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Graham Platner went down swinging — even as some of his political confidants urged him not to.
Several of the embattled Maine Democrat’s closest advisers pleaded with him Wednesday to strike a “conciliatory” tone in the announcement terminating his Senate campaign, according to two people close to Platner’s team with knowledge of the internal discussions. But the progressive bucked their advice and made it a condition of dropping out of the race that he get free rein to assail establishment Democrats and blame them for the ignominious end to his rapid political rise.
And so, shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday — just two days after POLITICO reported that a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2021 — the oysterman released a defiant, emotional social media video. He continued to deny the allegations against him. He blasted the “corporate media system and the political establishment” for acting as “judge, jury and executioner.” And he railed against Washington Democrats for ripping the rug out from under him.
“Those in power, who have the ability to do so, are using these allegations as an excuse to take away all of the things that we need to run a campaign,” Platner said. “They would rather see Susan Collins win than have me be the next senator from Maine.”
The behind-the-scenes details about the debate that unfolded inside Platner’s campaign before his Wednesday night announcement were confirmed by the two people on condition they be granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
One of the individuals said Platner’s aides specifically urged him to focus on “gratitude” in his campaign farewell message — but to no avail. Platner’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Platner’s fiery 11-minute missive now stands as the capstone to an improbable campaign that overpowered staunch establishment opposition but collapsed as prominent Democrats — including the party’s powerful campaign arms and the candidate’s biggest backers — swiftly abandoned ship after POLITICO’s report.
Shunned by national Democrats and locked out of state party negotiations over how to proceed, Platner unleashed his video — one final attempt to shape a race he once dominated.
But the end of Platner’s campaign was a massive relief to Democrats who saw their tough road to retake control of the Senate crumbling if he continued on against Collins in one of the most critical races on the map.
The Democratic apparatus rushed back in the minutes after his departure from the race, with Senate Democrats’ campaign arm launching a fund to raise money for the party’s new nominee. Senate Majority PAC, a top Democrat-aligned group, said it was “committed” to defeating Collins, the incumbent Republican — just days after declaring it was “redirecting resources away from” the race because of Platner’s initial reluctance to drop out.
The about-face capped off a frenzied two days in which Platner and his top advisers debated how to proceed in private while publicly sparring with the state Democratic Party over the terms for his departure and multiple candidates began jockeying in the shadow campaign to replace him.
By the time Platner dropped out, his former ally and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson, who had frequently campaigned alongside Platner and was also backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), had already filed the paperwork to run. Jackson’s former gubernatorial primary rivals Shenna Bellows and Nirav Shah had also made not-so-subtle moves toward campaigns. Maine Beer Company founder Dan Kleban, who briefly ran for the seat last year, officially entered the race. Unsuccessful House candidates Paige Loud and Jordan Wood, as well as state Rep. Valli Geiger, another Platner ally, are also weighing running.
Platner, whose anti-oligarchy messaging generated significant excitement on the left, had pushed for the state party to commit to replacing him on November’s ballot with a progressive in his mold, arguing that doing so would be reasonable since he won last month’s primary with more than 150,000 votes, according to one of the people who spoke with POLITICO. But the party “refused to engage” with Platner’s requests, they said, leaving his campaign in the dark on next steps.
The same person said Platner shot his vertical, scorched-earth video more than four hours before releasing it. He waited to publish it on social media because his team wanted to lock in Platner’s entire staff for an all-hands call before news broke, the person said.
Platner spoke on that call around the time his video went live, expressing “a deep sense of gratitude” to his team for helping build a “working-class movement” and a desire for a “transparent” process for selecting his replacement, according to a person on the call who was granted anonymity to share details of the private discussion.
In the intervening hours between recording the video and the all-staff meeting, as Platner and his team huddled in Sullivan, Maine, on Wednesday afternoon, members of the state party’s committee governing body convened on Zoom to decide on a process to replace him.
