Democrat scandal in Maine threatens party's bid to control US Senate

Full text

A small northeastern state has become ground zero in the United States’ midterm elections — and could determine which party controls Congress during the final years of President Donald Trump’s term.

Maine, with a population of 1.4 million, is home to one of the most crucial U.S. Senate races this cycle, in which longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins is running for her sixth term. Democrats had largely aligned behind candidate Graham Platner to challenge her — until Monday, when POLITICO reported a new allegation of sexual assault against the already scandal-plagued progressive.

A woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, says he sexually assaulted her five years ago. Platner denied the allegations, but after the article was published, he said he was “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.”

Democrats in Washington and Maine, many of whom stood by the scandal-plagued Platner during previous controversies, have since revoked their endorsements and called for him to exit the race .

The scandal blows up the map for Democrats, who bet on Maine as a key state in their road to retaking control of Congress’ upper chamber. Democrats need to flip four seats to gain a majority in the 100-member body. Maine was long seen as one of their best opportunities, as the only state Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris won in 2024 that is currently represented by a Republican U.S. senator.

While U.S. states apportion House seats based on population, each state is awarded two Senate seats, regardless of how many voters it has. That means a state like Maine, whose population makes up 0.4 percent of the U.S. as a whole, has two senators.

Collins is known as an electoral juggernaut, having won reelection in 2020 despite former President Joe Biden, a Democrat, also winning Maine by nine points that year. She has regularly won reelection by comfortable margins in the Democratic-leaning state, making her the only Republican who has won statewide since 2014. Voters casting their ballots for candidates of different parties is exceptionally rare in U.S. politics, but it’s more common in Maine.

But Democrats believe that Collins is electorally vulnerable this year given a nationalized political environment where voters have a low opinion of the Trump administration and her own job approval numbers have ticked down since Trump assumed office . The president’s party often loses seats in midterm elections as voters blame incumbent lawmakers for frustrations with the state of the country and as supporters of the president are less inclined to turn out.

That anti-incumbent fervor has already been on display in primary elections across the U.S. this cycle, and Trump’s unpopularity — thanks in part to the Iran war and cost-of-living concerns — is creating an additional hurdle for Republicans running for reelection.

Now, Democrats are scrambling to decide their path forward in Maine. If Platner drops out before Monday, July 13, the state party can place another candidate on the ballot by July 27. But a candidate swap this late in the cycle is politically risky, especially against an incumbent like Collins, who has the backing of Washington’s Republican establishment.

In 2024, when Biden exited the race, Harris had just 107 days before Election Day. If the Democrats pick a new candidate for the Maine Senate race, they’ll get a similar timeframe to prepare for the Nov. 4 election this year.