{"id":752193,"date":"2026-07-09T08:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T08:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752193\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T08:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T08:27:08","slug":"patrick-dempsey-gave-real-thought-to-running-for-senate-in-maine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752193\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Dempsey Gave ‘Real Thought’ to Running For Senate in Maine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPatrick Dempsey<\/a> wrote in a recent op-ed for the Portland Press Herald<\/a> that he gave \u201creal thought\u201d to running for Senate in Maine after the Democratic nominee Graham Platner was hit with sexual assault allegations<\/a>. However, he ultimately decided to leave the job for someone more qualified. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOver the past several days, I\u2019ve been asked a question more than once: Would you ever run for the United States Senate?\u201d Dempsey wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s flattering, and I don\u2019t take it lightly. I love my home state of Maine. I care deeply about the people who live there and, like so many Americans, I\u2019m concerned about the direction our country is heading.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe later added, \u201cAfter a lot of thought, I realized the answer is no. Not because public service isn\u2019t honorable \u2014 it absolutely is. But because I believe I can contribute more effectively through the life I\u2019ve already built.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDempsey asserted that the next two weeks, during which Democrats will scramble to find a replacement nominee who will take on Republican incumbent Susan Collins, will be a \u201cvery important time for Maine.\u201d He hopes the new candidate \u201coffers a new approach to how we govern ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPlatner posted a video to social media<\/a> on Wednesday afternoon in which he announced plans to suspend his campaign operations. He said that his team is \u201cnot doing it because of the allegations,\u201d but because \u201cthe structures that are being taken away from us by those in power.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tHe added, \u201cWe were asking for real democracy and we did it the right way and we won. But now the ball is in the court of the Democratic establishment. My name might be on the ballot right now, but that ballot line belongs to the people of Maine. And on November 3rd, it needs to belong to the people of Maine. And the next Democratic senator for Maine needs to belong to the people of Maine. They need to reflect the will and the values of the people of this state.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrick Dempsey wrote in a recent op-ed for the Portland Press Herald that he gave \u201creal thought\u201d to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,42458],"class_list":["post-752193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-patrick-dempsey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}