Platner’s campaign trying to navigate exit from consequential Maine race, sources say

Portland, Maine (CNN) — Graham Platner and a small team of strategists behind his candidacy are trying to navigate an exit from the consequential Senate race in Maine without entirely squandering the movement he built, people familiar with the matter said, rather than digging in or trying to find a path forward for his candidacy.

Platner is expected to announce his decision through a recorded video, which could come later Wednesday. As of this morning, the message had not been taped, the people familiar said.

Support for Maine’s Democratic nominee in the Senate race collapsed this week after a woman he previously dated alleged that he raped her in 2021, which he has denied.

After CNN and Politico reported the allegation, which Platner called “troubling, serious and false,” the nominee said he would “reflect on the best path forward” for his Senate bid.

Morris Katz, a top campaign strategist for Platner, is set to meet with the embattled candidate in Maine on Wednesday.

Katz, who also is a key adviser to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, has told associates he does not believe Platner can remain in the race, given the allegations against him.

“This could – and should – end today,” a person close to the campaign told CNN. “We’ll see if it does.”

Questions and concerns over who would replace Platner

A question looming over the Maine political embroglio is whether Platner and his progressive supporters will play a role in choosing the next Democratic nominee, should he leave the race by the July 13 deadline. Under Maine law, the party has until July 27 to name a replacement.

The Maine Democratic Party pointedly said Tuesday night the Platner campaign should “have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the US Senate, nor in determining what this process looks like.”

Party officials met with lawyers last night to work through what a potential nominating process would look like if the nominee steps aside, but as of Wednesday morning, officials have yet to communicate what that plan will entail, with one Democratic strategist in Maine saying it may not be publicized until Platner officially drops out of the race.

Some voters have expressed anxiety about the process for replacing him.

“We have a very short window here to pull ourselves together and find somebody, and I’m just praying to the universe, to the stars that we can pull it together,” said Nancy, a voter from Kennebunkport, who voted for Gov. Janet Mills in the Democratic primary.

“I don’t think it will be difficult to find somebody who’s qualified and could do a good job,” said Liz Griffin, a Portland voter who backed Platner in the Democratic primary. “I think finding the right person that will really motivate people … I think that’s going to be tough.”

Meanwhile, progressive groups, wary of seeing Platner replaced by a centrist Democrat, have called on the state’s Democratic Party to release details about the plan to pick a new nominee before the nominee drops out.

Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which endorsed Platner but has since called on the nominee to drop out, sharply criticized the state party over its Tuesday rebuke of Platner.

Green said in an interview with CBS News on Wednesday that Platner would have exited the race already if not for the “incompetence and arrogance” of the state party. He urged party officials to share their plan for replacing Platner immediately.

“It is reasonable for Graham Platner, as his last act, even though nobody wants him around anymore, to say, ‘I’m willing to leave, just assure the public they will have a voice,’” Green said. “That has not happened yet. The Maine Democratic Party needs to get their act together.”

Some on the left have aligned behind former state Senate President Troy Jackson, who had the backing of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during his failed gubernatorial bid last month. Our Revolution, a progressive group aligned with Sanders, endorsed Jackson on Tuesday, warning this is not “the Democratic establishment’s opening to handpick a replacement.”

“We have days, not weeks, to make sure a real progressive is on this ballot,” Joseph Geevarghese, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “If we do not organize now, we risk watching the Democratic establishment hand Maine a corporate placeholder while the party that just got outvoted decides it knows better.”

Some Democratic voters in the state have expressed anxiety about how a July scramble to find a replacement could impact Democrats’ ability to win in November. The race in Maine, where incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins is running for her sixth term in office, is key to Democrats’ hopes of winning the Senate majority.

“It’s getting late in the game,” said Frederic Fahey, a Democratic voter in Portland who supported Platner in the primary. “They’d have to find a good candidate who could come up to speed really fast and then move forward. I think even under the best circumstances that would be very difficult.”

Ian MacRae, an unenrolled voter in the state, said it was a “tough call” on whether Platner should drop out, adding the moment reminded him of President Joe Biden bowing out of the presidential race in the summer of 2024 and the Democratic Party rallying around former Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee.

“I don’t know who the replacement’s going to be, and we went through this with Harris,” MacRae said. “You were told who your candidate was going to be, and I’m not sure how that’s going to play out here, which is a similar scenario.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Alison Main contributed to this report.