Democrats in mad dash to replace Graham Platner before deadline

FREEPORT, Maine — Democrats vying to replace Graham Platner as the party’s Senate nominee now have less than three weeks to make their case. There isn’t a minute to waste.

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The need to sprint was abundantly clear at a launch event here for Nirav Shah, who ran Maine’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention during the Covid-19 pandemic. Shah also ran — and lost — in last month’s Democratic primary for governor.

Volunteers were taking “Shah for Governor” stickers and cutting off the words “for Governor.” On his signs, they were taping over “Governor” and writing “Senate.”

Volunteers repurpose old material in dash to replace Platner

And they were even taking old Platner signs and spelling out “Nirav” in tape over the former nominee’s name.

Shah is one of at least half a dozen Maine Democrats who have announced they’re running since Platner withdrew Wednesday evening amid blowback after an ex-girlfriend came forward and accused him of sexual assault in 2021. Platner has denied the accusation.

The party has to have a new candidate by 5 p.m. on July 27, otherwise it will be stuck with Platner’s name on the ballot against Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Maine Democrats plan to hold a convention to pick their replacement nominee; the date has not yet been set.

The chaos of the process reflects the unprecedented nature of what’s happening in the state, as the party tries to rebuild for this tough fight against Collins, who has been in office since 1997. Maine is seen as a critical state for Democrats to win if they want to take back the Senate from Republicans in the fall.

The contenders immediately began jockeying for their lanes, with some hoping to take the progressive mantle, others presenting themselves as outsiders willing to challenge the status quo and yet others eyeing a center-left lane that focuses more on an electability pitch.

The field includes three people who ran and lost — or withdrew — in the Senate primary against Platner and three people who unsuccessfully ran in the party’s gubernatorial primary. One of them also lost to Collins by nearly 40 points in 2014. There are politicians, a business owner and a public health official.

Maine voters recognize that it’s going to be a messy process.

Robin Ratcliffe, who has lived in Maine for over 20 years and voted for Platner in the primary, told NBC News she is “devastated” that he dropped out but acknowledged it was “the right thing to do under the circumstances.”

As the process of picking a replacement begins, Ratcliffe said she worried the next few weeks could be a “mess.”

Troy Jackson, a logger and the former president of the Maine Senate, quickly secured some progressive support from Our Revolution, a group aligned with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who was a prominent Platner backer.

Jackson said he’s running to represent “ a powerful movement of working class people in the state of Maine, and millions more across America who are ready to send a progressive fighter to the Senate.”

“I’ve been fighting for that movement my whole life — and I’m sure as hell not backing down now, when this fight is needed most. I’m in,” he said Thursday on X.

Khanna praised Jackson’s positions on health care and Israel-Gaza.

“He is for ‘Medicare for All,’ against the genocide and foreign wars, and for the working class over the billionaire class,” Khanna told NBC News.

But like Khanna, Jackson was an ally of Platner’s and is trying to distance himself from the scandal-plagued former candidate even as he seeks to win over the 156,000 voters who backed him in the primary.

Running against the establishment was central to Platner’s campaign and appeal, and it’s something other candidates are trying to continue.

Shah portrayed himself as an “outsider” in his announcement, saying, “Establishment politicians have failed us. To defeat Susan Collins, we need an outsider who is not afraid to take on the broken system she has spent decades upholding.”

Jordan Wood — who ran for the Senate nomination, dropped out to instead run for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District and then also lost that primary — cast himself as a “progressive reformer” who will fight for Medicare for All and crack down on corruption.

“I have been told that I am too progressive, that I am too young, that a gay man can’t win,” Wood said. “These cynics are wrong.”

Dan Kleban, co-founder of Maine Beer Company, similarly said in a statement: “I’m not a career politician. I spent the last 20 years building a small business that started at my kitchen table and now employs over 100 Mainers.”

Notably, he also laid down a marker against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., writing on X : “If we want to change how Washington works, we have to change who is running the show. That’s why I wouldn’t vote for Chuck Schumer as leader.”

Schumer was a frequent foil for Platner, who railed against establishment politicians in Washington. Schumer also endorsed Gov. Janet Mills, not Platner, in the Senate primary.

Shenna Bellows, the Maine secretary of state, nodded to the “movement” the people of Maine have been building, saying, “I’ve spent my entire career taking on tough fights for working people, and I’m not stopping now .”

Bellows was the party’s Senate nominee in 2014 and lost to Collins by a staggering 37 points. But Bellows has since gotten elected statewide and is now better known. She’s seen by some Maine Democrats as a more establishment-friendly candidate in the field.

Devon Murphy-Anderson, executive director of the Maine Democratic Party, promised that the process to pick a new nominee will be “inclusive and transparent, representative and fair.”

“We are, of course, going to require folks to talk to Maine voters in some way that’s going to qualify them to be our U.S. Senate nominee beyond just declaring their intent,” she said Wednesday night on MS NOW. “What that will most likely look like is petition collection from Maine Democratic voters across the state.”

Gary Brunotte, another Platner supporter in Portland, told NBC News on Thursday that he was frustrated Platner didn’t decline to run if he wasn’t a viable candidate. But now, with Platner out of the race at this late stage, he’s not sure Democrats have a chance.

“I’m just disappointed that he had a chance at beating Collins,” Brunotte said. “Now I don’t know if anybody can, and that’s going to be the problem.”