2026-07-09T18:12:03.087Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/09/politics/graham-platner-campaign-career-fall
周一，一名曾与缅因州民主党联邦参议院候选人格雷厄姆·普拉特纳交往过的女性指控他强奸——普拉特纳否认了这一指控——消息曝光后不久，他的竞选团队就联系了前参议员芭芭拉·博克瑟。
这位已退休的加利福尼亚州民主党人原本撰写了一篇支持普拉特纳、批评其前共和党同僚、缅因州参议员苏珊·柯林斯的专栏文章。博克瑟表示，周一随着大批盟友撤销对他的支持并呼吁他退选，普拉特纳的团队曾询问她这篇文章是否仍应发表。
她给出了否定的答复。
“我对苏珊·柯林斯的看法依旧，但基于目前曝光的情况，我无法支持格雷厄姆·普拉特纳，”博克瑟周三对美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）说道，“我一生都在为保护女性而斗争，不能食言。”
直到本周之前，普拉特纳都能躲过针对其早年社交媒体帖子、一枚类似纳粹标志的纹身、不忠行为以及与前恋人行为不当的指控引发的一连串争议。支持者称，他令人惊艳的政治崛起证明了人可以改变，他的运动比那些视他为大选弱势候选人的建制派力量更强大。
但对许多仍在支持他的人来说，性侵指控是不可逾越的红线。
在这场持续两天多的风波后，普拉特纳终于在周三晚间认清政治现实，宣布暂停竞选。但他在一段长达11分钟的 defiant（原文为defiant，此处译为“强硬 defiant”，更符合语境）视频中几乎没有承担任何责任——既不承认指控（他坚称指控不实），也不为他给缅因州民主党带来的困境道歉。目前该党仅剩不到三周时间来敲定一位新候选人，而这正是参议院控制权争夺中最关键的选区之一。
一名接近竞选团队的人士告诉CNN，有少数顾问曾敦促普拉特纳在视频中对支持者保持温和语气——即便他仍要否认指控——但他并未采纳这一建议。语言上的分歧以及他不愿接受政治命运，导致了他推迟退选。
“那些手握权力、有能力这么做的人，”普拉特纳最终在录制的视频讲话中说道，“正利用这些指控作为借口，夺走我们开展竞选所需的一切。”
这段视频的发布时间定在周三晚间的全体工作人员视频会议期间。一名参会者表示，普拉特纳在会议上的语气要缓和得多，并感谢年轻的工作人员为他的运动付出心血。
但正如他在视频中表现的那样，他仍未道歉。
对大多数工作人员来说，他们第一次观看这段视频是在与普拉特纳的竞选会议之后。民主党人普遍批评他的语气，他们担心这会加剧党内分裂，而非弥合分歧。
“一切都围绕着他——满满的自我，”一名失望的民主党工作人员对CNN说道，“毫无谦卑可言。”
他的前政治主任珍妮芙·麦克唐纳去年10月就辞去了竞选职务，此后一直直言不讳地批评他，称这段视频“幼稚且充满阴谋论”。
“现实远没有这么戏剧化：一场由自以为能决定政坛走向的顾问打造的竞选，最终被少数拿着手机、说出真相的女性拖垮，”麦克唐纳在给CNN的评论中说道。
如今，民主党在2024年卡玛拉·哈斯获胜的唯一州面临着不确定的前路——该州是他们有望击败共和党参议员的选区。一旦普拉特纳正式提交退选文件，缅因州民主党需在7月27日前向州务卿提交新候选人名单。该党成员周三投票决定召开提名大会，但关于会议时间和具体流程的细节仍在敲定中。
即便不再支持普拉特纳的政治理念，那些拥护他的人也普遍存在一个担忧：他的替代者会是另一个政治圈外人吗？
在普拉特纳宣布退选前，已有新候选人加入竞选。一些进步派人士开始支持前州参议员特洛伊·杰克逊，他在今年的州长初选中排名第三，当时他曾与普拉特纳以及佛蒙特州参议员伯尼·桑德斯同台亮相。
杰克逊已于周二向联邦选举委员会提交了参选文件，他已试图与普拉特纳划清界限，并表示不会寻求他的背书。
“这很不幸，但我就是不想，”杰克逊周三在NBC的《现在会见媒体》节目中说道。
普拉特纳去年8月启动了这场胜算渺茫的参议院提名竞选，发布了一段充满韧劲的竞选启动视频，画面中他正在养殖牡蛎、砍柴，并抨击亿万富翁、他口中的腐败政客以及正在压榨缅因州和全美工薪阶层的寡头政治。
他的竞选主张是，作为牡蛎养殖户和海军陆战队退伍军人的背景，能帮助他比其他候选人吸引更广泛的选民群体。一系列媒体报道纷纷探讨他能否击败此前支持州长安·珍妮特·米尔斯的党内建制派，并帮助民主党重塑形象——该党此前一直难以与白人工薪阶层选民沟通。
有人曾称他是民主党未来的希望。但没过几周，他的过往就开始反噬。
媒体挖出了他早已删除的旧Reddit帖子。据CNN的KFile栏目报道，他曾自称“共产主义者”，称美国农村白人是种族主义者，并将所有警察称为“混蛋”。在最受谴责的帖子中，普拉特纳曾轻描淡写地谈论性侵。他写道，担心被强奸的女性不应该“在和不熟的人身边喝到断片”，而应该“为自己负起责任”。普拉特纳否认了这些旧帖，并表示不愿因十多年前在网上说过的最过分的话被评判。
几周后，有消息曝光普拉特纳有一个酷似纳粹标志的骷髅头交叉骨纹身。他道歉并宣布已将纹身遮盖。
在这场早期的争议漩涡中，缅因啤酒公司创始人丹·克莱班和前国会助手乔丹·伍德都退出了自己的参选，转而支持米尔斯——米尔斯在数周的猜测后宣布参选。（两人后来都重新加入了竞选。）
