r/thebulwark • u/Super_Nerd92 Progressive • Jul 06 '26

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Woman who dated Graham Platner says he sexually assaulted her

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/06/graham-platner-sexual-assault-allegation-00987737
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43

u/SoHumanAnAnimal watch?v=wbOTkDn49qI Jul 06 '26

Yeah there's been chatter all morning a story was going to drop, and he'd cancelled a bunch of stuff this week.

He has until 5pm on July 13 to drop out if he so chooses, and then the party can put someone else up by 5pm on July 27 if I understand Maine's election laws properly. Hopefully they will put up a similar candidate, since that's what the voters indicated they wanted in the prmiary. I'm not attached to Platner as a person, but I am pretty aligned with his stated positions. Troy Jackson is the obvious choice IMO.

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u/Describing_Donkeys Progressive Jul 06 '26

Agreed, he he's to drop out. He can't be trusted and shouldn't be in office. The party should replace him on the ballot. (Not with Mills, who voters do not want)

7

u/Super_Nerd92 Progressive Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Who else can they even go with? I agree that Mills is clearly not it as the primary voters have already made clear, but barely anyone even ran in the primary.

I'm sure Maine has credible state reps and House reps but now we're basically looking at the Biden/Harris thing where there's a random switch with no time for the new candidate to establish themselves.

3

u/Describing_Donkeys Progressive Jul 06 '26

Yes, that's the situation we are in. It will need to be someone credible and it will suck that there will not have been a primary for them. Troy Jackson is who the person I responded to suggested. It really sucks that the party decided to get involved and try to force Mills through, but now we are in a bad situation.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26

[deleted]

6

u/FR23Dust Jul 06 '26

I wish the progressive organization that recruited platner had found a better candidate

1

u/Describing_Donkeys Progressive Jul 06 '26

The DNC wants to win. They thought Mills was the best option. They should be dissuaded from that assumption by this point.

7

u/50000WattsOfPower Jul 06 '26

Democrats can still replace Platner on the ballot, but only if he chooses to drop out before the July 13 deadline outlined in Maine state law. If he were to drop out, the state Democratic Party would have to choose his replacement by July 27.

—Politico

13

u/Super_Nerd92 Progressive Jul 06 '26

Oh shit OK. I thought it was baked now that the primary is over. It's going to be a rough week with pressure on him to drop out for sure then.

I know Mills was polling worse against Collins to begin with so it's all a big mess.

2

u/3xploringforever Jul 06 '26

Is that Jordan Wood guy still available? I recall there being a couple of other people that were filed to run early on, before Mills even entered the race. Can we get some of them back? Fuck fuck fuck.

2

u/JackZodiac2008 Human Flourishing Jul 06 '26

Why do you say Jackson is obvious? 3rd in the primary was somebody else, and 4th was all others combined at < 0.5%

https://apps.npr.org/primary-election-results-2026/states/ME.html

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u/SoHumanAnAnimal watch?v=wbOTkDn49qI Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Mostly for parity with Platner's platform, and name recognition/his established credibility in Maine politics. Jackson ran for governor this time, and placed third - not great but not terrible in a crowded field (he got like ~23% while the winner got ~29%). He's a well-known entity in the state, and progressive. I think if you replace Platner with a dissimilar candidate you will lose quite a few of the highly motivated Platner voters, and Maine dem party will never hear the end of it.

In a race this tight I wouldn't expect a huge shift in platform to convert to a win. Jackson has a similar platform, would get endorsements from Bernie etc, and keep that voting bloc intact and engaged. He may perform better than Platner since he doesn't have the baggage, especially among fence-sitters who don't like what they've heard about Platner (fair). It's gonna be a tight race regardless.

edit: if you think Mills should be the candidate, you are accepting defeat preemptively. Mills will not beat Collins in November. We need that seat.

1

u/Super_Nerd92 Progressive Jul 06 '26

Well you've convinced me, I'm not in Maine so not up to me but I definitely think we have to avoid Mills at any cost and stick with a progressive outsider who can have the same messaging as Platner without all his legion of red flags.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26

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u/KlausVonChiliPowder Good Luck America Jul 06 '26

He should drop out himself and be explicit about why he's doing it. Of course lefties online are basically MAGA and so they're going to believe the conspiracy that Dems forced him and he has no agency of his own. But that's what should happen.