If you or someone you know needs resources or support related to sexual violence, contact the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault’s 24/7 hotline at 800-871-7741.
Nirav Shah is joining the race to replace Graham Platner in the race for U.S. Senate.
The former chief of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention made his announcement Thursday morning.
“Establishment politicians have failed us. Maine deserves a fighter in this seat, and I will be that fighter,” Shah said in a statement.
Shah, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Janet Mills, pledged to push for Medicare for all, to rein in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to tax billionaires and corporations, and to hold Republican President Donald Trump accountable.
“This race is not about one person or one seat. It is about everyday Mainers. I’ve shown up and fought for you before, and I am ready to do it again as your next United States Senator,” Shah said.
He’s the latest candidate to step into the ring as Platner’s campaign imploded this week after Politico reported a former girlfriend’s allegation that the man from Sullivan raped her in 2021, a claim that Platner has denied.
That has sent Democrats scrambling to distance themselves from Platner. He announced Wednesday that his campaign was over.
Under state law, Democrats have until 5 p.m. on July 27 to nominate a replacement. In addition to Shah, former Maine Senate President and gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson, Maine Beer Co. co-founder Dan Kleban, state Rep. Valli Geiger, social worker and former 2nd Congressional District candidate Paige Loud, former 2nd District candidate Jordan Wood, and David Costello, who vied with Platner for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate during the primary, have all entered the mad-dash sprint to replace the oyster farmer.
Jenny Racicot, 41, met Platner on the dating app Bumble in 2019 and had an on-again, off-again relationship until she severed all contact with Platner after the alleged rape in 2021.
In a later interview with CNN, Racicot said that a drunken Platner showed up uninvited to her home. Racicot said Platner forced himself on her over her objections, telling CNN that he seemed too drunk to even register what she was saying.
Platner allegedly didn’t use protection, despite Racicot’s objection, during the non-consensual intercourse, which Racicot told CNN she complied with out of fear.
“Complying is not consenting,” Racicot told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Platner’s record vote-getting win in June’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary came despite a barrage of negative press since his deleted posts on the website Reddit became public, including inflammatory statements about rural white Americans, Black people and women, and comments dismissive of women’s fears about rape.
Then it came out that Platner had a chest tattoo of a skull over crossbones resembling a symbol adopted by the Nazi SS during World War II.
Platner denied knowing the meaning of the tattoo, which he got in 2007 while deployed abroad with the U.S. Marines. He has since had it covered.
His chances for clinching the nomination seemed at risk just days ahead of the primary when the Wall Street Journal reported that he had exchanged sexually explicit texts with other women early in his marriage to Amy Gertner, who disclosed those messages to his campaign shortly after its launch, and then a New York Times story wherein his ex-girlfriends described volatile and toxic behavior, including instances of physical intimidation.
Racicot was among the women who spoke with The Times about Platner’s “unsettling” and “reckless” behavior, but she didn’t go public with the rape allegation until after the fallout over The Times’ story centered largely on one accuser’s ties to Republican organizations.
It will be an uphill battle for Democrats to unseat U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who officially announced her historic bid for a sixth term in February. The Republican has handily beaten back challengers, including in 2020 when she defied polls and expectations to secure a fifth term in the Senate. But Collins, who has been ranked the country’s most bipartisan senator, has seen her popularity slump since Trump’s first term in the White House.
If Collins is successful in winning a sixth term, she would be Maine’s longest-serving U.S. senator.