但尽管米尔斯拥有长期的公职履历和广泛的知名度，她却难以在与普拉特纳的竞争中获得支持。
“米尔斯几乎没怎么开展竞选活动，她本应该拒绝参选的，”一名参与参议院竞选的民主党策略师匿名接受采访时坦诚说道，“如果她不想开展必要的强势竞选，还有其他候选人能拿出出色的竞选方案并挺身而出。”
今年3月，米尔斯的竞选团队发起负面宣传，开始投放攻击广告，抨击普拉特纳旧帖中轻描淡写性侵的言论。旁白说道：“格雷厄姆·普拉特纳：你越深入了解，就越觉得他不堪。”
但这一切都为时已晚。州长米尔斯在4月底暂停了竞选，为普拉特纳扫清了道路。
随着更多关于普拉特纳过往行为的细节曝光，他和盟友将他的竞选包装成一个关于救赎、担当和第二次机会的故事。他表示，自己过去的错误源于在伊拉克和阿富汗服役时患上的创伤后应激障碍（PTSD），他曾公开谈及此事。
“普拉特纳曾说过，他不为过去的自己感到骄傲，并且已经承担了责任，”支持普拉特纳的参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦上月末对WCVB电视台说道，“他请求缅因州人民评判他时，不要看他人生最黑暗时刻做过的最糟糕的事，而是看他此后的作为，以及他每天为工薪家庭奋斗的承诺。”
5月30日，《华尔街日报》和《纽约时报》报道称，普拉特纳的妻子艾米·格特纳曾在去年的竞选审核过程中警告团队，他在婚姻早期曾向其他女性发送露骨的性短信，此后沃伦等人仍站在普拉特纳一边。（格特纳表示，她以为自己是在向值得信任的助手麦克唐纳倾诉，并称这对夫妇已经为克服不忠行为付出了“艰辛的努力”。）
几天后，在华盛顿民主党参议院委员会总部与民主党参议员的会晤中，普拉特纳回应了未来同僚对他的担忧。明尼苏达州参议员蒂娜·史密斯曾直接问普拉特纳，是否还有其他关于他与女性相处行为的指控可能曝光。他回答：“没有。”
6月9日初选前几天，《纽约时报》报道称，一些曾与普拉特纳交往过的女性指控他行为不当——其中一人称其曾进行肢体威胁，普拉特纳的联盟仍选择支持他。普拉特纳在一份声明中表示，他“坦诚自己人生中有一段非常黑暗的时期，当时我饱受未确诊的PTSD困扰，常常借酒消愁，作为男友远不合格”。他称自己已经为此承担责任，但否认存在肢体威胁行为。
随着一些民主党人动摇，早已退选的米尔斯提醒选民，她仍在选票上。普拉特纳最终以72%的得票率赢得压倒性胜利。
“如果你和我一样相信，我们可以改变政治、改变国家，那你也必须相信人可以改变，”普拉特纳在选举夜演讲中说道，“我之所以相信这一点，是因为我亲身经历过。”
普拉特纳做到了近11个月前看似不可能的事。他击败了由参议院民主党竞选机构招募参选的连任两届的州长。即便选民对他的过往有了更全面的了解，他仍维持住了自己的联盟。
但一些民主党人担心，关于他对待女性的更多黑料可能会被曝光，这会成为他对阵连任五届、曾在激烈选战中胜出的柯林斯的致命隐患。
近日有猜测称，更严重的指控即将出炉，普拉特纳因此取消了竞选活动。
“去年秋天以来我们就一直在听这个传闻，”那位参与参议院竞选的民主党策略师说道，“不是具体的强奸指控，而是他与女性的互动存在问题。”
周一，珍妮·拉西科特向Politico和CNN透露，近五年前，两人处于随意约会关系期间，普拉特纳在酩酊大醉的情况下未经允许进入她家并强奸了她。普拉特纳否认了这一指控。
但他的支持率很快开始暴跌，包括最忠实的支持者也纷纷倒戈。
“我已经和格雷厄姆·普拉特纳谈过缅因州的最佳前进道路，”桑德斯周二下午在X平台上写道，“鉴于这些非常严重的指控，我建议他退选。”
竞选的最后几天都在围绕退出策略展开，同时与州和全国民主党人发生争执。普拉特纳和他的团队要求让他的支持者在决定替代人选的过程中拥有话语权，而民主党领导人则反对他试图掌控后续进程的企图。
普拉特纳的竞选经理本·钦周三向支持者发送了一条短信，指责州民主党允许民主党参议院竞选委员会“派遣工作人员秘密策划潜在的提名流程”。民主党参议院竞选委员会在一份声明中否认了这一说法。
普拉特纳的崛起与陨落留下的余波，让民主党人不禁反思，为何他们没有在意数月前党内部分人士发出的警告。
随着一批外州战略家主导他的竞选团队，普拉特纳一路上流失了一些支持者。麦克唐纳在6月9日初选前一天发表于《华盛顿邮报》的专栏文章中称，她是竞选团队“最早被洗脑操控的受害者之一”。
她因向《纽约时报》透露格特纳与她谈论普拉特纳向其他女性发送性信息一事而遭到竞选团队批评，此后成为了普拉特纳最直言不讳的批评者之一。
“民主党正在向选民灌输一种说法，称普拉特纳是对阵共和党参议员苏珊·柯林斯的唯一选择，”麦克唐纳写道，“缅因州选民不必接受这一点。”
本周，一些全国民主党人迅速指出了竞选早期就存在的“危险信号”。
“从很早开始就很明显，他的道德品质令人质疑，过往存在危险信号，这些都将成为他在大选中获胜的严重障碍，”EMILY’s List主席杰西卡·麦克勒说道，该组织支持支持堕胎权的女性候选人，并 backing 了米尔斯。
倡导者表示，普拉特纳竞选团队的垮台不仅让缅因州的进步人士感到失望，也让整个进步运动受挫。
进步变革竞选委员会联合创始人亚当·格林表示，他们的目标不仅仅是在2026年中期选举中选出“撼动体制的经济斗士”，更是要向民主党证明，这类候选人能在摇摆州获胜，为2028年总统初选铺路。
