What Does Graham Platner’s Exit Mean for Our Movement?

This past week Graham Platner quit his Maine Senate campaign, after a series of stories about his behavior with women. The latest was an accusation of a drunken rape of his then-girlfriend at her apartment, after she told him not to come over. This followed earlier opposition stories about sexting, where his wife defended him and said their marriage was strong, and a tattoo he received in Afghanistan that was said to be a Nazi symbol. Platner has never denied being fucked up after returning from Afghanistan, but part of his story was how he turned his life around, began making a living as an oyster farmer, and found his political voice expressing the white-hot anger in Maine of people who have been left behind by their political representatives.

The resignation split the movement in Maine. My sister-in-law lives in Portland. She is not political. But she was swept up in the Platner campaign. She attended events. She gave money. She said that never in her life had she seen or been part of a movement like the one to elect him. She said he was taken down by the oppo research of Susan Collins’ operatives. She is conflicted about it.

Our Democratic Party is a mess, with those defending the status quo furious about the criticism and anger they are getting from people demanding change. Platner was one of the representatives of that change. But we believe women, and second, violence against women is disqualifying, period. No one who has acted that way can be trusted by a large part of our movement. Platner had no choice but to resign; his campaign was kaput.

That does not change the fact that he was brought down by coordinated Republican opposition research. These things don’t happen in a vacuum. Reporters are pushed and given tips. They then become favored for future stories. The woman who went public about her rape did not want to do so, said my sister-in-law. She was forced. Politico and other sites were going to report on it. She never wanted to be seen as a rape victim. She shared the same political vision. With that pressure, it appears she came forward to control the narrative about what actually happened as much as possible, rather than putting herself in the impossible position of correcting, corroborating, or denying the oppo press reports. So yes, Platner was a flawed candidate and gave our enemies an opportunity. But that is nothing to cheer. Those people saying “I told you so” are for the most part relishing the takedown of a Democratic populist; they are not standing up for principle. The same is decidely not true of the women in Maine and elsewhere who wanted to believe in Platner but ultimately just could not. My other sister-in-law, who does not live in Maine, said that no matter how much she liked his ideas, his behavior was disqualifying, and she could not vote for him.

The silver lining is that the Maine Democratic Party is genuinely trying to preserve the coalition Platner created, and has devised a process that on its face is open and gives ample opportunity for that movement to determine the candidate who takes his place.

Bernie Sanders endorsed Troy Jackson in the Governor’s race, and Jackson said he would be a candidate for the Senate nomination. Platner has reportedly asked another Maine state representative to run, but there is no report on a decision. The Maine Democratic Party has put out an open call for candidates to declare their intent by July 15th, after which they must submit 500 signatures from at least 8 counties by July 20th. Those who qualify will be selected at a convention of 601 delegates, chosen by caucus voting in each of Maine’s 16 counties. The nominating convention will take place Saturday, July 25th. The party provides web forms to register both potential delegates and those attending the meetings to vote.

Maine has championed ranked-choice voting, and this does seem to be a genuine attempt to find a nominee who can take over Platner’s momentum and ultimately defeat Susan Collins, rather than install a perfunctory party hack to run a top-down campaign. The other scuttlebutt from Maine is that the Collins camp was not expecting the withdrawal and is now concerned about who they may face next. They felt they had the momentum to beat back Platner, but now that is in question. It will be up to the newly energized Democrats in Maine to use their power to defeat her, despite the setback of Graham Platner.

Other Democratic Senate candidates are in a better position, and the potential to take over the Senate majority is real. But we need to expect future false stories, oppo drops, and potentially election interference as the voting draws near, and know how we will respond. Above all, we must maintain our own independent frame for thinking about the election and not fall prey to the New York Times and other Washington pundits’ conventional wisdom. They are not our friends in overturning the status quo of donor-led parties.