Graham Platner files formal withdrawal from Maine's Senate race

Updated July 11, 2026. This story was first published July 8, when Platner had announced he would quit but had not filed. He filed on July 10, and the article has been rewritten with the withdrawal and the replacement process.

Graham Platner at a Portland press conference on May 1, 2026. (Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald)

Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, filed paperwork with the Maine Department of the Secretary of State on Friday withdrawing from the race, the office confirmed. The filing makes his exit official and starts the clock on a replacement: Maine Democrats have until 5 p.m. on July 27 to name a new nominee to run against Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.

Platner announced on Wednesday, July 8, in an 11-minute video posted to social media, that he intended to suspend his campaign. He did not sign anything then. On Thursday his campaign said the paperwork would not come until Monday. The letter went to the Secretary of State on Friday afternoon instead.

What the letter says

"People are desperate for a change. For this broken system to be righted. For the American experiment to be furthered," Platner wrote in the withdrawal letter. "Over the past eleven months, thousands and thousands of Mainers poured their hearts, time and talent into a movement to deliver that vision. I will be forever grateful to them."

The letter closes: "F*ck ICE. Free Palestine. Up the Hearts."

Why he left

Politico published an account on Monday, July 6, from a Maine woman who said Platner raped her in 2021. Platner has denied the allegation and has said his withdrawal is not an admission of guilt. In the Wednesday video he said the campaign could not go on because it had lost its money and its infrastructure.

"We are going to lose our ability to fundraise. We are going to lose our ability to access voter data. We are going to lose all of the things that any campaign needs on the basic level simply to function," he said.

He blamed what he called the "political establishment" for pushing him out. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who had backed him, was among those who called on him to step aside.

Platner won the June 9 Democratic primary with more than 150,000 votes, which Maine Public reported was more than any Democratic Senate candidate in the state's history. He ran on affordability, universal health care and removing corporate money from politics.

How Democrats pick a replacement

The Maine Democratic Party plans a pop-up nominating convention. Per the party's stated plan and reporting by Maine Public and the Portland Press Herald:

Party leadership said the process will be public. Other details are still being written.

Two candidates have already launched bids: former state Sen. Troy Jackson and former Maine CDC director Nirav Shah. Both ran for governor this cycle and lost.

Platner said the replacement process should reflect "the Mainers who on June 9 turned out and showed that they are desperate for a different kind of politics."

Collins, first elected in 1996, is running for a sixth term.