“如果最终的结果是我们提名了一位在下次总统选举中失利的候选人，因为我们没能证明大胆、鼓舞人心的人能够获胜，那将非常遗憾，”格林说道，“这无疑会让这项事业倒退。”
CNN的达纳·巴什为本报道做出了贡献。
https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/08/politics/video/graham-platner-drops-maine-senate-bid-digvid-hnk
Inside the insurgent rise and rapid downfall of Graham Platner’s campaign
2026-07-09T18:12:03.087Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/09/politics/graham-platner-campaign-career-fall
Soon after news broke Monday that a woman who had previously dated Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner accused him of rape — an allegation he has denied — his campaign reached out to former Sen. Barbara Boxer.
The retired California Democrat had drafted an op-ed backing Platner and criticizing the record of her former Republican colleague, Maine Sen. Susan Collins. As droves of his allies began rescinding their endorsements and calling on him to drop out Monday, Platner’s campaign wanted to know if the article should still run, Boxer said.
She told them no.
“I still feel the way I do about Susan Collins, but I can’t support Graham Platner based on what’s come out,” Boxer told CNN on Wednesday. “I fought my whole life protecting women and can’t do it.”
Until this week, Platner had been able to withstand an onslaught of controversies over his old social media posts, a tattoo that resembles a Nazi symbol, his infidelity and accusations of unsettling behavior with former romantic partners. His stunning political rise, supporters said, showed that people can change and that his movement was stronger than the establishment forces that viewed him as a weak general election candidate.
But for many of those remaining supporters, a sexual assault allegation was a bridge too far.
Platner finally accepted political reality on Wednesday night and announced he was suspending his campaign, after an ordeal that dragged out for over two days. But he accepted virtually no blame in a defiant 11-minute video — either for the allegations, which he maintains are false, or for the predicament he put Maine Democrats in. They now have less than three weeks to coalesce around a new nomineein one of the most critical races for the battle for Senate control.
