Wounded Democrat Graham Platner must win the US Senate seat in Maine

By James J. Devine

Quitters never win, and winners never quit. Yet whenever Republicans attack a Democratic candidate, too many Democrats instinctively reach for the white flag instead of the battle standard.

The latest target is Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for a must-win US Senate seat in Maine, and the calls for him to withdraw are as predictable as they are self-defeating.

The political class is once again engaged in its favorite perverse game: deciding a person’s political fate based on an allegation from years ago, with timing so convenient it would make a Hollywood screenwriter blush.

Let’s be clear about the provenance of this controversy. A central figure in this saga is Lyndsey Fifield, a Republican operative whose résumé reads like a who’s who of conservative political organizations: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Action Network, The Heritage Foundation, and Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign.

She co-founded “Ladies for Kavanaugh,” a group created to provide a veneer of female support for a Supreme Court nominee who would later cast the deciding vote in dismantling the constitutional right to abortion.

The irony is impossible to miss. She helped defend Brett Kavanaugh, and now she is the source of damaging information that has evolved into a firestorm against a Democrat in a must-win race against Susan Collins, the senator who relied on Kavanaugh’s assurances to justify her vote and helped pave the way for the end of Roe v. Wade.

That is not necessarily proof of a coordinated political operation, but it is a political context that deserves scrutiny.

The latest controversy centers on Jenny Racicot, who alleges that Platner, her on-and-off boyfriend of two years, assaulted her in 2021. Her allegation is serious and deserves to be treated seriously. At the same time, allegations are not findings of fact.

According to publicly reported accounts, she texted Platner saying that she could use a massage; he arrived at her home intoxicated about 30 minutes later, and she says she told him no. “No means no” is a fundamental principle.

But the public should not assume it knows every relevant fact about an intensely personal encounter between two people in a long-term relationship based solely on one side of the story. Her story shouldn’t be ignored, but the presumption of innocence means a political career shouldn’t end before voters render their judgment.

Platner is married to Amy Gertner, an artist and business manager with whom he operates the Waukeag Neck Oyster Company in Sullivan, Maine. They are trying to have a baby, and if they succeed, that is the only news about the candidate’s sex life that should interest anyone besides Amy and Graham.

This election is not about what may or may not have happened between two people six years ago. It is about the next six years.

It is about the future of the Supreme Court, reproductive freedom, voting rights, labor rights, environmental protections, and the balance of power in the United States Senate. Graham Platner is a fighter who defeated the Democratic governor in the primary, so he is not likely to fit in with the political establishment, but that is what America needs.

The political establishment, Democrats and Republicans, has done a terrible job managing this country. The American Dream has become a nightmare, and Platner is a fighter who is trying to stop Trump, fix the economy, and save the world, but this is not entirely about Graham Platner.

It is also about Susan Collins, who assured the nation that Brett Kavanaugh respected precedent before casting one of the decisive votes that ultimately enabled the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Her assurances proved catastrophically wrong, yet she has never accepted meaningful political responsibility for helping produce that outcome.

Collins is 73 years old, and she has been the United States senator for Maine since 1997. She’s a spring chicken compared to the 84-year-old Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has been hospitalized for about four weeks, is in his seventh Senate term, and might be brain-dead.

According to a New York Times/Press Herald/Siena poll, 93 percent of respondents heard about Platner’s controversies, and many don’t care.

They also know Collins supports Trump nearly 95% of the time, while 54 percent of respondents prefer Democratic control of the Senate, and 56 percent believe Trump’s agenda and his policies hurt the state.

If one puts aside the fact that no allegation has been proven, Platner’s behavior might be as inexcusable as Collins’s corruption, but if he drops out, his replacement could be retiring Blue Dog Congressman Jared Golden, who could be worse than a Republican.

Gov. Janet Mills, who Platner drove out of the Senate race, is 78 years old, and the candidate Chuck Schumer endorsed. Chuck that.

Bailing out means Platner will have no say whether his nomination goes to Senator Troy Jackson, a logger who finished third in the gubernatorial primary; Nirav Shah, who got the most first-place votes in that race but lost due to ranked-choice voting; or Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who also came up short.

The mainstream media and much of the Democratic establishment have piled onto Platner with an enthusiasm that borders on political malpractice.

Democrats routinely demand immediate political excommunication from their own candidates over allegations, while Republicans have repeatedly demonstrated that they will stand behind theirs through scandals, criminal convictions, civil judgments, and findings of liability that would have ended almost any Democratic career.

Donald Trump survived the Access Hollywood tape, numerous accusations of sexual misconduct, and a federal jury’s finding that he sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll. Republicans did not abandon him. They nominated him, defended him, and won.

The last Democrat to weather a sex scandal was Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, whose 12-year affair with Gennifer Flowers surfaced just five weeks before the 1992 New Hampshire Democratic primary. And remember what Clinton did in the White House? That’s right—he balanced the federal budget! His wife went on to serve in the U.S. Senate and even ran for president twice.

Platner should not resign.

He should refuse to let his campaign become consumed by endless arguments about his private life and instead return the focus to the question before Maine voters: who should represent them in the United States Senate?

He is the Democratic nominee. His mission is to defeat Susan Collins, whose votes have stacked the judicial system, ruined the country, and put life on earth in jeopardy.

More broadly, Democrats need to compete for power rather than merely police one another into perpetual defeat. Platner may be imperfect, but Senate Democrats surrendered while Trump Republicans cut Medicaid by a trillion dollars, deployed military forces who killed Americans in US cities, plus started and lost a war with Iran.

As President, Trump has used the office to enrich himself and his friends, to degrees never before seen in the U.S.

End Citizens United placed Collins on their most corrupt politicians list, citing her campaign financing and ties to corporate PAC money, stock portfolio and financial disclosures, and steering millions of dollars in federal contracts to the lobbying firm where her husband, Thomas Daffron, was Chief Operating Officer.

Political parties exist to win elections so they can govern. If Democrats reflexively surrender every time Republicans launch a well-timed political attack, they will continue to reinforce an image that has become increasingly difficult to escape: a party more comfortable capitulating than competing.

Americans do not need more Democratic politicians eager to wave the white flag. We need officials willing to fight on the right side of history, with supporters willing to stand with them through adversity, to elect leaders determined to replace the party’s growing reputation as the “capitulation caucus” with one that demonstrates resilience, discipline, and the will to win.