If I had to lay odds, I would bet that Platner eventually pulls the plug on his campaign for Senate.
But, really, it's hardly a sure thing. He actually has some reasons to stay in the race, and if he does, the Democrats really can't do anything about it. Despite all the claims that Platner has no choice, no cards to play, and no say in whether he stays on the ballot, he actually holds most of the cards.
Platner, you see, is not a loyal member of the Democratic Party, which, ironically, was why he won. The Democratic Socialists of America are engaged in a hostile takeover of the Democratic Party, and his entire pitch to the voters who dutifully marched to the polls and eagerly sent in their absentee ballots was that he wasn't a normal kind of Democrat.
The normal rules don't apply to him, and the Democrats have nothing to give to him in exchange for getting out of the race.
Nuclear levels of cope.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) July 8, 2026
Platner has *all* the leverage. He’s a mentally disturbed do-nothing who works for his mom.
He doesn’t care about the party. Why would he? And there is no mechanism to forcibly remove him. https://t.co/LAFlnpynuu
Ed has a piece about the Democrats' mad scramble to get Platner out, with even his left-wing supporters sadly shaking their heads and telling him that he should get out of the race. They are incensed that Platner is pushing back, demanding the right to choose his replacement should he decide to bail out.
It's obvious why they want him out. It's not so obvious that Platner has any reason to give in to their demands.
I DON'T KNOW WHY SO MANY PEOPLE ARE HAVING A HARD TIME UNDERSTANDING THIS?!?!? He has ALL the leverage. They want a blank ballot slot they can fill. And there is nothing they can really give him in return because it's a rape charge. He can't run for Gov in 5 years.
— Sean T at RCP (@SeanTrende) July 8, 2026
One of the more entertaining interview genres in June was when Democrats would grandstand and moralize about standards of conduct —
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) July 8, 2026
Then immediately be asked if these standards applied to Platner.
Behold CO Gov Michael Bennet's attempt to answer that question: pic.twitter.com/PvxisuZxNY
Platner won his primary fair and square, and everybody who voted for or supported him had more than enough information about who he was and what he was capable of. The first time he was accused of abusing a woman, the party not only rallied around him, but gave him his best fundraising day ever.
The Democrats who claim they are trying to save democracy are also trying to force out the duly-elected Democrat Senate primary winner in Maine because they now think he will lose the general election.
— William A. Jacobson (@wajacobson) July 8, 2026
Bernie Sanders flew him around to be a headliner at the "Fight Oligarchy" rallies. Ro Khanna flew off to Portland, ME to campaign with him. The New York Times did a "catch and kill" with the story, despite knowing that he was credibly accused of rape. The relationship with the Democrats and Platner was transactional: they wanted to win, and the best path they saw was a Democratic Socialist who obviously hated the party, hated women, hated Jews, hated America, and who was openly extremist in just about every way.
So Graham Platner has decided to take the Democratic Party of Maine by the arm and throw them into a room and hold them against their will until they bow to his demands huh.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) July 8, 2026
That doesn't sound like something he would do.
That's why the DSA was behind him, and the DSA currently has the upper hand in the Democratic Party nomination process. And rather than fight for their party, the Organized Crime Democrats chose to ally with them.
Normally, when a party needs to safely exit a candidate, they offer them something. The Democrats have nothing to offer to Platner, both because he is too poisonous to put in some profitable sinecure, and because he doesn't want or need one. He has all the cards here.
A Platner campaign official fires back at @MaineDems, telling NBC News: “The Platner campaign has reached out to the party to try and understand what this process would look like. At no point has the campaign tried to ‘put its finger on the scale.’ Over 150,000 Mainers voted for… https://t.co/l9CbmYkCE6
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 8, 2026
A Platner campaign official fires back at @MaineDems, telling NBC News: “The Platner campaign has reached out to the party to try and understand what this process would look like. At no point has the campaign tried to ‘put its finger on the scale.’ Over 150,000 Mainers voted for this movement, and over 15,000 Mainers volunteered their time and energy to it. While Graham wouldn't want to be a part of the process, he would want to make sure the voters and volunteers make this decision — not the political establishment.”
If you look at what the DSA-types are saying online, they see the effort to force Platner out of the race as another political dirty trick, and to a certain extent they have a point. Not in the sense that the allegations are false, but rather in that nothing changed between yesterday and July 5th in any real sense. Platner was a dirtbag before the POLITICO story, and no more of one after it came out.