A handful of advisers had urged Platner to strike a gracious tone to his supporters in that video — even while denying the allegations — but he did not follow that guidance. A disagreement in language, along with his reluctance to accept his political fate, contributed to the delay in stepping aside, a person close to the campaign told CNN.
“Those in power, who have the ability to do so,” Platner ultimately said in his recorded video message, “are using these allegations as an excuse to take away all of the things that we need to run a campaign.”
The release of the video was timed to coincide with an all-hands staff video conference call Wednesday night. On that call, a participant said, Platner struck a far more conciliatory tone and thanked his young staff for dedicating themselves to his movement.
Yet, as he did on the video, he stopped short of apologizing.
For most staff members, the first time they watched the video was after their campaign call with Platner. His tone was widely criticized by Democrats, who feared it could sow deeper divisions, rather than attempt to bridge the party divide.
“All about him — and ego,” one disappointed Democratic staffer told CNN. “Not an ounce of humility.”
Genevieve McDonald, his former political director who quit the campaign last October and has since become a vocal critic, called the video “petulant and conspiratorial.”
“The reality is far less dramatic: a campaign built by consultants who thought they were kingmakers, was brought down by a handful of women with iPhones and the truth,” McDonald said in a comment to CNN.
Now, Democrats face an uncertain path forward in the only state Kamala Harris carried in 2024 where they have a shot at unseating a GOP senator. Once Platner formally files his paperwork to withdraw, the Maine Democratic Party has until July 27 to present a new candidate to the secretary of state. Party members voted Wednesday to hold a nominating convention, but details about when it will be and how the process will unfold are still being decided.
Those questions about the process speak to a broader concern among those who support Platner’s politics, even if they no longer back him: will his replacement be another political outsider?
New candidates started entering the race before Platner announced he was stepping aside. Some in the progressive movement have started rallying behind former state Sen. Troy Jackson, who finished third in this year’s gubernatorial primary, during which he shared a stage with Platner and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Jackson, who filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday, has already sought to distance himself from Platner, and said he wouldn’t seek his endorsement.
“It’s unfortunate, but I just don’t want it,” Jackson said on NBC’s “Meet the Press Now” Wednesday.
Platner kicked off his longshot bid for the Senate nomination last August with a gritty campaign launch video that showed him farming oysters, chopping wood and railing against billionaires, what he said are corrupt politicians and an oligarchy crushing working class people in Maine and across the country.
His pitch was that his background — as an oysterman and a Marine veteran — would help him appeal to a broader swath of the electorate than other candidates. A wave of media profiles asked whether he could beat the party establishment, which had thrown its weight behind Gov. Janet Mills, and help reshape a party that was struggling to speak to White working class voters.
Some argued he was the future of the party. But within weeks, his past started to catch up to him.
News outlets unearthed old, since deleted Reddit posts. He’d called himself a “communist,” criticized White rural Americans as racist and called “all” police “bastards,” CNN’s KFile reported. In some of the most widely condemned posts, Platner downplayed sexual assault. He’d written that women worried about rape shouldn’t “get blacked out f****d up around people you aren’t comfortable with” and should “just take some responsibility for themselves.” Platner disavowed the old posts and said he didn’t want to be judged for the worst things he’d said on the internet more than a decade ago.
Weeks later, it emerged that Platner had a skull and cross bones tattoo that closely resembled a Nazi symbol. He apologized and announced that he’d gotten it covered up.
Amid this early swirl of controversies, Maine Beer Company founder Dan Kleban and former congressional aide Jordan Wood dropped their own bids to back Mills, who had entered the race after weeks of speculation. (They’ve both since thrown their hats back in the ring.)
But despite her long record in public service and broad name recognition, Mills struggled to gain traction against Platner.
“Mills barely ran a campaign, and she should have said no,” said a Democratic strategist who works on Senate campaigns, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly. “There were other candidates who would have run a great campaign that could have stepped up if she didn’t want to run the aggressive campaign necessary.”
In March, Mills’ campaign went negative, and began airing an attack ad blasting Platner’s old Reddit posts dismissing sexual assault. “Graham Platner: the closer you look, the worse it gets,” the narrator says.
It was too little, too late. The governor suspended her campaign at the end of April, clearing a path for Platner.
As more details of Platner’s past behavior emerged, he and his allies sought to frame his campaign as a tale of redemption, accountability and second chances. His past mistakes, he said, were fueled by his PTSD from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, which he has spoken about openly.
