Platner Implodes

We last looked at Graham Platner here a month ago. A link to the New York Post pointed out,

The truth is he was discovered and coached by a pair of Ivy League-educated radical Democratic socialists, replicating a playbook they’ve used in Nebraska and Iowa. That revelation could be more damaging than the tattoo, sexting women other than his wife, blasting fellow veterans and admitting to masturbating in a port-a-potty, as it strikes at the heart of Platner’s alleged authenticity.

. . . In summer 2025, Moraff and Fan were in Maine scouting for a new candidate. They had settled on union boss Chris Williams in Bath, but dropped him at the last minute due to “a skeleton in the closet that wasn’t true that we would’ve had to explain,” according to an interview they gave to Politico.

What skeleton could possibly have been worse than a credible rape allegation? As of yesterday,

A woman who dated Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.

The woman, a 41-year-old Maine resident named Jenny Racicot, detailed the alleged incident to POLITICO in three interviews over the past two weeks. POLITICO also spoke with a man Racicot dated and confided in the years after the alleged incident, and reviewed documents, including emails between Racicot and her therapist and messages between Racicot and an acquaintance whom she warned against getting involved with Platner years before he ran for office.

According to The New York Post,

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner has cleared his campaign schedule and is considering next steps after bombshell allegations of sexual assault from ex-girlfriend were published.

The former girlfriend, Jenny Racicot, told Politico that Platner drunkenly forced her to have sex with him in 2021 — allegations which the candidate immediately denied as “troubling, serious and false.”

The Platner campaign, hours before the article was posted, had indefinitely postponed town halls in Augusta on Sunday and in Gorham on Monday, as well as an event in Sanford whose listing was taken down.

. . . Last month, The New York Times published a story about six ex-girlfriends of Platner, three of whom alleged he “hated women” — with one alleging he twisted her arm before locking her in her room during an argument, among other acts of physical abuse or intimidation.

Racicot was interviewed for the Times’ piece and recounted Platner’s inebriated arrival at her home in 2021, without any accusations of rape.

One thing strikes me here that nobody else has mentioned: there was nothing grassroots about Platner. He may as well have been ordered from the L L Bean catalog and was merchandised and sold to both the media and the Democrats by the Moraff-Fan team. I think Scott Jennings has this one wrong:

Democrats fully vetted Graham Platner, happily signed off on his incredibly disturbing history to win a Senate seat, and are only pretending to be shocked now because they can no longer rationalize the hypocrisy. pic.twitter.com/jkp12Gwv16

— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) July 7, 2026

I don't think anyone vetted him, certainly not before his name was put on the ballot. Real Clear Politics dropped its mask this morning and linked only one piece about Platner, by Ed Kilgore at New York Magazine, Platner on the ledge after sexual-assault allegation, none of the usual one-from-column-A-one from column-B charade:

The crucial, intermittently impressive, but perpetually imperiled U.S. Senate candidacy of Maine’s progressive oysterman Graham Platner hit new shoals today after Politico published allegations from an ex-girlfriend that he sexually assaulted her five years ago. CNN later reported the same. The fresh allegations, on the heels of an assortment of damaging information involving his background, his views, and most of all his treatment of women, has raised the simmering fears among Democrats in and beyond Maine about his candidacy to a full boil, with time running out for a possible replacement for him on the November ballot.

. . . It’s possible Platner is working behind the scenes with Maine Democrats to identify a suitable substitute and to prepare his own public rationale for folding his tent and disappointing the many Mainers who gave his grassroots campaign so many resources and so much excitement.

Again, there was nothing grassroots about Platner, he was packaged and merchandised by DSA talent scouts looking for attractive boutique candidates. He was simply too good to vet. A review of his campaign history in Wikipedia shows there were warning lights blinking all the time:

In late October and early November 2025, several high-level staffers left Platner's campaign during a period that coincided with media reporting on his past controversial Reddit posts. On October 17, Platner's political director, Genevieve McDonald, resigned. Platner offered her $15,000 in severance pay if she signed an NDA, but she refused the offer. On October 27, Platner's campaign manager, Kevin Brown, resigned, citing family reasons. On October 31, Platner's campaign finance director, Ronald Holmes, resigned.

. . . In October 2025, various news outlets reported on Reddit posts Platner made between 2013 and 2021 in which he called himself a "communist", wrote that "all cops are bastards", agreed with a post calling rural white Americans "racist and stupid", and referenced political violence and armed resistance. In a 2013 Reddit discussion about anti-rape underwear, Platner wrote that people worried about assault should "take some responsibility for themselves and not get so [redacted] up they wind up having sex with someone they don't mean to".

. . . During his 2026 Senate campaign, Platner faced scrutiny over a tattoo on his chest of the Totenkopf symbol used by the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) and SS-Totenkopfverbände. In an interview on Pod Save America, Platner said he and other Marines received the tattoo while on leave in Croatia in 2007 and that he had been unaware of its historical association at the time. He later covered the tattoo. CNN and Jewish Insider reported a former acquaintance's allegation that Platner had previously called the tattoo "my Totenkopf", which Platner denied.

. . . In May 2026, The New York Times and other news outlets reported that in 2025, Platner's wife, Amy Gertner, told a senior campaign aide that Platner had been sexting with multiple other women. The Platner campaign's political director, Genevieve McDonald, alleged that Gertner had said Platner had sexted as many as a dozen women. A Platner campaign official said he had been communicating with no more than six, and that the conduct had stopped before the campaign launched.

. . . In June 2026, The Times reported allegations that Platner engaged in disturbing and physically threatening behavior toward women he had dated. A former girlfriend described by The Times as "a Virginia conservative who has worked for right-leaning groups and Republican campaigns" alleged that Platner had grabbed her repeatedly with enough force to leave marks and once twisted her arm behind her back, pushed her into a room, and locked her in against her will until morning.

But it looks like the DSA has already come up with a potential Platner replacement:

As Maine’s Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner faces mounting calls to withdraw from the race over a sexual assault allegation he denies, Troy Jackson has emerged as the favorite to replace him.

. .. . State law allows Platner to be replaced on the ballot if he withdraws by July 13. Then, the Maine Democratic Party would have until July 27 to name a replacement.

Among the potential replacements, Jackson is one that could appeal to the progressive base that backed Platner.

. . . Jackson ran a progressive campaign for governor in this year’s race, with a platform that included pledges to reduce prescription drug costs, create a Department of Affordable Housing, and lower property taxes.

Jackson had the backing of Platner, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and more than 20 unions—with the Bangor Daily News describing Jackson as Platner’s "gubernatorial counterpart and prototype."

. . . Jackson had supported Platner on the campaign trail, but joined calls for him to withdraw from the Senate race on Monday.

"There is no place in our politics for sexual violence. Not in our party, not in any party. Graham Platner must withdraw from this race today," he wrote on X. "This is not what we stand for. Not as Democrats, not as Mainers, not as human beings."

But Jackson appears to have his own record of sexual violence:

So yeah, about that DSA-endorsed candidate that folx want to replace Platner:

"As Maine Senate President in a state senate caucus meeting several years ago, Troy Jackson in a heated disagreement struck a female colleague with a bottle he threw at her." https://t.co/iE2GildZXY

— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) July 7, 2026

Some of the comments, though, suggest this could be a Platner operation. All I can say for now is stay tuned.