The state party had feuded with the oysterman’s campaign for days: Campaign manager Ben Chin accused party leaders of allowing national Democrats to plan a succession process behind “closed doors” in a text to supporters midday Wednesday, while party officials slammed Platner’s team for what they saw as improperly trying to influence the process.
Chin was among the Platner aides who unsuccessfully urged the candidate to tone it down in his Wednesday night video, according to two of the people who spoke with POLITICO.
When state party committee members emerged from the Zoom meeting a bit after 7 p.m., they had a framework for a party convention to replace Platner later this month, with delegates to be selected from each county and a growing list of candidates vying for the nod. The general lack of details and prospect of a convention — rather than a caucus open to the public — left some progressives worried.
But the time for discussion was over.
The plan was in place, party leaders said, “if there is a vacancy to fill.” Less than an hour later, Platner gave them that opening.
Aaron Pelish contributed to this report.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misstated when Jenny Racicot alleged Graham Platner forced her to have sex, which he denies. She said the encounter happened in 2021.Politics
The selection of Maine’s next Democratic Senate nominee will come down to roughly 600 people — 500 of whom haven’t been chosen yet.
Graham Platner suspended his campaign on Wednesday following POLITICO’s reporting on an allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2021, which he denies. That clears the way for the Maine Democratic Party to begin the process of replacing him. Platner continued to deny the allegations on Wednesday, but said he’s leaving the race because he lost the resources needed to continue running.
Many Democrats have been preparing for Platner to exit the race, but a wide-open and unpredictable nomination process with a fast-approaching deadline means many of the details of how Platner’s replacement will be chosen remain unclear.
It comes at a crucial time for the party, which has one of its best chances to defeat GOP Sen. Susan Collins, who is the only Senate Republican running for reelection in a state won by Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.
How does the process to replace a nominee work in Maine?
The party is in charge of nominating someone. As long as Platner officially files paperwork with the secretary of state’s office withdrawing his name from the ballot before Monday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, the Maine Democratic Party has until July 27th — 19 days from now — to nominate his replacement.
Who are the candidates running to replace Platner?
Shortly after Platner suspended his campaign, former gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson, who was endorsed in that race by Sen. Bernie Sanders, announced he will seek the party’s nomination. Dan Kleban, a brewery owner in Maine, also said he’ll seek the nomination on Wednesday. Former congressional candidates Jordan Wood and Paige Loud have also said they plan to run.
Former public health official Nirav Shah and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who both ran for governor earlier this year, said in the lead-up to Platner dropping out that they were considering running to replace him.
Does the state party have a plan in place?
Shortly before Platner exited the race, Maine Democrats approved a tentative plan to hold a nominating convention before the July 27th deadline that would include roughly 600 delegates made up primarily of local party officials from around the state.
Maine Democratic Party executive director Devon Murphy-Anderson indicated in an MS NOW interview Wednesday evening that candidates may be required to collect signatures from Maine voters to be eligible for the nominating convention.
When and where will the nominating convention be?
We don’t know. The Maine Democratic Party has not announced any timing details about the convention.
How will delegates be chosen?
Each county party committee is expected to caucus prior to the state nominating convention to elect 500 convention delegates, with the remaining 100 delegates being state committee members, according to two people familiar with specific plans and granted anonymity to share them.
The state Democratic Party hasn’t provided exact details, and said in a statement on Wednesday that information would be coming soon. County chairs were scheduled to meet Thursday, and it remains unclear whether delegates will be selected by county committees themselves or through public caucuses held by those county committees.
How will delegates select their candidate?
We don’t know. The Maine Democratic Party hasn’t shared specific details on how the convention procedure will operate. The state party has some rules and procedures for state conventions available on its website, but a delegate convention to replace a nominee for U.S. Senate is uncharted waters, and the party’s rules don’t explicitly stipulate how to handle this situation. While the party has had to replace candidates for smaller races, Platner’s exit from a statewide race is unprecedented.
Will there be a debate?
