BREAKING: Graham Platner Accused of Sexual Assault
A woman told Politico that Maine’s Democratic Senate nominee drunkenly assaulted her in 2021. Platner has a week to drop out of the race.
A woman who dated Graham Platner accused Maine’s Democratic Senate nominee of sexual assault on Monday.
“One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was, the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him as a person,” Jenny Racicot told Politico. “I just want the truth out there. I just want people to have a whole scope of who he is as a person.”
Racicot, 41, told the outlet that Platner came to her house uninvited in 2021, “almost blackout drunk,” and forced himself on her. Politico wrote that it reviewed correspondence between Racicot and her therapist, and spoke with a man whom she had confided in about the incident. The candidate denies the allegations.
The news arrived in Politico after Platner abruptly canceled a series of events in recent days. He did not campaign over the July 4 holiday weekend, and postponed a town hall set for Sunday in Augusta. His town halls scheduled for Monday were postponed as well. “From my understanding, he is not feeling well,” an organizer with Gorham Democrats said in a Facebook video on Monday.
The latest allegations will certainly fuel calls for Platner to voluntarily withdraw his name from the ballot, in order to preserve Democrats’ ability to compete against incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins. The deadline for Platner to do so is next Monday, July 13. If he were to exit, Maine Democratic Party officials would need to choose a new candidate by July 27.
While Platner called the allegations “false” in a video, he added, “We are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
Voters in Maine nominated Platner, a Marine combat veteran and oyster farmer, as their Democratic Senate candidate on June 9, despite a series of scandals that might typically end one’s campaign. Among them: Platner, for years, had a Nazi-style, skull-and-crossbones tattoo; he got it covered up in October, and denied he knew its meaning. He made misogynist posts on Reddit over the years, including one in which he said that rape victims should “take some responsibility for themselves and not get so messed up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.”
As the primary election neared, news broke that Platner sexted several women after he was married.
Just days before the primary, the New York Times reported on allegations by a right-wing operative, Lyndsey Fifield, about how, when they dated between 2013-15, Platner had been physically intimidating with her at times, as well as toxic and crude overall.
When she spoke with the Times, Racicot told the paper that Platner had come to her house drunk, after she asked him not to, and that she cut off contact with him afterward. She described his behavior as “reckless” and “unsettling.” (Zeteo’s previous attempts to speak with Racicot were unsuccessful.)
What was known at the time didn’t stop Mainers from nominating Platner for Senate in overwhelming fashion, though he didn’t have much competition by that point. Maine’s Democratic Governor Janet Mills, whom the party establishment previously backed, suspended her campaign in late April after running low on resources. She made little effort to revive her campaign in the wake of the Times report.
Prior to the Politico story, Platner has maintained support from progressive stalwarts such as Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Rep. Ro Khanna.
Democratic Party leaders issued statements supporting Platner following his primary win, though the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has not spent on his behalf, allowing Collins and Republicans to dominate the airwaves.
Republicans were not universally thrilled with the timing of the latest allegation against Platner. One Republican working on Senate races tells Zeteo, if they had something fatal on Platner, they personally would have waited to deploy it until after the deadline for him to drop out.
Check out more from Zeteo:
Figured this was eventually going to be what they ran with. It’s dropping now so he’ll get out and they can put Mills back in.
I’d rather lose with Platner than lose with Mills at this point, so this doesn’t move me at all. This is what we have and the ground game is already in place and the machine is working. Either voters look past this or they don’t. Pulling out now does absolutely nobody any good.
Check this woman's bank account for a very large, recent and unexplainable deposit.