In Maine, Democrats vying to take on GOP Sen. Susan Collins are condemning the scandal-tarred former candidate while wrapping their arms around his populist rhetoric and agenda.
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The Democratic hopefuls vying to take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine’s pivotal Senate contest are navigating how to distance themselves from the scandal-tarred Graham Platner, who formally withdrew his nomination Friday, while claiming the populist political mantle that fired up his supporters.
There’s little room to maneuver in a lightning-speed campaign, with less than three weeks before the Maine Democratic Party must put forward a new standard-bearer. Platner’s possible replacements have sought, in media appearances and events, to separate the messenger from the message, condemning the sexual assault allegation that forced Platner out of the race and rebuffing his endorsement while wrapping their arms around the ideas and rhetoric that helped the oysterman-turned-politician unexpectedly win the primary.
“It’s a fine line to walk. They need to endorse his ideas and his fury while rejecting his character,” said Amanda Litman, the co-founder of Run for Something, a progressive group that helps first-time candidates seek office. “Platner’s campaign captured energy and won the primary because it powerfully spoke to a frustration voters are feeling. The Democrats running for the seat will need to feed that hunger for change without making his voters feel stupid for getting duped.”
Since Platner announced Wednesday night that he would end his campaign, half a dozen contenders have announced their intention to run.
Late Thursday, the party announced that candidates could submit their declaration of intent to run at a nominating convention, including a 300-word statement about their vision to “continue to build on the grassroots movement to ensure no Mainer is left behind by their next United States Senator.” They will also need to collect at least 500 signatures from registered Democratic Maine voters.
Maine Democratic Party Chair Charlie Dingman announced Friday night that the party would hold a nominating convention on July 25, featuring 601 voting delegates — 101 members of Maine’s Democratic State Committee and 500 Democrats selected from each county. The candidates will address the gathering ahead of the vote.
For other Maine Democrats, a key concern is how they can thoroughly vet candidates before the July 27 deadline to select a new nominee, particularly after getting burned by the rash of vetting issues that eventually sank Platner’s campaign.
On Monday, a woman Platner used to date accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2021, which Platner denies. Even before then, Democrats were growing nervous about a mounting series of scandals from Platner’s past, including inflammatory posts on social media, a tattoo of a Nazi symbol and sexually explicit messages that he sent to other women after he was married.
Those anxieties may explain why candidates who lost the state’s Democratic gubernatorial primary in June are seen as the top contenders in the newly launched Senate race, on the assumption that they have already faced at least some statewide scrutiny.
Nirav Shah, who finished second in the gubernatorial primary, has quickly sought to position himself as the front-runner, calling on candidates to hold town halls across Maine and meet in a televised debate. At a campaign launch event Thursday, he was introduced by former Platner supporters and took questions from the media.
Shah embraced a progressive agenda: Medicare-for-all, making billionaires “pay their fair share,” fixing “our broken immigration system” and ending foreign wars. He told voters who supported Platner that they “have an important place in this campaign.”
But Shah’s high visibility also drew renewed scrutiny to his own past scandal: a controversial tenure as Illinois’ public health director, where he was slammed for mishandling a fatal outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at the state-run veterans’ home. On Thursday night, Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D), who called for Shah to resign in 2018, publicly opposed his Senate run.
“Maine deserves better than someone who put his public image before the safety of our Veterans,” she wrote on social media.
Shah said in a statement that he had “deep respect for Senator Duckworth,” but argued that President Joe Biden’s administration “reviewed my record and then hired me to help lead” the Centers for Disease Control, and that Collins, the person he could face in November, praised the covid response in Maine that he helped lead.
“I’m the outsider in this race, and outsiders get attacked,” Shah said, echoing arguments Platner made during his run.
Jordan Wood, another Democrat running to replace Platner, pointed out to The Washington Post that he called on Platner to end his campaign in October, after learning about Platner’s tattoo, when Wood was also running for Senate.
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That could bolster Wood’s argument that he represents a break from Platner, but Wood later endorsed the candidate’s primary campaign once Maine Gov. Janet Mills ended her Senate campaign.
“For the past year, I’ve run a progressive, reform-focused campaign for federal office,” said Wood, who eventually pivoted to an unsuccessful congressional run in June. “Voters don’t need to just take my word for it; it’s on my website and has been for a year. No other candidate can say that.”
The candidate most closely tied to Platner is Troy Jackson, a former state senator. While running for governor this year — he finished third in the Democratic primary — Jackson often boasted that he was one of Platner’s earliest supporters.
Since officially launching his Senate bid this week, Jackson has tried to cast himself as the rightful heir to Platner’s mantle, arguing that he has long aligned with the positions that propelled Platner’s win, from Medicare-for-all to workers’ rights. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California), who previously endorsed Platner, immediately began boosting Jackson.
But that rhetoric has come with a downside: the closer Jackson ties himself to Platner’s ideas, the easier it could be for his opponents to tie him to the candidate’s baggage.
“Why did you just stay with him for so long?” MS NOW anchor Katy Tur asked Jackson this week.
Jackson said the former candidate had acknowledged that he had “dark” times in his past. “I understand that people can change,” he said of his “Nazi tattoo and the Reddit posts.” But then he added, “Graham told me point blank that there was nothing in his past that I had to worry about. And he lied to me. And he lied to a lot of us.”
Jackson’s prior support for antiabortion causes while he served in the Maine Senate is also raising eyebrows in a race where Democrats hoped to target Collins for putting Brett M. Kavanaugh, the swing vote to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, on the U.S. Supreme Court. Jackson received a 100 percent voting score from Maine Right to Life, an antiabortion group, early in his career and has previously admitted to struggling with the issue.
A Jackson campaign aide said the candidate’s view on abortion had “evolved” over the course of his career. Jackson said in a statement that he was “proud … to have helped pass some of the strongest abortion rights protections in the country” as the Maine Senate president.
Shenna Bellows, Maine’s secretary of state, has argued she is the best candidate to unite all factions of the Democratic Party. Her campaign highlights a career defending progressive causes as the executive director of the Maine ACLU and a long track record in public office, starting with her election to Maine’s state Senate in 2016 in a district that also voted for President Donald Trump.
“She is well vetted and battle-tested,” spokesperson Amy Weinstock said in a statement. “There will be no July or November surprises here.”
But Bellows, who finished fourth in the gubernatorial primary in January, could be plagued by her 2014 Senate run, when she was a political novice and lost to Collins by more than 36 percentage points.
“I took on that race in 2014, a very different year, because no one else wanted to,” Bellows told MS NOW’s Jen Psaki on Thursday. “And I’ve never backed down from a tough fight.”
Maine Beer Company owner Dan Kleban, who briefly ran for Senate last fall and has since jumped back in, told The Post he would keep Platner’s base together because, like Platner, he is “not a career politician” and they both agree “that the system is rigged against working people.”
“His message resonated with Mainers, and I plan to carry it forward,” Kleban said. “We’re pissed off. It’s time to fix the damn system by electing new leaders. We can start by defeating Susan Collins in November, which is what I plan to do.”
That embrace of Platner’s message is notable given Kleban never endorsed his Senate campaign.
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