We don’t know. Once candidates declare whether or not they’re running, a media network may schedule a formal debate. Or the nominating convention could provide a forum for candidates to address delegates directly. In any case, the clock is ticking to organize a televised debate in the next couple of weeks before the convention. Shah, one of the likely candidates, has already called for a televised debate.
How does Platner want the process to replace him to look?
Before Platner dropped out, his allies worked behind the scenes to try and leverage his hold on the nomination to influence the nomination process, drawing a strong rebuke from Murphy-Anderson.
Platner’s campaign manager sent a message to volunteers Wednesday morning criticizing the state party and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for “planning a potential nominating process behind closed doors,” drawing another sharp response from Murphy-Anderson as well as the DSCC.
“While we may be frustrated with Graham Platner’s continued efforts to manipulate this process, we are so thankful for his supporters and all of their efforts to defeat Susan Collins — they are a vital part of our Party and deserve to participate in an open process to select Platner’s replacement,” she said.
Platner appeared to acknowledge the accusations that he was meddling in the process in his video announcing the end of his campaign, when he urged Maine Democrats to prioritize the will of the voters in choosing his replacement.
“I’m not trying to dictate to anyone who it should be or how we get there, but I will say this: It needs to be open, transparent, and democratic,” Platner said in the video. “People in DC need to stay in DC. Decisions should not be made in back rooms by people in places of political power. Party apparatchiks are not the ones to make these decisions. These decisions need to be made in the open by the people of this state, the people who got us here.”
It is unclear whether he will attempt to influence the process publicly or behind the scenes once he exits the race.
Politics
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Thirteen years ago today, I received my very first props for contributing to WordPress Core. If my WordPress contribution journey were a person, it would now be a teenager. It’s pretty wild to think about, but I’ve now been contributing to the WordPress project in some way for a third of my life!
What is a “prop”?
In the WordPress open source project, community participants receive credit for contributing to a given change or deliverable by receiving “props.”
Props should be given to all those who contributed to the final commit, whether through patches, refreshed patches, code suggested otherwise, design, writing, user testing, or other significant investments of time and effort. Usernames are parsed for the credits list and WordPress.org profiles.
The names of all the contributors who helped make a specific release possible are collected in the weeks leading up and added to the Credits API, which powers the Credits page in the WordPress dashboard.
To date, I have been listed on the Credits page for 24 consecutive releases starting with 4.7, and 29 of the 35 releases overall since my first credited contribution in WordPress 3.6 “Oscar”, alongside 224 other contributors.
Every year is a bit different than the last, but I can confidently say that this past year has been significantly different. What it means to develop software or contribute to open source is changing rapidly with advanced AI innovations seemingly every day combined with these tools being accessible to more people than ever before. But throughout all this, one truth holds strong: open source software is more important than ever.
Looking Back
It seemed only fitting for me to instruct AI to analyze my contribution activity over the last 365 days to try and find anything interesting!
Prompt
Today is the 13th Anniversary of my first credited contribution to the WordPress project. I try to write a blog post each year to mark the occasion.
I’m looking for ideas for this years edition. Please go and read all of my past posts (accessible here at this category feed https://jonathandesrosiers.com/category/contributing-anniversaries/feed) and give me 10-12 ideas for what to focus on this year. You can also look through the other content on my site for other ideas.
After you do that, I want you to look at the git history for the
wordpress-developandgutenbergrepositories between July 8, 2025 and yesterday (July 7, 2026). I want you to parse the logs to summarize my activity and find some particular ways to analyze the data that are interesting.Be creative! These posts are the most fun when I am able to find some unique insight into a year’s worth of contributions.
Results
Your year 13 in numbers (Jul 8 2025 → Jul 7 2026)
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Core commits authored & committed | 119 (~7% of all 1,707 core commits this cycle) |
| Additional commits crediting you (props received) | 97 → ~216 credited touch points in core alone |
| Lines changed | +41,746 / −21,940 across 656 file-changes |
| Unique Trac tickets | 69 |
| Gutenberg PRs authored | 24 (+108 co-authored/credited) |
| Reverts you committed | 6 |
The headline: 80 of your 119 core commits (67%) are “Build/Test Tools.” Add Tests + General and it’s ~80%. You spent year 13 as the plumber of WordPress — CI, build pipeline, dependency stewardship, release infrastructure.
