state law<\/a> allows him to be replaced on the ballot if he withdraws by July 13. The replacement candidate must be named by July 27.<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
As of Monday, Platner had canceled a handful of campaign town halls planned in Maine.<\/p>\n
Platner was a first-time candidate who won the primary with backing of the party’s left wing. While some Democrats came around to support him after his commanding primary win, Platner’s controversial history had already left others openly despairing of their chances of winning the race. A Marine veteran who also worked for a private security contractor, Platner has a chest tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol, had a history of controversial statements on social media and reportedly sexted with other women shortly after getting married.<\/p>\n
In 2013, Platner posted on Reddit that people shouldn\u2019t get so drunk \u201cthey wind up having sex with someone they don\u2019t mean to\u201d and that sexual assault victims should \u201cjust take some responsibility for themselves.\u201d He’s since apologized for the post and says he no longer holds those beliefs.<\/p>\n
Hasan Piker, a leftist commentator and streamer who’s backed Platner, seemed to reverse himself Monday following the Politico report. “If new evidence presents itself, I\u2019m going to change my perspective \u2014 it\u2019s that simple,\u201d Piker said during a livestream on Twitch, adding: \u201cThis is a clear-cut instance of verifiable sexual assault allegations. It\u2019s completely irredeemable.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Maine’s Democrats have long sought to oust Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who’s held on despite representing a state that reliably votes for other party at the presidential level. After Collins’ solid 2020 win, several Maine Democrats passed on the opportunity to challenge her this time and instead looked at other offices. That left the state’s 78-year-old governor, Janet Mills, as the Democratic establishment’s best hope.<\/p>\n
Platner rode into the political void and pitched himself as a blue-collar oysterman and veteran who could reach disaffected voters who had supported President Donald Trump. But as allegations began mounting against him, some state Democrats had heartburn, embodied by Mills’ refusal to endorse Platner after she dropped out of the primary. Chatter already began to circulate about other possible replacements, including former state senator and logger Troy Jackson and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve known this has been coming,\u201d said Marie Follayttar, a Democrat and community organizer in Maine, talking the growing whispers inside the state’s small population that had been bracing for yet another revelation surrounding Platner. \u201cI\u2019ve been scared and I\u2019ve been sick waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Associated Press generally does not name victims of sexual assault, but in this case Racicot spoke in an interview with Politico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks during a primary election night watch party after winning the Democratic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[128810,145,128806,128811,128809,21836,128807,21759,128808,23681,59373,86816,59371,59372,61260,61261,61262,93850,101325,82,84,83,21838,54322,125246],"class_list":["post-363188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-charlie-dingman","tag-donald-trump","tag-graham-platner-maine-assault-senate","tag-hasan-piker","tag-imke-schessler","tag-janet-mills","tag-jenny-racicot","tag-maine","tag-marie-follayttar","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30059-ap-maine-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","tag-product-32510-ap-online-general-election-news","tag-product-32520-ap-online-other-u-s-government-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-ro-khanna","tag-ruben-gallego","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-shenna-bellows","tag-susan-collins","tag-troy-jackson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}