曾获参议员伯尼·桑德斯背书的普拉特纳在截止期限前数小时提交退选文件，该期限原本将阻止民主党更换候选人
2026年7月10日 美国东部时间下午5:08 / 福克斯新闻
作者：保罗·斯坦豪瑟、布里塔尼·米勒
缅因州处境艰难的民主党联邦参议院候选人格雷厄姆·普拉特纳于周五公开发布正式退出美国参议院竞选的信件，在落款前向支持者致谢，并写道：“去他的移民海关执法局。解放巴勒斯坦。团结人民。”
普拉特纳在提交文件给缅因州州务卿办公室选举部门后，于X平台发布了这封7月10日的信件。
“我写信正式撤回我竞选美国参议院的 candidacy，”普拉特纳写道。
决定参议院权力平衡的十二个关键选区
2026年6月9日，民主党联邦参议院候选人格雷厄姆·普拉特纳在缅因州布鲁因希尔的初选活动上发表讲话。（CJ·京特/盖蒂图片社）
信件感谢了上个月民主党初选中投票支持他的156084名缅因州选民，并表示他们支持的是“一种全新的政治”，关注全民医保、强化工会、限制亿万富翁对政治的影响力等议题。
“我的名字或许出现在选票上，但这个席位属于缅因州人民，”普拉特纳写道。“因此，敬请将此通知视为我正式退出该公职竞选的声明。”
普拉特纳在信件结尾写道：“去他的移民海关执法局。解放巴勒斯坦。团结人民。”
这封信发布两天前，普拉特纳宣布暂停竞选活动，此前不断升级的争议和他一再否认的性行为不端指控，以及缅因州、美国首都华盛顿及全国范围内民主党高层要求他立即退选的呼声日益高涨。
此次退选也距离关键的周一下午5点截止期限仅三天。若错过该期限，缅因州民主党将无法在大选选票上替换普拉特纳为新候选人。
这位民粹主义民主党人去年9月获得进步派领袖、参议员伯尼·桑德斯的背书，正挑战长期担任共和党议员的苏珊·柯林斯，这场在缅因州的竞选备受关注、充满争议且耗资巨大，是决定共和党能否在11月中期选举中维持微弱参议院多数席位的少数几个关键选区之一。
“为了运动能够继续，不能是我。出于这个原因，我们将暂停竞选运作，”普拉特纳周三在社交媒体发布的视频中说道。
他的竞选活动在6月9日缅因州民主党参议院初选中以压倒性优势获胜仅一个月后便宣告结束，而就在几天前，一篇爆炸性报道披露了他的一名前女友提出的强奸指控。
缅因州居民珍妮·拉西科特告诉CNN，根据词典定义，普拉特纳“强奸”了她。她还在接受《政客》的三次采访中表示，普拉特纳在五年前违背她的意愿强迫她发生性关系，普拉特纳对此予以否认。
本周，普拉特纳又面临第二起爆炸性性行为不端指控。《华盛顿邮报》发布的报道称，普拉特纳被指控在与前女友林赛·法菲尔德发生性关系时，在她明确要求使用安全套的情况下取下了避孕套。
法菲尔德此前曾在《纽约时报》的报道中指控普拉特纳在恋爱期间存在身体虐待行为，称他有时会用力抓她以至于身上留下痕迹，还有一次他将她的手臂扭到背后，将她推进卧室并锁上门，直到她“冷静下来”。
普拉特纳的竞选团队回应称，法菲尔德的最新指控“完全虚假且带有政治动机”，并指出她曾为保守派传统基金会工作。
2026年民主进程：关注福克斯新闻选举中心获取最新动态
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6400589890112
在视频声明中回应多项指控时，情绪明显激动的普拉特纳指责道：“这一切都是虚假的。所声称的事情从未发生过。这不是真的。”
这位海军陆战队退伍军人兼牡蛎养殖户在春季几乎锁定党内提名，此前获得民主党参议院领袖查克·舒默及政党建制派支持的时任州长珍妮特·米尔斯在筹款和民调中大幅落后于普拉特纳后退出竞选。
但随着普拉特纳接近获得提名，他不得不为多重争议辩护，这些争议在初选竞选的最后几天搅乱了局势，并掩盖了他的胜利成果。
他此前在一个现已删除的Reddit账号上发布的煽动性网络评论重新浮出水面，与此同时，他胸前一个被遮盖的、类似纳粹标志的纹身被曝光。随后有报道称，普拉特纳在已婚期间与多名女性交换露骨的性信息，紧接着又有前女友爆料他存在强奸幻想、酗酒和暴力行为的历史。
普拉特纳一再否认有关暴力行为的指控。
不断升级的争议引发了广泛关注，为共和党提供了更多攻击他的弹药，并促使华盛顿的一些民主党人质疑普拉特纳是否已是“受损候选人”。
但这些指控并未阻止他凭借民粹主义浪潮以压倒性优势获得提名。
深陷丑闻的普拉特纳尽管争议不断仍赢得民主党参议院提名
- 缅因州民主党参议院候选人格雷厄姆·普拉特纳与妻子在6月9日缅因州布鲁因希尔的初选之夜胜利演讲后与支持者交谈。（保罗·斯坦豪瑟/福克斯新闻数字频道）
