Maine Democrats had a Senate candidate. Then they had a sexual assault scandal. Now they have until July 27 to figure out who the hell is going to take on Susan Collins, one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents on the map. Nothing like a ticking clock and a collapsing campaign to really sharpen the mind.
Eleven Minutes of Blame-Shifting
Graham Platner did not go quietly. According to The Guardian, the now-former Democratic Senate candidate posted an 11-minute video to social media Wednesday evening in which he accused the Democratic establishment and corporate media of acting as "judge, jury and executioner" and using the sexual assault allegations against him to strip away his ability to run.
He also insisted the accusations were "not remotely true" and darkly suggested that "large forces" were working against him personally. Which is one way to exit a Senate race. Another way is to just say you're stepping aside. Platner chose the cinematic villain monologue route instead.
To be clear: Platner suspended his campaign, not because he admitted to anything, but because the allegations had made it functionally impossible to continue. Whether you find that sympathetic or infuriating probably depends on what you think happened. The Maine Democratic party, meanwhile, did not wait around to find out. They had a replacement process to run.
The Clock Is Ticking and Everyone Wants the Job
Maine state law puts the party in charge of naming a replacement nominee in a situation like this. The Guardian reports that the Maine Democratic party confirmed it will hold a nominating convention to choose a new candidate, with a hard deadline of July 27 to get it done. That is not a lot of time.
People were already maneuvering before Platner's video had finished buffering. Troy Jackson, a former state senator who ran for governor earlier this year, announced his candidacy almost immediately. Dan Kleban, the owner of Maine Beer Company who actually ran in the Senate primary before dropping out ahead of the vote, also threw his name in. Yes, a craft beer entrepreneur is a real candidate for United States Senate. We live in a time of wonders.
The field goes wider from there. The Guardian lists Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former Maine CDC director Nirav Shah, state legislator Valli Geiger, and ex-congressional aide Jordan Wood as potential contenders. Six candidates. Eighteen days. One very important Senate seat. Someone in Augusta is about to have the longest three weeks of their life.
The Prize Worth Fighting For
Susan Collins is beatable. That is not wishful thinking from the left, that is the cold math of a purple state where Collins has been walking a tightrope for years, voting with Trump when it mattered most while cultivating a reputation as a moderate. Democrats have been eyeing this seat for months.
The Maine Democratic party tried to put the most optimistic possible spin on an objectively chaotic situation. Their statement, issued before Platner had even officially suspended, declared there was "an unprecedented amount of energy and enthusiasm among Maine Democrats" and promised to harness it around whoever the new nominee turns out to be. That is some serious lemonade-making right there.
The energy might even be real. Platner's outsider campaign did generate genuine grassroots enthusiasm. Whether any of it transfers to a replacement picked at a convention rather than chosen by voters in a primary is the open question. Collins is already sharpening her knives.
Meanwhile, The Rest of the Week Happened Too
Because the news does not pause for anyone's Senate crisis, The Guardian's live blog also covered about seventeen other things happening simultaneously. Donald Trump announced he would ask the Supreme Court to revisit its birthright citizenship ruling, citing what he called shocking new evidence: two billboards in Texas advertising maternity services to expectant mothers in Mexico, with deliveries starting at $4,000. Two billboards. He called it shocking. The Supreme Court, presumably, has seen billboards before.
Trump also flew to England on the older Air Force One rather than the new Qatari-gifted plane he used for the NATO summit in Turkey, which raised immediate questions about whether there were security concerns with the new aircraft. He eventually boarded the new plane at Mildenhall air force base for the trip home, which answered approximately none of those questions.
A Manhattan federal judge ordered the release of the more than $5 million Trump owes E. Jean Carroll following her successful 2023 sexual abuse and defamation trial, per The Guardian. Trump filed an appeal within an hour. If you had "Trump appeals paying E. Jean Carroll" on your bingo card for this week, congratulations, collect your prize.
Oil, Iran, and the Stock Market Having a Very Bad Wednesday
US stock markets fell Wednesday as American military strikes on Iran continued and the Federal Reserve flagged concerns that could justify higher interest rates, The Guardian reports. The two things together made for an ugly day on Wall Street.
Trump's declaration at the NATO summit in Ankara that the Iran-US ceasefire is over sent oil prices sharply higher. Brent crude, the global benchmark, jumped more than 5% to crest $80 a barrel. So we have an active military conflict, rising energy prices, and a Fed that isn't sure it can cut rates. That is a lot of pressure on an economy that was already showing signs of strain.
Andrew Giuliani, running the White House's World Cup taskforce in what remains a sentence that does not parse correctly no matter how many times you read it, also spent time this week defending Trump's lobbying of FIFA to lift the suspension of US player Folarin Balogun. Trump had previously suggested the Brazilian referee who red-carded Balogun was "a little bit suspect, if you check his past." The president of the United States is publicly casting shade on a soccer referee. Sure. Fine. Why not.
The Dingo Take
Here is the brutal reality for Maine Democrats. They had a candidate who was generating real energy in a race they genuinely need to win. Now that candidate is gone, replaced by a convention process that will produce someone voters never chose, in less than three weeks, with an incumbent opponent who has spent decades learning how to survive. That is not impossible to overcome. But it is a gift to Susan Collins that Democrats did not want to give.
The Platner situation is also a reminder that campaigns are not just about policies and polling. They are about the people running them. Opposition research is real. Allegations surface. And when they do, a party has to make a call about whether to stand by someone or move on. Maine Democrats moved on fast, which tells you something about what they know or believe about what happened. The 11-minute video of grievances will live on the internet forever regardless.
As for the rest of the week's news, the cumulative weight of it is genuinely staggering. Two billboards used as Supreme Court evidence. A ceasefire declared over on a NATO summit stage. E. Jean Carroll still waiting for her money while an appeal gets filed sixty minutes after a court order. And Andrew Giuliani, at the World Cup, on behalf of the United States government, complaining about a referee. Pick any one of these stories and in a normal political era it would dominate the news cycle for a week. Right now it barely makes the list.
