Poll: Majority of Maine voters would want Platner to drop out after another scandal

Campaign Poll: Majority of Maine voters would want Platner to drop out after another scandal Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 07/06/26 11:03 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 07/06/26 11:03 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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A new poll from Monday shows that a majority of Maine voters say they want Senate candidate Graham Platner (D) to drop out if another scandal surfaces.

Wedgewood Polls found in its latest survey on the Maine Senate race that 75 percent of Maine voters would want Platner to drop out following another scandal, with 20 percent saying he should remain in the race. Five percent were undecided.

The pollsters said on the social platform X the poll “was not supposed to be released yet but with the news imminent we rushed to get it out.” Politico reported on Monday that a former girlfriend accused Platner of sexual assault.

The poll also found that 65 percent of voters who backed former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 say Platner should drop out and 28 percent say he should stay in. Seventy-eight percent of voters who backed neither Harris nor President Trump say Platner should drop out, with only 13 percent saying he should keeping running.

“Among a candidate’s own base, that is a strikingly shallow well of support to absorb a further hit, and it suggests real fragility beneath Platner’s topline standing against” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Wedgewood’s report on the poll reads.

The majority of both of men and women, at 76 and 74 percent, respectively, say Platner should step aside, with 19 percent and 21 percent, respectively, saying he should remain in the race. Roughly three-quarters of all age demographics say Platner should drop out following another scandal.

Wedgewood also found that voters prefer a face-off between Maine gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson (D) and Collins, at 48-43, over Platner versus Collins at 46-50. Voters were tied over a potential match-up between Collins and Gov. Janet Mills (D), who dropped out of the race against Platner, at 47-47.

Politico interviewed Maine resident Jenny Racicot, who was previously in a relationship with Platner and accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2021. The outlet verified her allegations with a review of various forms of documentation, including emails Racicot exchanged with her therapist.

Racicot told CNN’s Jake Tapper about the 2021 incident and said her decision to speak out was a means to “get my life back” and was not politically motivated. She said she strongly agrees with his politics and believes Maine needs “somebody with those political stances and who are willing to do the work.”

“And I felt like me coming forward would essentially potentially take that away,” she said.

Platner denied the allegations and any wrongdoing, slamming the report for “inaccuracy.” But he said he would be “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.”

Democrats and Democratic-aligned organizations have withdrawn their endorsements for Platner and called on him to step aside.

Left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker said he believed Racicot’s allegations and said it was “curtains” for Platner’s campaign, citing the documentation Racicot shared with Politico to verify her accusations.

“It’s irredeemable,” Piker said.

The Wedgewood survey was conducted July 4-6 and included 405 Maine voters. The margin of error is 5.8 percentage points.

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