“Platner has said that he is not proud of who he was, and he has taken responsibility,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Platner supporter who called on him to drop out this week, told WCVB late last month. “He has asked the people of Maine to judge him, not for the worst things he did in the darkest part of his life, but based on the work he has done since then and his commitment to be out there fighting for working families every day.”
Warren and others stood by Platner after The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported on May 30 that his wife, Amy Gertner, had warned the campaign during its vetting process last year that he’d sent sexually explicit texts to other women early in their marriage. (Gertner said she thought she was confiding in a trusted aide, McDonald, and said the couple had done the “hard work” to move past the infidelity.)
Days later, during a meeting with Democratic senators at the party’s Senate committee headquarters in Washington, Platner addressed concerns from his potential future colleagues. At one point, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith asked Platner directly if there were any more allegations about his conduct with women that could possibly come to light. He responded, “No.”
Platner’s coalition also stood by him when, days before the June 9 primary, The New York Times reported that some women he’d previously dated accused him of displaying unsettling — and in one case physically threatening — behavior toward them. Platner said in a statement that he’d been “open about what was a very dark period of my life where I struggled with undiagnosed PTSD, too often self-medicated with alcohol, and was a far from perfect boyfriend.” He said he took responsibility for that but denied the physically threatening behavior.
As some Democrats wavered, Mills — who had already dropped out — reminded voters she was still on the ballot. Platner went on to win a landslide victory, with 72% of the primary vote.
“If you believe, as I do, that we can change our politics and change our country, then you must also believe that people can change,” Platner said during his election night speech. “And the reason I believe that is because I have lived it.”
Platner had done what seemed impossible nearly 11 months earlier. He’d defeated a two-term governor who was recruited into the race by Senate Democrats’ campaign arm. He’d held his coalition together even as voters gained a fuller understanding of his past.
But some Democrats feared that there could be more shoes to drop about his treatment of women that would be a liability in his race against Collins, a five-term senator who’s prevailed in tough races before.
Speculation grew in recent days that a more serious allegation was set to drop and Platner cancelled campaign events.
“We’ve been hearing whispers of this rumor since last fall,” said the Democratic strategist who works on Senate campaigns. “Not specifically rape, but the idea that there are problematic interactions with women.”
On Monday, Jenny Racicot told Politico and CNN that Platner entered her home without permission and raped her while he was heavily intoxicated nearly five years ago when they were in a casual dating relationship. Platner denies the accusation.
But he soon began hemorrhaging support, including from his most devoted supporters.
“I have spoken with Graham Platner about the best path forward for Maine,” Sanders wrote on X Tuesday afternoon. “In light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside.”
The final days of the campaign were spent navigating an exit strategy and feuding with state and national Democrats. Platner and his team demanded his supporters have a voice in shaping the process to replace him, while party leaders balked at his attempt to wield control over what comes next.
Platner’s campaign manager, Ben Chin, sent a text blast to supporters Wednesday, accusing the state party of allowing the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee “to send staffers to plan a potential nominating process behind closed doors.” The DSCC denied the claim in a statement.
The fallout from Platner’s rise and fall has left Democrats wondering why they didn’t heed the warning signs some in the party saw months ago.
Platner lost some supporters along the way, as a core team of out-of-state strategists guided his campaign. McDonald said she was one of his campaign’s “first gaslighting casualties” in a Washington Post op-ed that ran the day before the June 9 primary.
She has been criticized by the campaign for speaking to The New York Times about her conversation with Gertner about Platner’s sexual messages to other women, has become one of his most vocal critics.
“Democrats are being sold a narrative that Platner is the only choice for the race against Republican Sen. Susan Collins,” McDonald wrote. “Maine voters don’t have to accept that.”
And this week, some national Democrats quickly pointed to “red flags” from early in the campaign.
“It was clear from very early on that he had questionable moral character, that he had red flags in his past, and that those were going to be a serious barrier to his ability to win a general election,” said Jessica Mackler, the president of EMILY’s List, an organization that endorses women who support abortion rights and backed Mills.
The collapse of Platner’s campaign isn’t just a disappointment to progressives in Maine, but the broader movement, advocates argued.
Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said the goal isn’t just to elect “shake up the system economic fighters” in the 2026 midterms, but to show the Democratic Party that those kinds of candidates can win in swing states ahead of the 2028 presidential primaries.
“If the effect is that we nominate someone who loses the presidential election next cycle, because we fail to prove that bold, inspiring people can win, that’s really unfortunate,” Green said. “It definitely set back the cause.”
CNN’s Dana Bash contributed to this report.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/08/politics/video/graham-platner-drops-maine-senate-bid-digvid-hnk