The most interesting angles the data surfaced
- The nocturnal committer. ~50 of your commits land between midnight and 4am. Tuesday (37) and Thursday (31) are your peak days; Saturday is nearly dead (3).
- The month that didn’t exist. January 2026: zero commits. March 2026: 40. Your cadence is a heartbeat synced to the 6.9 and 7.0 release cycles, not the calendar.
- The June 30th ritual. You bumped Gutenberg’s pinned hash seven times in a single day (v22.8.0 → v23.4.0) — a whole quarter of catching-up compressed into one sitting.
- Supply-chain quiet work. Pinning full-length action SHAs, replacing abandoned third-party actions, migrating release logic to a GitHub App, ca-bundle updates — you spent the year hardening the software supply chain nobody thanks you for.
- Keeping the ancient libraries breathing. lodash, underscore, backbone, getID3, Twemoji — you’re the caretaker of WordPress’s legacy vendored code.
- Future-proofing the matrix. MySQL 9.5/9.6/9.7, MariaDB 12.1, PHP 8.5 (HEIF/HEIC) — you test tomorrow’s platforms today.
- A first, quietly historic commit: “Include example for disclosing AI usage” — you helped write core’s early AI-disclosure norms.
10–12 ideas for the year-13 post
- “The Plumber’s Year: 67% of My Commits Were Infrastructure.” Own the unglamorous. A love letter to build/test/CI work — the contributions that never show up in a release announcement but without which nothing ships. This is your strongest, most authentic angle.
- “Confessions of a Nocturnal Committer.” Fun, human, data-driven: your midnight-to-4am commit cluster, Tuesday/Thursday peaks, the dead January. Chart your year as a heartbeat and reflect on what it says about maintainer rhythms (and sustainability/burnout).
- “216 Times.” Companion to your 2024 props post, flipped: this year you received credit ~216 times in core (119 committed + 97 propped). Explore the two halves of a committer’s fingerprint — the work you land yourself vs. the work you shepherd for others.
- “The Boring Commits That Keep 40% of the Web Safe.” The supply-chain security angle: pinned SHAs, abandoned-action replacement, the GitHub App migration, ca-bundle. Frame maintenance-as-security — timely and underappreciated.
- “I Test the Future So You Don’t Break in It.” MySQL 9.7, MariaDB 12.1, PHP 8.5 — a piece on being the person who runs tomorrow’s platforms against today’s code, and why the test matrix is a form of care.
- “The Commit I’m Proudest Of Was One Line About AI.” Use “Include example for disclosing AI usage” as a springboard into how WordPress (and you) navigated AI’s arrival in the contribution workflow in 2025–26. Very of-the-moment.
- “Anatomy of a Revert.” Six times this year you reverted your own or others’ work. A candid, senior-contributor essay on why reverting is a feature not a failure — iteration, humility, and trunk stability.
- “A Year in Dependencies.” The stewardship story — lodash/underscore/backbone/getID3/Twemoji. What it means to be the caretaker of code written a decade ago that you can’t just delete. Legacy as responsibility.
- “Who I Built With.” Refresh your collaborator lens for year 13: westonruter (24), jorbin (22), johnbillion (15), peterwilsoncc (14), wildworks (13)… Name the people behind the props lines and tell a story or two about the work you shared.
- “The Shape of a Release Cycle, Drawn in Commits.” Overlay your monthly commit counts on the 6.9 and 7.0 timelines — the March spike, the December bundled-themes push, the quiet stretches. Show readers what a maintainer’s year looks like mapped to what shipped.
- “Same Job, New Tools: Automating Myself Out of the Loop.” Your Gutenberg PRs are almost all release automation — GitHub App auth, GHCR publishing, reproducible builds, Dependabot. A reflective piece on spending your labor building the machine that does the labor, and what that means for the next generation of contributors.
