Democrats Run Out of Excuses for Platner

National Review Online

Monday, July 06, 2026

 

When the initial story about Graham Platner’s abusive relationships with former girlfriends broke, the Democratic Senate candidate made very unconvincing assurances to nervous Democrats that no other shoes would drop.

 

They chose to believe him out of partisan obligation, and now they are paying the price.

 

Over the weekend, Platner’s campaign, without offering any explanation, canceled all of his campaign events. On Monday, Politico reported on the latest bombshell — an ex-girlfriend who said he sexually assaulted her while drunk in 2021. While denying the allegation, Platner said, “Regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful of the political reality it will inflict, we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward. . . .”

 

The bell almost always tolls for campaigns that pause to consider the best path forward.

 

It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. As Platner surged toward the nomination in the Maine Senate race in the past several months, Democrats did all they could to talk themselves into the idea that the dirtball socialist who had a Nazi tattoo for decades was just what the party needed.

 

At a time when working-class white voters were turned off by milquetoast Democrats, the theory has gone, maybe they need somebody with an edge. And so they played up the part-time oysterman with a gravely voice and a military background, and looked the other way at his poisonous social media posts and obvious lies about supposedly not knowing the meaning of his own tattoo. He was a changed man, a good and decent man who had overcome emotional turmoil after his military service.

 

There was never any evidence to support this politically convenient narrative about a man who was sexting with other women after his marriage just a few a years ago.

 

In the latest damning accusation, Jenny Racicot, a resident of Maine, said that in 2021, Platner showed up at her home intoxicated after she asked him not to come over, and then he forced himself on her, over her repeated objections. Racicot said she struggled with reporting the incident but had shared details of the encounter with others, including an ex-boyfriend who corroborated her account to Politico. Her story is also supported by additional messages, emails, and documents.

 

Last month, the New York Times reported on Platner’s pattern of abusive relationships. But the article primarily focused on accusations from Lyndsey Fifield, a Republican, which gave Democrats an excuse to dismiss her claims. But that is impossible to do with Racicot.

 

“One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was, the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him as a person,” Racicot told Politico. “I just want the truth out there. I just want people to have a whole scope of who he is as a person.”

 

The first spate of stories about Platner and women surfaced before the Democratic primary, but after his opponent, Governor Janet Mills, had dropped out. Platner duly swept to victory, but everyone in the know realize that there was an asterisk associated with his win, pending other revelations. Now, Democrats have a couple of days to convince Platner to quit while they can still do a candidate switcheroo under state law.

 

Assuming this happens, the process will be ungainly, but Democrats literally can’t do any worse than Graham Platner, the desperately flawed candidate they all pretended to believe in because he’d found a way to surf the party’s socialist wave.