The Memo: Platner debacle inflames factional turmoil among Democrats

Campaign The Memo: Platner debacle inflames factional turmoil among Democrats Comments: by Niall Stanage - 07/07/26 6:24 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Niall Stanage - 07/07/26 6:24 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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A credible allegation of rape against Graham Platner looks near certain to doom his Senate campaign, even though the Maine Democrat calls the charge “categorically untrue.”

The consensus in the political world is that Platner could withdraw from the race any moment. Meanwhile, the episode is ratcheting up tensions that are already burning hot within the Democratic Party.

On one side is the progressive left, which has felt its power rising and has been broadly supportive of Platner’s candidacy. On the other is the more centrist party establishment, which had long viewed Platner with skepticism and worries that the left will blow winnable races.

The battle lines in the wake of the new allegation are stark. They separate a party establishment saying “we told you so” from a left-leaning insurgency that insists the chaos in Maine does nothing to invalidate progressive viewpoints in general.

The progressive group Our Revolution, which has its roots in Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) first presidential campaign a decade ago, withdrew its endorsement of Platner in the wake of the allegations.

But its executive director, Joseph Geevarghese, accompanied that announcement with a statement that included the warning: “To the Democratic establishment: this is not your opening.”

Geevarghese insisted that Mainers had not backed Platner over the more centrist Gov. Janet Mills (D) in the first place “just to be handed another status-quo candidate. They deserve what they voted for.”

Conversely from the center-left, Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, wrote on social media Monday: “Say what you will, but the establishment vets candidates.”

Tanden’s comment in turn, sparked furious backlash from the left, which noted the ethical travails of past establishment favorites including former President Clinton and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).

For now, the focus remains on Platner’s fate.

Once seen as a risky but compelling choice who could reach voters disenchanted with establishment Democrats, he has been hemorrhaging support since a Maine resident named Jenny Racicot came forward — initially to Politico and then in a CNN interview with Jake Tapper — to say that Platner, while drunk, had sex with her despite her telling him repeatedly to stop.

The two had dated off-and-on for more than two years prior to the encounter, which Racicot says occurred in late 2021.

Asked directly by Tapper if Platner had raped her, Racicot replied, “By definition, yes. Absolutely.”

Platner released a video denial.

“Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false,” he said, though he added that he was “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.”

Even erstwhile supporters now believe that path involves quitting the race. Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz), Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) are among those who have urged Platner to do so.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) had not formally endorsed Platner, but he too said on Tuesday, “I believe that it’s time for him to drop out of the race.”

There are very few holdouts for Platner. A rare exception is Cenk Uygur of “The Young Turks,” who blamed the “national media” for “politically assassinating Graham Platner.”

Democrats across the party’s ideological spectrum are concerned about the prospect of one of their best chances for a Senate gain slipping away.

Platner had been expected to take on the vulnerable but sometimes-underestimated incumbent, Sen. Susan Collins (R), in a state President Trump lost to then-Vice President Kamala Harris by roughly seven points in 2024.

“The Senate math is still very difficult for Democrats,” cautioned New York-based strategist Basil Smikle Jr. “There was a time when Maine looked like a very strong ‘get’ for the Democrats. Now [assuming Platner drops out], they have to rush to find a candidate that voters and donors and party leaders coalesce around. That’s not easy, and it’s a very tight timeline.”

Centrists within the Democratic Party had previously been pushed back onto their heels, as a tangible antiestablishment mood took hold and numerous polls showed dissatisfaction with the party’s Washington leadership.

Just two weeks ago, the victory of three leftist candidates — two of whom are members of the Democratic Socialists of America — in congressional primaries in New York bolstered the sense of progressive momentum.

But the center-left has long contended that such candidates pose a serious risk of losing winnable races in general elections.

They also highlight some polling from this year’s Senate battlegrounds indicating that the two most obviously leftist candidates — Platner, even before the current furor, and Abdul El-Sayed if he becomes the nominee in Michigan — are in extremely tight general election match-ups.

By contrast, former Gov. Roy Cooper (D), a much more centrist figure, is consistently leading the Senate race in North Carolina, which Trump carried by three points in 2024.

On the establishment side, there is thinly disguised fury at the Platner situation.

“Clearly the people who promoted Platner should have done a far better job vetting him — and being honest about his vulnerabilities both in private and in public,” said Simon Rosenberg, a long-time center-left strategist who now writes the Hopium Chronicles newsletter on Substack.

“Parties favor candidates who have been vetted and who have won before, and neither of those things are true of him. His flame-out is endangering our shot at winning the Senate.”

On the other side of the intraparty divide, progressive organizer Jonathan Tasini pushed back against the idea that progressive candidates were any more prone than their establishment counterparts to have undiscovered ethical failings

“That’s rubbish,” he said.

But Tasini acknowledged that the Platner farrago marked a significant failure.

“We [on the left] should have a standard that is even higher than the establishment candidates because we have a greater mission and we have to prove it,” he said.

Tasini added: “It’s very difficult to both accept the fact that the centrist candidates are horrible and accept that we have a responsibility to voters to do our own vetting of folks.”

“It doesn’t mean that just anybody can raise their hand and say, ‘Hi, I would like to run.’”

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.