I haven’t validated any of these numbers, but they do seem relatively accurate at first glance. I had ChatGPT create an embroidered patch that reflects the summary above.
And some of those writing suggestions are pretty good ideas! I’m out of time for today, so I’ll file these in the backlog for another day. But here’s to another year of helping the world find their voice to share their stories using WordPress. 
Past Milestones
“Props” Anniversaries: Ten, Eleven, Twelve (archive).
Commit-iversaries: Two, Five, Six, Seven (archive).
Featured image credit: CC0 licensed photo by Mark Westguard from the WordPress Photo Directory.
The post 13 Years Contributing to WordPress appeared first on Jonathan Desrosiers.
WordPress Planet
Dan Kleban, the Maine Beer Company founder who briefly ran for Senate last year before dropping his bid and endorsing Gov. Janet Mills in the race, relaunched his campaign Wednesday by taking early swings against GOP Sen. Susan Collins and the “DC establishment.”
“I’m glad that Graham Platner has ended his campaign. For too long, this race has not been about Susan Collins’ repeated failures to do what’s right for Maine. We need to get back to that,” Kleban said in a statement Wednesday night. “Mainers deserve a senator who will fight for them against the DC establishment while also doing what’s right. I plan to be that senator.”
Kleban announced he was jumping back into the race in a post on Substack hours before Platner released a video saying he was suspending campaign operations. Kleban said in an interview on CNN Wednesday night that he “would not” take Platner’s endorsement if it was offered.
He also said the truncated nominating process the Maine Democratic Party will undertake to replace Plater is “not a perfect proxy for a full primary,” but that Maine voters “deserve a fair and open process that’s free of meddling from anyone from D.C. or New York.”
Kleban sought to position himself as the candidate to carry Platner’s movement forward and echoed the now-former nominee by decrying a system that’s “rigged against working-class folks.” He also said he would not vote for Chuck Schumer as Senate Democratic leader.
But Kleban stopped short of embracing Platner’s stance on Israel. When asked by CNN if he would categorize the war in Gaza as a “genocide,” Kleban did not repeat the term, instead calling it an “absolute tragedy” and saying he would condition arms sales to Israel.
Politics
Graham Platner just dropped out of Maine’s Senate race. Some Democrats have already said they want to replace him.
A POLITICO report of a new sexual allegation against Platner on Monday set off a scramble among Maine Democrats, as they pressured the candidate to step down and weighed who could take his place to defeat GOP Sen. Susan Collins, the only Republican running in a state won by Kamala Harris this cycle. The party has long held that winning the Maine Senate race will be critical to retaking control of the upper chamber.
The steady loss of support and financial backing for Platner’s campaign — which denied the allegation — gave several progressives an opening to start their preparations.
Some, like former Senate President Troy Jackson, were more explicit than others, setting up joint fundraising committees before Platner dropped out. Others, including Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, said they would “seriously consider” entering the race if Platner suspended his campaign. Meanwhile, a few possible candidates, including Rep. Jared Golden, Maine Senate President Mattie Daughtry and actor Patrick Dempsey (yes, really) have ruled themselves out.
Now, jockeying for the nomination is expected to accelerate, with less than four months until Election Day.
State law gives the Maine Democratic Party the authority to replace Platner, and mandates that his successor must be chosen by July 27. On Wednesday, just before Platner suspended his campaign, the Maine Democratic Party approved tentative plans for a nominating convention to pick his successor.
Here’s where things stand.
Officially running
Troy Jackson
Jackson, who was a Platner ally before calling on him to step aside Monday, swiftly launched his Senate bid after Platner suspended his campaign.
“I’m in. And we’re going to defeat Susan Collins,” Jackson wrote in a post on X. “Maine deserves a Senator that will fight for working families.”
Jackson was widely speculated to jump into the race and had filed his interest in a bid with the Federal Election Commission before Wednesday.
