Graham Platner Trying To Set Terms Of Throwing Race To Susan Collins
What part of 'get the fuck out' does this bastard not understand?
Unless you are hellbent on not getting there for some reason, we imagine that by now just about everyone is on the same page that Graham Platner needs to get the fuck out of Maine’s US Senate race, and he needs to do it by last night. If he actually cares about beating Susan Collins, it would be great if he could just step aside, so that the Maine Democratic Party can set itself to the annoying-as-fuck task of finding a new nominee at the last minute, since the last one couldn’t be bothered to remember that at least one woman was likely to credibly accuse him of rape before the summer was out.
But of course, there were no signs leading up to this, no way to avoid this, none of us could have seen this coming! (Funny how some people are just fine at clocking the type when it’s Pete Hegseth but don’t see it when he’s an OYSTER MAVERICK with a “D” next to his name. The drama even started with an extremist tattoo!)
But here we are. Politico dropped a bombshell story last night wherein a woman, an ex of Platner’s, accuses him of straight-up rape. It’s heavily sourced, it’s got all the hallmarks of a meticulously reported accusation, contemporaneous evidence, a therapist’s notes. It’s approximately the closest thing to “airtight” that exists in this realm.
So obviously Platner, in the course of taking a step back and trying to “reflect” on the best course forward, is trying to negotiate/dictate the terms of his own surrender:
What part of get the fuck out does this bastard not understand?
Look, we are horribly, awfully sorry that this is happening, for Mainers, and for the whole country that’s currently in the throes of fascism and one of the only ways to start finding a path out of that is for Democrats to win back the Senate in November. Everyone affected by this deserved a candidate to beat Susan Collins who wasn't sitting on the knowledge that they had surprises like this just waiting to come out.
Nonetheless, we also totally understand that there was something about Platner’s candidacy that truly excited many people, to the point that he absolutely cleaned up in the primary. (His polling in the general ranged from unimpressive to shit, though, and he wasn’t doing dick when it came to most vaunted and holy white non-college voters, so maybe there is a lesson there in the discrepancy between those two numbers.)
So we agree with those who say that this shouldn’t be viewed as an opening for “the establishment” to try to shoehorn somebody back in — whatever “the establishment” is — and that there should be a transparent and fair process to find somebody to replace him.
And time, it is of the essence.
The first step, of course, is bitch needs to GTFO, at the latest by Monday but preferably by the end of this blog post. Then the party would have until July 27 to nail down a candidate. Punchbowl’s newsletter named some names this morning:
Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, epidemiologist Nirav Shah, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former congressional candidate Jordan Wood are all options, according to multiple sources. Jackson released a statement saying he believes Racicot and urged Platner to get out of the race.
“There is no place in our politics for sexual violence,” Jackson said. “Not in our party, not in any party. Graham Platner must withdraw from this race today.”
Retiring Democratic Rep. Jared Golden would be the top choice of many Democrats. But the four-term lawmaker has made clear he wants to leave Congress at the end of this year. Maine Gov. Janet Mills, whom Platner decisively defeated in the Democratic primary, is extremely unlikely.
Platner allies say that he’ll only drop out of the race if his replacement supports the progressive policy positions that Platner campaigned on.
Everything in those last two paragraphs can fuck off, thanks. If people were worried a Senator Platner would become a Fetterman, Jared Golden already is one. Ain’t nobody want Janet Mills either.
Punchbowl seems to think Platner has leverage here in choosing his successor, but Punchbowl is incorrect. Maybe Platner is laboring under the delusion that every single one of those people who voted for him in the primary is still with him today. But it turns out we have some insight into the answer to that question. Focus groups before these revelations came out found that credible evidence of sexual assault would be the thing that would sour many Platner voters to his candidacy, the line at which their well of patience would run dry. Well, bucko, we just slammed past that.
Much of the mystique of Platner was that he was a flawed candidate. The theory of the case was that those flaws were going to turn out to be a feature, not a bug. And maybe if this was a Republican Senate race, Platner’s flaws would be even more of a feature today than they were yesterday! But sorry, this isn’t the Republican Party where they masturbate to redemption stories or coddle rapists, despite whatever lies Kevin McCarthy wants to tell to the contrary.
Everybody’s pulling their endorsements except those who never proffered them in the first place. The money is on the way out the door. The only leverage Platner has to be negotiating his preferences here is whether he wants to vacate the premises of his own accord or whether he’s going to insist on waiting until somebody calls the cops to remove him.
Which it turns out is on brand, isn’t it!
In an election environment like the one we’re in, with stories coming out right now about how bad Republicans are freaking out about their internal polling, Maine should have, at long last, been a breeze this year. James Talarico and Greg Abbott are polling neck-and-neck in Texas. Alaska looks like a real shot, maybe Iowa and/or Ohio. In that environment, finally giving Susan Collins something to be concerned about should have been the lay-up of the season.
Well, before today, it wasn’t. Again, they were polling pretty close, and Platner was underperforming in demographics where he was supposed to be the greasy man-of-the-people in shining armor.
And now, because of that guy — and because of all the people who pushed him at Maine and built him up and told voters they were Doing A Grassroots — it’s even harder.
Fuck that guy. Get the fuck out.
Serious people have work to do.
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Do not whine that you are leaving, then stick around and insult people (attacking other commenters breaks the rules.)
Guess I had to show them where the door was.
“What part of 'get the fuck out' does this bastard not understand?”
All of it. That’s what these women have been trying to tell us.