{"id":752628,"date":"2026-07-09T13:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T13:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752628\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T13:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T13:34:09","slug":"actor-patrick-dempsey-no-i-wont-replace-platner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752628\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor Patrick Dempsey: No, I Won&#8217;t Replace Platner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"storyParagraph\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                        Maine Democrats scrambling to get a candidate in place to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newser.com\/story\/392492\/report-platner-poised-to-end-senate-bid.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">replace Graham Platner<\/a> can rule out Dr. McDreamy. Actor Patrick Dempsey, a Maine native, wrote an op-ed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/2026\/07\/08\/why-im-not-running-for-us-senate-patrick-dempsey\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Portland Press Herald<\/a> shutting down speculation. The Grey&#8217;s Anatomy alum, 60, said he gave the idea serious thought after being repeatedly approached in the wake of Platner&#8217;s latest scandal, per <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/patrick-dempsey-reveals-whether-he-plans-to-run-for-maine-senate-seat-as-support-heats-up-12014805\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">People<\/a>. In the end, though, Dempsey wrote that he can help his state the most through his existing work, including the Dempsey Center for cancer care.&#13;\n                                    <\/p>\n<p class=\"storyParagraph\">&#13;<br \/>\n                                        &#8220;As I reflected on all of this, I kept coming back to one question: Do I truly want to serve in Congress?&#8221; Dempsey wrote. &#8220;After a lot of thought, I realized the answer is no. Not because public service isn&#8217;t honorable\u2014it absolutely is. But because I believe I can contribute more effectively through the life I&#8217;ve already built.&#8221; In the meantime, the state&#8217;s Democratic Party is planning to hold a nominating convention before July 27, and candidates may be required to gather a minimum number of signatures, per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/09\/graham-platner-maine-democrats-replacement-process-00991464\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Politico<\/a>. Former gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson already has announced that he&#8217;s running.&#13;\n                                    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Maine Democrats scrambling to get a candidate in place to replace Graham Platner can rule out Dr.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,4515,88,246428,10482,42458],"class_list":["post-752628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-democrats","tag-entertainment","tag-graham-platner","tag-maine","tag-patrick-dempsey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752628","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=752628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}