July 10 (Reuters) – Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner has officially withdrawn from the state’s U.S. Senate race, the Maine secretary of state’s office said in a statement on Friday, meaning his name will not appear on the November 3 ballot and his political party has until July 27 to name a replacement.
Platner’s formal withdrawal came one month after he earned the Democratic Party nomination to challenge Republican Senator Susan Collins. Platner easily won the June 9 Democratic primary and became crucial to Democrats’ drive to win control of the Senate from Republicans in the November 3 election.
His fall came following a series of accusations this week, including one of rape, which he has denied.
“I write to formally withdraw my candidacy for United States Senate,” Platner wrote in a letter to the Maine secretary of state’s office.
The letter outlined major themes of his now-doomed campaign, including his drive for national healthcare. He concluded with an expletive aimed at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that is at the center of President Donald Trump’s migrant deportation program and a call for a “Free Palestine.”
There already are six Democrats who have formally announced campaigns to replace Platner, in a procedure yet to be detailed by the Maine Democratic Party.
An outline of the process has been announced that would have party delegates gathering at a nominating convention, occurring before the July 27 deadline for submitting the new nominee’s name that will appear on November ballots.
(Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto and Richard Cowan; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis and David Gaffen)