普拉特纳曾在伊拉克战争中随海军陆战队执行三次任务，又随陆军国民警卫队赴阿富汗执行一次任务，患有创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）。在他的参议院竞选启动后，部分Reddit帖子引发媒体关注，他随后为这些有争议的帖子道歉。
在上个月的初选之夜胜利演讲中，普拉特纳强调自己已经脱胎换骨。
“如果你和我一样相信，我们可以改变政治、改变国家，那么你也必须相信人是可以改变的，”普拉特纳对人群说道。“我之所以相信这一点，是因为我亲身经历过。”
上周最新指控发酵后，越来越多的民主党人呼吁普拉特纳退出竞选，从舒默等建制派人士，到他最大的支持者中的进步派人士，包括6月曾在缅因州与普拉特纳一同竞选的参议员马萨诸塞州的伊丽莎白·沃伦和加利福尼亚州众议员罗·卡纳。
缅因州民主党本周早些时候宣布，官员们正“日夜不停”地制定更换候选人的程序，但声称普拉特纳的团队正试图“干预这一程序的公正性”。
2026年6月9日，缅因州布鲁因希尔YMCA的初选之夜活动上，民主党美国参议院候选人格雷厄姆·普拉特纳发表讲话。民粹主义民主党人格雷厄姆·普拉特纳在缅因州赢得民主党参议院提名，这场激烈的竞选不仅围绕着他过往的不当行为指控，也关乎选民最关心的议题。（格雷姆·斯隆/彭博社/盖蒂图片社）
普拉特纳的团队回应称，他们已与民主党方面取得联系，并否认试图“干预任何程序的公正性”。
一天后，州民主党宣布将召开提名代表大会，福克斯新闻数字频道确认该大会预计将有600名有投票权的代表，以选出新的参议院候选人。
这似乎让普拉特纳感到不满，他在视频中表示：“接下来的事情必须来自人民。必须来自缅因州人民。必须来自那些在6月9日……拒绝这种政治的选民。那些投票支持真正能代表他们的政治的选民。那些反对政治体制、反对金主阶级、反对根深蒂固势力的选民。”
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6400784349112
作为一名 outsider 竞选者，普拉特纳表示，如果他继续参选，将失去筹集资金和获取关键选民数据的能力，而这些是任何竞选活动必不可少的要素。
“那些有能力这么做的当权者，正利用这些指控作为借口，夺走我们开展竞选所需的一切，”他指责道。
自周三宣布暂停竞选以来，已有多名民主党人宣布参选，以接替普拉特纳成为该党参议院候选人。
其中包括在上个月初选中失利的三名州长竞选候选人：同样获得桑德斯背书的前州参议院议长、进步派人士特洛伊·杰克逊；缅因州疾病控制与预防中心前主任尼拉夫·沙阿；以及缅因州州务卿申娜·贝洛斯。
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2026年5月5日，缅因州参议员苏珊·柯林斯在缅因州哈里森的一家食品银行参观。该食品银行得益于这位参议员协助获得的联邦资助得以扩建。（保罗·斯坦豪瑟/福克斯新闻）
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柯林斯是一名温和派共和党人，有时会投票反对唐纳德·特朗普总统的议程，目前正竞选第六个六年任期的参议员职位。
共和党目前以53比47控制参议院，拿下倾向左翼的缅因州的参议院席位，是民主党夺回参议院多数席位的关键一步。
保罗·斯坦豪瑟为福克斯新闻全程报道全国竞选活动
Platner officially terminates Senate bid after bombshell rape allegation ends campaign
Platner, backed by Sen Bernie Sanders, filed paperwork just hours before a deadline that would have blocked a replacement
July 10, 2026 5:08pm EDT / Fox News
By Paul Steinhauser, Brittany Miller
Graham Platner the embattled Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, on Friday publicly released the letter formally withdrawing from the U.S. Senate race, thanking supporters before signing off with, “F**k ICE. Free Palestine. Up the Hearts.”
