Graham Platner is taking his name off the ballot, but the trail of debris left from the mounting controversies that brought down his nearly year-long insurgent Senate campaign in Maine is giving Republicans ammunition to use against Democrats in other crucial midterm races."Democrats rolled in the mud with Platner, and now they are completely stained by their association with this sick monster," Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters charged in a statement minutes after the Marine Corp veteran announced on Wednesday night that he was suspending his campaign.Republicans are now linking Platner to Democrats in a handful of House and Senate races that will directly impact the midterm battle for control of Congress.Platner, a populist Democrat backed last September by leading national progressives like Sen.Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was challenging longtime Republican Sen.
Susan Collins in a high-profile, combustible and very 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.PLANTER CALLS IT QUITS, DROPS SENATE BID AMID MOUNTING SCANDALSGraham 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 exit from the race came two days after an explosive report on Monday afternoon contained an allegation of rape from a woman he previously dated.It was only after that report when a chorus of calls emerged from top Democrats across the country for him to immediately drop out.But Platner, the combat veteran and oyster farmer whose campaign caught fire and steamrolled the Democratic establishment, had already been forced on de...