Graham Platner officially drops out of the Maine Senate race

Embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner on Friday officially dropped out of the race, paving the way for Democrats to select a new nominee just days before the deadline.

“I write to formally withdraw my candidacy for United States Senate,” Platner wrote in a letter to Maine’s division of elections that he shared on X.

Maine’s Secretary of State office, which oversees elections, confirmed receipt of the letter.

Platner announced on Wednesday that he planned to withdraw from the race, but he had yet to file the necessary paperwork to do so with Maine’s Secretary of State.

Democrats have until July 27 at 5 p.m. to find a replacement that will face Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November in one of the nation’s most competitive Senate elections. Candidates must formally declare by July 15 at 5 p.m.

Candidates began jockeying to replace Platner last week, even before he announced his exit following a new sexual assault allegation against him made by a former girlfriend. The woman, Jenny Racicot, told Politico and CNN that he forced her to have sex with him in 2021, a claim he has rebuked as “categorically false.”

“What comes next needs to come from the people, needs to come from the people of Maine,” Platner said in a video announcing his campaign’s suspension. “It needs to be open, transparent and democratic. It needs to be reflecting the will and the values of the people that built this movement.”

“We believe that for the movement to continue, it can’t be me. And for that reason, we are suspending campaign operations,” he added. “We’re not doing it because of the allegations; we’re doing it because of the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power.”

At least half a dozen candidates have already jumped into the contest to replace Platner — including several who ran, and lost, in the state’s gubernatorial and Senate primaries this year, and one person who ran — and lost — to Collins in 2014.

With no formal process enumerated in the group’s bylaws for how to replace a Democratic statewide nominee, the Maine Democratic Party is scrambling to stand up a nominating convention that will take place before the July 27 deadline to place someone on the ballot.

“Graham Plattner dropping out today was the right thing to do,” the state party’s executive director, Devon Murphy-Anderson, told NBC News’ “Meet the Press NOW” on Wednesday. She added that, “the allegations that were brought against him were very real and they were very credible.”

Murphy-Anderson said that Maine voters would be involved “in some way” in picking the candidates who will appear at the convention in some way.

“We are, of course, going to require folks to talk to Maine voters in some way that’s going to qualify them to be our U.S. Senate nominee beyond just declaring their intent. What that will most likely look like is petition collection from Maine Democratic voters across the state,” she said.

Platner’s campaign had been marred with scandal since he launched last year.

In October, Platner apologized after controversial past Reddit posts were resurfaced in which the veteran called himself a “communist,” called cops “bastards,” and said women who are raped need to “take some responsibility for themselves.”

In May, Platner’s wife said she was “angry” and “disappointed,” after several news outlets reported that Platner had exchanged sexual texts with women outside of his marriage, a phenomenon that his wife had disclosed to key campaign advisors as a potential liability when he first considered running for Senate.

In June, several of Platner’s ex-girlfriends — including Racicot — told the New York Times about “unsettling behavior” they witnessed while they dated him.