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.
Long before he launched his upstart U.S. Senate campaign, women in Maine and D.C. shared a social media post warning each other to steer clear of Graham Platner.
In 2024, an anonymous poster shared a photo of Platner along with a warning against dating him in a Facebook group called “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
One of the replies to that post came from Mainer Jenny Racicot, 41, whose rape allegation against the oyster farmer tanked his campaign this week. That allegation was reported Monday by Politico.
In her reply, Racicot wrote that she “would definitely not recommend on any level,” that he wasn’t “relationship material,” and that anyone could message her privately for details, according to the Journal.
Racicot 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.
The Journal reported that Platner’s campaign overlooked the red flag, which might have been caught if not for a rushed vetting process conducted over days rather than weeks. That review flagged Platner’s posts on the website Reddit — including inflammatory statements about rural white Americans, Black people and women, and comments dismissive of women’s fears about rape — as the biggest liability to his campaign.
“I remember asking specifically, ‘Is there anything else that will come out?’” Paige Loud, a former Platner staffer who is now running to succeed him, told the Journal. “I was told many times that nothing else would come out.”
But more did.
The Reddit posts fueled a continual drip-drip of controversy and provided his opponents with ample material for attack ads, which the group Pine Tree Results PAC pulled this week in preparation for an ad blitz targeting Platner’s replacement.
In October, 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.
Democrats are scrambling to organize an unprecedented convention to select a replacement for Platner, and under state law, they have until 5 p.m. on July 27, assuming Platner formally withdraws by the statutory deadline of this coming Monday.
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.