Allegedly. However, this certainly isn’t the message that a campaign wants to send one week out from the deadline for his party to replace him in the general election in what has already been a scandal-ridden campaign.
The Maine Wire has done reliable work covering Graham Platner in this midterm cycle as he came out of nowhere to win the primary for the US Senate race against Susan Collins. Democrats have until July 13 to replace Platner on the ballot in the event that Der Oysterführer becomes ineligible or voluntarily withdraws. That legal deadline has been highlighted ever since Platner’s lies about his Nazi Totenkopf tattoo got exposed, and especially after three women from his past testified to his violent and/or disturbing behavior. Chatter about a new scandal dropping persists, although nothing new has yet emerged.
Today, however, the Maine Wire reports that Platner’s campaign has quietly canceled its events this week as those rumors continue to churn.
🚨🚨Graham Platner cancels MULTIPLE scheduled town hall events as progressive allies tease another scandal is about to hit his campaign.
Augusta town hall for last night – CANCELED
Gorham town hall tonight – CANCELED
Sanford town hall tonight – CANCELED
There are no other… pic.twitter.com/ccC3g8Wenr
— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) July 6, 2026
There are no other upcoming events listed on his FB page, or on Mobilize
The Mobilize app is generally more oriented to volunteer efforts. At the moment, a handful of events remain on the campaign’s Mobilize page, but as the Maine Wire points out, all of Platner’s own events have been removed. All that are left are small “tabling” events for grassroots recruitment, not major events or speeches.
The NRSC took note of Platner’s absence this weekend as well:
Graham Platner no-showed Fourth of July celebrations across Maine. Now, he’s cancelling everything else.
We wouldn’t want to be seen in public either… https://t.co/MJEvizHwh4
— Senate Republicans (@NRSC) July 6, 2026
What’s happening? The Platner campaign has gone mute at the moment, if not dark. As I mentioned before, rumors of another set of allegations emerging from a mainstream media outlet have swirled on the REO Speedwagon circuit – heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend who, etc. Reportedly, the allegations will be worse and more specific than those that have emerged before, and considering what has already emerged about Platner, would really be something.
Those rumors are flying today:
I’ve heard the allegation as well and Platner would have to drop out if confirmed by a reputable news outlet
(It’s worse than the NYT story from last month) https://t.co/zDZhAf8Ooi
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) July 6, 2026
And one center-right source says he’s hearing that Platner will pull out soon. I’d take this with a grain of salt, given how defiantly Platner has posed in the wake of the previous scandals. However, the lack of bragging about fundraising numbers may be a tell in itself:
🚨A well-placed source told us that Graham Platner is dropping out of the Maine Senate race this week.
Note that Platner has yet to release his Q2 fundraising totals, a sign he may have underperformed expectations.
— Washington Reporter (@DC_Reporter) July 6, 2026
Go figure that Herr Totenkopf might struggle to get donations after the New York Times got forced to report on allegations from Lyndsey Fifield, Jenny Racicot, and an unnamed third woman who reported violent and disturbing behavior from Platner in the past.
What could possibly emerge that would do more damage than domestic violence and a Nazi death-camp tattoo? A few things, actually, and among the known unknowns is Platner’s Kik communications. Platner had an account on the “predator’s paradise” platform for years and still had his half-naked profile pic on the account until five weeks ago. The unknown unknowns could be the real wild card; have all of Platner’s girlfriends made themselves known yet, for instance? Or even those women of casual acquaintance?
All of that is still speculation, but the Bangor Daily News now reports that the cancellations are real and spectacular. The timeline for the next shoe drop may be sooner than we think:
Platner postponed a planned town hall in Augusta on Sunday after reportedly missing a Fourth of July parade in Machias. The Gorham Democrats on Monday morning said a town hall set for Monday was postponed because Platner was “not feeling well.” And a Sanford town hall previously listed on Mobilize was later taken down.
The Platner campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the events. The postponements came as multiple Democrats told the Bangor Daily News they expected a national outlet to drop a story about Platner Monday or Tuesday. Rumors about potentially damaging stories on the progressive candidate increasingly swirled online Sunday night and Monday, just as they did before the New York Times published a story last month featuring a few ex-girlfriends of Platner’s alleging toxic behavior. He denied ever being physically violent in a relationship.
The prediction market Kalshi showed the odds of Platner dropping out rising to more than 9% from 2% Monday morning.
Pikers. Polymarket has the odds at 41% and climbing as of 2:40 ET today. Here’s their live tracker:
Stay tuned for now. Whatever may come will likely arrive soon, and the fact that it’s arriving now strongly suggests that the dirt is calling from inside the Democrat house. The GOP likely would prefer to face Platner now rather than a replacement Democrat. It seems highly unlikely that the NRSC or the Collins campaign would feed material to news outlets before the deadline for Dems to make a ballot change.
If Platner pulls out, though, who would Democrats nominate at the convention? Presumably Janet Mills, who has won multiple statewide elections in Maine before losing the primary so badly to Platner. The crisis could spark a feud between Democrats and Democratic Socialists who will want to keep the nomination under their control, so we can stay tuned for that fallout – assuming Platner withdraws at all.
Update: The next shoe has dropped, and it actually may have dropped before now. A few weeks ago, the New York Times included ambiguous allegations of “disturbing” behavior by Platner from former girlfriend Jenny Racicot. Now Racicot claims to Politico that Platner sexually assaulted her during their relationship, in an incident that would be considered “date rape”:
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.
Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner, who is now the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.
“I remember him grabbing my pelvis and being really forceful of me,” she said. “I remember the specific moment where I thought to myself, like, ‘This is no longer my choice.’”
Racicot says she didn’t tell the NYT about this experience because she didn’t want to become known as a rape victim. After watching Lyndsey Fifield get shredded by Racicot’s fellow progressives, however, she now says it’s time to set the entire record straight:
Racicot said she later felt compelled to go public about her experience because the reaction to the Times story was dominated by controversy about another woman, Lyndsey Fifield, who alleged Platner mistreated her and faced attacks because of her ties to the Republican Party. (Contacted by POLITICO, Fifield stood by the allegations she made to the Times and declined to comment further.)
“My part of the story was just a read-over,” Racicot said in an interview. “And the story was Lyndsey, and the accusations of her being politically motivated.”
Racicot said she was torn over coming forward in part because she agrees with Platner politically.
Platner’s campaign issued a denial and claimed that the allegations are politically motivated:
“These allegations are very serious and Graham vigorously denies them. They are also coached and coordinated by out of state establishment operatives. For a year, opponents of this campaign have thrown everything they can at Graham –– calling him a Nazi, a war criminal, and a communist. None of it has been true and this is no different. It is not a coincidence that this story comes a week before the ballot deadline, just as the previous false allegations came a week before the primary. Graham began this campaign to fight for a Maine where everyone is treated with dignity and where Mainers are put first, and no amount of desperate smears will stop this movement from seeing that vision through.”
The Nazi part was true enough for Platner to spend 18 years sporting Himmler’s Totenkopf. Accusing Racicot of political motives is a much tougher argument to make. Stay tuned, because this may not be the last shoe to drop.
Update: Platner is still denying the allegation, but this sounds somewhat … valedictory:
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality it will inflict, 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.… https://t.co/VL4KZM2i0D
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) July 6, 2026
“Inaccuracy” is a strange word to use here. It sounds like a weasel word that admits the incident while disputing its characterization. Polymarket odds for a withdrawal are now at 75%, in case the widget isn’t updating.
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