Platner posted the July 10 letter on X after submitting it to the Maine Department of the Secretary of State’s Division of Elections.
“I write to formally withdraw my candidacy for United States Senate,” Platner wrote.
THE DOZEN RACES THAT WILL DETERMINE THE SENATE’S BALANCE OF POWER
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at his primary election event in Blue Hill, Maine, on June 9, 2026.(CJ Gunther/Getty Images)
The letter thanked the 156,084 Mainers who voted for him in last month’s Democratic primary and argued they had backed “a new kind of politics” focused on issues including Medicare for All, stronger unions and limiting the influence of billionaires in politics.
“My name may have been on the ballot, but that ballot line belongs to the people of Maine,” Platner wrote. “As such, please consider this notice as my official withdrawal from consideration for this office.”
Platner concluded the letter by writing, “F**k ICE. Free Palestine. Up the Hearts.”
The letter comes two days after Platner announced he was suspending his campaign amid mounting controversies and allegations of sexual misconduct that he has repeatedly denied, and a chorus of calls from top Democrats in Maine, the nation’s capital, and across the country to drop out of the race immediately.
It also came three days before a crucial 5 p.m. Monday deadline. Missing it would have prevented Maine Democrats from replacing Platner with a new nominee on the general election ballot.
A populist Democrat who was backed last September by progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders, Platner was challenging longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a high-profile, combustible and expensive race in Maine, which is one of a handful that will determine if the GOP holds onto its slim Senate majority in November’s midterm elections.
“For the movement to continue, it can’t be me. For that reason, we are suspending campaign operations,” Platner said on Wednesday in a video posted to social media.
The end of his campaign came a month after Platner won a landslide victory in Maine’s June 9 Democratic Senate primary, but just days after an explosive report contained an allegation of rape from a woman he previously dated.
Maine resident Jenny Racicot told CNN “by dictionary definition” Platner “raped” her. She also said over the course of three interviews with Politico that Platner forced her to have sex five years ago against her will, a claim that he denied.
Platner this week was hit with a second explosive allegation of sexual misconduct. In a report published by The Washington Post, Platner was accused of removing condoms during sex with his ex-girlfriend Lyndsey Fifield after she explicitly directed him to wear them.
Fifield had previously accused Platner in a New York Times report of physical misconduct during their relationship, saying that he sometimes grabbed her hard enough to leave marks on her body and that one time he twisted her arm around her back, pushed her into a bedroom and held the door shut until she “calmed down.”
The Platner campaign responded that Fifield’s latest allegations were “categorically false and politically motivated,” pointing to her previous work for the conservative Heritage Foundation.
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https://www.foxnews.com/video/6400589890112
Addressing the multiple allegations in his video announcement, a visibly angry Platner charged, “This is all false. The things that have been claimed did not happen. It is not real.”