Platner could’ve sexted my mom and I’d still vote for him
— Secular Talk ([email protected]) (@KyleKulinski) May 30, 2026
Maine Democrats voted for Platner knowing who he was. Not the specifics, of course, but every particular that mattered. So much so that the jokes write themselves. "Who could have known that the guy with the Nazi tattoo who later declared himself a communist who sexted with half a dozen women and hung out on a child predator site and who was credibly accused of abusing a girlfriend would turn out to be a scumbag?"
Mike Gatto on Graham Platner and the Maine Senate Race: “We really have to be better with investigating candidates”
— DSA Watch (@DSA_Watch) July 8, 2026
As if the Nazi tattoo and the dozens of other scandals weren’t bad enough pic.twitter.com/jxzigLAm3A
Uh...everybody. Not a single person honestly doubted that he was a scumbag. He was just their scumbag. He had a Nazi tattoo!
Cenk Uygur is guessing that AIPAC and the Israel lobby are behind the Graham Platner accusations.
— Post-Left Watch (postleftwatch.bsky.social) (@PostLeftWatch) July 8, 2026
"My guess is... it was people that are part of the Israeli lobby that marked him for destruction." pic.twitter.com/uXDXymtzWg
After Platner was credibly accused of assaulting Lyndsey Fifield, the Democrats made clear that it was OK to assault Republican women. The only major difference between now and then is that his accuser is a progressive. Democratic Party officials freaked out because their donors freaked out. That crossed the line in their view.
The DSA-types, though, equate Democratic Party donors with "Jews," and if Platner wants to ride it out, he can use that to his advantage.
CHUCK SCHUMER: “I endorsed Graham Platner." pic.twitter.com/rNk1uevZux
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 6, 2026
Some people may think that Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna pulling their endorsements ensures that Platner must drop out. But both of them are, in their own way, "establishment" to the DSA radicals whom they court. As leftist as they are, the "dirtbag" caucus of the DSA doesn't actually identify with them in the passionate way that they do Platner or El-Sayed. Their influence is less than you think with the radicals in the DSA.
Graham Platner could commit Geneva Convention-level war crimes against me and all my relatives, and I will still vote for him in November. pic.twitter.com/AUddF7eZqi
— . (@realMGHein) July 6, 2026
Not to mention, Bernie's a Jew.
The biggest obstacle to Platner's staying in the race is the threat that his campaign will be starved for money, and in politics that counts quite a bit. It may be that Graham and his advisors decide it's just not going to be fun to run in the primary, or they may be betting that if he stays in, the Democrats will have no choice but to support him.
Jay Jones survived his scandal. Ralph Northam survived his, and has been richly rewarded despite the party's attempt to ostracize him. As an elected governor, he had all the cards.
Oh my god Cenk Uygur thinks Graham Platner was the victim of a political hit job pic.twitter.com/6fkflaVG6V
— Post-Left Watch (postleftwatch.bsky.social) (@PostLeftWatch) July 7, 2026
Platner may not have all the cards, but he has the high cards right now. Why not play them instead of folding?
Still, it's more likely than not that Platner gets out of the race after extracting as much as he can. But Morris Katz, his campaign guru, is right to argue that he doesn't have to, and that a huge chunk of his supporters will back him no matter what. He could take a shot because he has nothing to lose, especially since this should be a good year for Democrats.
Why help the Democrats out? He doesn't like them; they don't like him and never did. So screw 'em.
Ed actually thinks Platner will stick it out, and he could be right. My own guess is 55%-45% he gets out, but that is just a worthless gut feeling, because Ed's analysis is absolutely correct about the situation:
The problem remains: Maine Democrats gave Platner the nomination, and now he controls it. The party no longer has a "candidate selection process," and won't unless Platner gives it up. That leaves them three options: allow Platner to participate in the process, buy him off, or resign themselves to having Platner on the ballot. Platner has nothing to lose at this point, since he's mooching off Mom & Dad anyway and has no career to protect on the back side of this campaign. If they want him out, Maine Democrats and/or their dark-money donors will need to make it worth his while, and don't expect Platner to sell out cheaply, either. He knows that he has Murphy-Anderson and the party over a barrel.
At this point, I suspect that Platner won't leave at all. As David will also argue, he doesn't have to withdraw, and since he has literally no prospects elsewhere, why not ride this out and see where it goes? Platner may take perverse pleasure in seeing the same supporters who fled over the last 48 hours weaseling their way back behind him as the naked pursuit of power becomes even more naked in the desperation over control of the Senate. If Platner wanted to withdraw, he would have done so by now.
The one last trick the Democrats could use to force Platner out is to convince one of his accusers to file charges against him, and they might pull that card. What do you want to bet that Jenny Racicot, a Democrat, gets a few phone calls from Democrats?
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