally select the replacement nominee. Former state Senate President Troy Jackson has filed paperwork to enter the race, and several other Democrats, including former state CDC director Nirav Shah and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, have also expressed interest. Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a five-term incumbent, is seeking re-election in November.