The Marine Corps combat veteran and oyster farmer became the all-but-certain party nominee in the spring after two-term Gov. Janet Mills, who was backed by Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and the party establishment, suspended her bid after significantly trailing Platner in fundraising and polling.
But as he moved towards capturing the nomination, Platner was forced to play defense amid multiple controversies that muddied the final days of his primary campaign and overshadowed his victory.
Past inflammatory online comments made on a now-deleted Reddit account came back to haunt him at the same time he was reeling from revelations of a now covered-up tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol. Then reports that Platner exchanged sexually explicit messages with several women while married came right before allegations from ex-girlfriends of a history of rape fantasies, heavy drinking and violent episodes.
Platner repeatedly called the allegations of violence untrue.
The mounting controversy drew plenty of attention, gave Republicans more ammunition to use against him and triggered some Democrats in the nation’s capital to question whether Platner was damaged goods.
But the allegations didn’t stop him from riding a populist wave to capture the nomination in a landslide.
SCANDAL-PLAGUED PLATNER CAPTURES DEMOCRATIC SENATE NOMINATION DESPITE MOUNTING CONTROVERSIES
- Democratic Senate nominee in Maine Graham Platner and his wife speak with supporters following his primary night victory speech, in Blue Hill, Maine on June 9, 2026.(Paul Steinhauser/Fox News Digital)
Platner, who struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from his three tours in the war in Iraq with the Marines and one tour with the Army National Guard in Afghanistan, apologized for his controversial Reddit posts after some of them made headlines after he launched his Senate campaign.
In his primary night victory speech last month, Platner emphasized that he was a changed man.
“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 told the crowd. “And the reason I believe that is because I have lived it.”
After the latest allegations went viral last week, a growing chorus of Democrats called on Platner to quit the race, from establishment figures like Schumer to progressives among his biggest backers, including Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mass., and Rep. Ro Khanna, Calif., who campaigned with Platner in Maine in June.
The Maine Democratic Party announced earlier this week that officials were working “around the clock” to determine a replacement process, but claimed Platner’s team was trying “to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like.”
Graham Platner, Democratic US Senate candidate for Maine, during a primary election night event at the Blue Hill YMCA in Blue Hill, Maine, US, on Tuesday, June 9, 2026. Progressive Democrat Graham Platner won the party’s Senate primary in Maine after a bruising campaign which became as much about his accusations of past misbehavior as it was voters’ top concerns.(Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Platner’s team, responding, said they had reached out to the party but denied they were trying to put any “finger on the scale.”
A day later, the state party announced it would hold a nominating convention, which Fox News Digital confirmed would likely consist of 600 voting delegates, to choose a new Senate nominee.
That didn’t appear to sit well with Platner, who in his video said, “What comes next needs to come from the people. Needs to come from the people of Maine. Needs to come from the voters who on June 9….said no to this kind of politics. Voted for a politics that would actually represent them. Vote against the political system. Against the donor class. Against the entrenched forces.”
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6400784349112
Platner, who ran an outsider campaign, said that if he had continued his bid, he’d lose the ability to raise money and access crucial voter data, essential elements to any campaign.
“Those in power who have the ability to do so are using these allegations as an excuse to take away all the things that we need to run a campaign,” he charged.
Since Wednesday’s announcement, a slew of Democrats have jumped into the race to succeed Platner as the party’s Senate nominee.
The list includes three gubernatorial contenders who came up short in last month’s primary: progressive Troy Jackson, a former state Senate president who was also backed by Sanders; Nirav Shah, the former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention; and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.
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Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine tours a food bank in Harrison, Maine, on May 5, 2026. The food bank was able to expand thanks to federal funding that the senator helped obtain.(Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
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Collins, a moderate Republican who at times votes against President Donald Trump’s agenda, is running for a sixth six-year term in the Senate.
Republicans currently control the chamber 53-47 and flipping the Senate seat in left-leaning Maine is a key part of the Democrats’ path to retake the majority.
Paul Steinhauser covers the national campaign trail from coast to coast for Fox News