Maine Beer Co. cofounder Dan Kleban and state Rep. Valli Geiger each announced Wednesday that they want to be considered to replace Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner after a rape allegation that appears likely to sink the progressive candidate’s campaign.
Kleban was previously a candidate in the race to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins but dropped out in October 2025 after Gov. Janet Mills joined the race. Mills subsequently dropped out after polling poorly against Platner.
Geiger, a Platner loyalist, said the candidate called her on Monday night to tell her he was putting her name forward as a potential candidate alongside that of former Maine Senate president Troy Jackson and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.
The Democratic nomination was upended on Monday when a former girlfriend of Platner’s accused him of coming to her house drunk in 2021 after she told him not to and raping her over her objections. A day later, another former girlfriend said Platner removed condoms during sex without her consent.
In the aftermath, Kleban said he has been “overwhelmed by the countless calls from Mainers encouraging me to consider this race.”
He cited Collins’ support for President Donald Trump’s policies while “gas and groceries are out of control” along with her votes to confirm the judges who overturned the guaranteed legal right to abortion, and criticized a “system that’s been rigged by corporate interests.”
“I love Maine and everything it has given me. This is where I started and grew a successful business focused on doing what’s right for workers and our community. It’s where my wife of 22 years and I have raised our teenage twins. And after talking with them, I’m in,” he said.
Kleban echoed the Maine Democratic Party’s call for “an open, transparent process to select our nominee” and said he’s “ready to fight for Mainers and bring a new generation of leadership to Washington.”
Geiger, who has represented the midcoast House District 42 since 2020, said on Wednesday that she was trying to broker conversations between the candidate and Democrats to gain assurances that the nomination process would be fair to Platner’s supporters, something she said would likely lead to him stepping down.
“I am in to protect that platform, to protect that movement,” she said.
Geiger and Kleban join a field of three other candidates who have explicitly said they are interested in the nod to replace Platner, including Jackson, a close ally of Platner who ran an unsuccessful bid for the Maine gubernatorial nomination; Paige Loud, a social worker who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District; and David Costello, who competed against Platner for the U.S. Senate nomination.
Other Maine Democrats have said they are considering throwing their hats in the ring, including Bellows, who challenged Collins unsuccessfully in 2014; and former Maine CDC director Nirav Shah. Bellows and Shah competed in Maine’s Democratic gubernatorial primary in June, coming up short to former Maine House speaker Hannah Pingree in a tight ranked-choice runoff.
BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed reporting.
