By Nolan D. McCaskill and Jonathan Allen
WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - At least six Maine Democrats had jumped in to fill the sudden void on Thursday in a critical U.S. Senate race after progressive candidate Graham Platner dropped out when a string of controversies culminated this week with an accusation of rape.
The seat in the rural northeastern state, currently held by Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins, is vital for the party's chances of taking control of the Senate in November's midterm elections.
Six Democratic candidates have formally announced their campaigns in the hours since Platner dropped out less than three weeks before the ballot deadline. Two of them came up short in the nominating contest last month for governor, both laying claim to the populist mantle that gave the win to Platner, an oyster farmer and U.S. Marine Corps veteran.
Nirav Shah, a lawyer and epidemiologist, promised Mainers he would fight to reduce medical bills and make "billionaires and the biggest corporations finally pay their fair share."
"The past few days have been frustrating and downright maddening for all of us here," Shah said in a video message announcing his candidacy on social media. "And now it's time to focus on the future."
Troy Jackson, a fifth-generation logger from one of Maine's most remote corners, announced his candidacy on Wednesday night, promising to empower "a powerful movement of working-class people." In a show of force, Jackson's campaign announced endorsements by 54 state and local by Thursday, including state lawmakers and local leaders from Orono north of Bangor to Westbrook near Portland.
Both candidates focused their attacks on Collins, an incumbent of nearly three decades, who is running for re-election. Republican officials said they were unperturbed.
"Susan Collins has defeated every DC-anointed candidate Chuck Schumer has sent her way," Samantha Cantrell, a regional spokesperson for Senate Republicans' campaign arm, said in a statement, referring to the Senate Democratic leader, "and she'll defeat whichever loser comes out of this process as well."
The Maine Democratic Party says the replacement candidate will be picked at an imminent nominating convention, with only days to spare before the July 27 state deadline to submit the candidate's name for the November ballots. The party has not yet announced how the candidate will be chosen.
Other announced candidates are Dan Kleban, co-owner of microbrewery Maine Beer Company; Jordan Wood, a former staffer in Congress, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for a Maine seat in the U.S. House of Representatives; Paige Loud, a social worker who also lost a campaign to win the House seat; and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who came fourth in June's contest to become the Democratic nominee for governor.
Bellows drew national attention when she ruled that Donald Trump was ineligible to appear on the 2024 Republican primary presidential ballot because he had encouraged his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The U.S. Supreme Court overruled her.
All the would-be Platner replacements are touting their credentials as outsiders to the political establishment and opponents of status quo politics in varying ways.
"I have been told that I am too progressive, that I am too young, that a gay man can't win," Wood, 36, said in announcing his candidacy. "These cynics are wrong."
A SWIFT POLITICAL RISE IS HALTED
Platner's rapid political ascent was also dogged by increasingly unflattering media reports, which he dismissed as a coordinated effort to hamstring a working-class political movement. He apologized for offensive Reddit posts and sought to explain away a now-covered tattoo he got as a young Marine that resembled a Nazi symbol.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Platner's wife, Amy Gertner, had said her husband sent sexually explicit texts to several women early in their marriage. In a video message, Gertner said the two had a "great marriage."
His campaign was ended after a former romantic partner, Jenny Racicot, came forward in media interviews this week to accuse Platner of rape, saying he came into her house drunk one night in 2021 and had sex with her over her protestations. Platner said the allegation was "categorically false."
Platner has acknowledged poor behavior in the past and asked for forgiveness, saying he struggled with alcohol abuse and mental health issues after military deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Running national election campaigns is a multimillion-dollar enterprise, and it is unclear how much was in Platner's campaign coffers and where it might end up. His most recent filings, from May before he won the Democratic Party's nomination, showed his campaign had $2.2 million on hand.
Under the Federal Election Commission's rules, Platner can transfer unlimited funds to a political party committee but only $2,000 directly to the candidate replacing him.
(Reporting by Nolan McCaskill in Washington and Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone, Nick Zieminski, Aurora Ellis and David Gregorio)