A logger with long ties to organized labor, he’s quickly attracted attention from many of the oysterman’s progressive supporters. Our Revolution, a progressive organization founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), has already thrown its support behind Jackson.
But already, some votes from his 20-year history in the legislature are resurfacing, such as his 2009 state Senate vote against a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, giving Platner’s base a bit of pause. He later called that the “worst vote I ever took.” His closeness to Platner during the primary may also give pause to some Democrats as they choose their next nominee.
Still, as one of a number of Democrats who just lost the primary for governor, Jackson has the benefit of being able to quickly rebuild his campaign.
Dan Kleban
Kleban also announced his bid Wednesday. The 49-year-old founder of Maine Beer Company had dropped out of the Democratic Senate primary earlier this year and threw his weight behind establishment-backed Gov. Janet Mills.
“Mainers deserve a senator who will fight for them against the D.C. establishment while also doing what’s right,” Kleban said in a statement. “I plan to be that senator.”
While Kleban hasn’t served in public office, he has long been involved in Maine Democratic circles.
Nirav Shah
Shah, a former public health official, entered the race on Thursday morning, after he told POLITICO Tuesday afternoon he was still “evaluating.” Before both of those comments, he was already positioning himself as a candidate.
He called for an open process on Tuesday, including at least one televised debate, and multiple public town halls across Maine.
Shah oversaw the state’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. He mounted his first run for public office earlier this year, finishing second in Maine’s gubernatorial primary. He said in an interview that he is “very, very much aligned” with Platner’s politics.
Considering running
Shenna Bellows
In a statement on Tuesday, the Maine Secretary of State said she would “seriously consider entering this race, because I believe I am uniquely fit to unite Mainers and defeat Susan Collins in just over 100 days.”
Bellows, who also ran unsuccessfully for governor, has been fielding calls about a potential run, according to a person familiar with her campaign, granted anonymity to speak about private conversations. The person pointed to her ideological alignment with Platner on progressive issues and compelling biography — she grew up poor in rural Maine and flipped a GOP-held state Senate district — providing an early glimpse of part of her pitch if she decides to enter the race.
Bellows previously ran for Senate and lost badly to Collins in 2014. She will need to prove to voters that she can win this time around, given her past defeat.
Jordan Wood
Wood is another former Senate candidate, but he switched to run for the state’s 2nd District after Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) decided he wouldn’t attempt reelection. Wood finished third in that race with state Auditor Matt Dunlap winning the nomination after a ranked-choice count.
“To beat Susan Collins, we need a candidate who can provide a true contrast and run an unapologetically progressive campaign: Passing Medicare for All. Stopping ICE terrorizing our streets. Standing up to Donald Trump’s abuse of power,” Wood wrote on X on Tuesday, saying he was “continuing conversations with voters across Maine if I should enter an open Senate race.”
A former staffer of former Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Wood may have trouble courting Platner supporters who want someone from outside of D.C. But he posted solid fundraising during his House run and has worked hard to keep his name in the fold.
Paige Loud
Loud also ran for Congress in the 2nd District, coming in last during the first round of voting.. She quickly filed interest paperwork with the FEC on Tuesday to succeed Platner.
“I don’t think we should be electing a man,” Loud, who also held an unpaid role on Platner’s campaign before leaving earlier this year, said in an interview. “I think I’m tired of making women vote for a man.”
Valli Geiger
People close to Platner have been quick to mention Geiger — a member of the state House and top ally of the oysterman — as a potential successor. But Wednesday brought some drama on whether she’d have Platner’s blessing.
Geiger told a Maine local outlet that Platner said he was throwing his support behind her. The Platner campaign then said that no such commitment was made.
Geiger did not respond to POLITICO’s phone call and subsequent text message on Wednesday.
In an interview with MSNOW, Geiger said she’d taken calls about running for Senate and that she would be willing to run. But the 70-year-old state representative said a younger candidate would be better.
Andrea LaFlamme
LaFlamme was a write-in candidate during the Democratic Senate primary, receiving just over 1,000 votes. On Tuesday, she said she believes she is the “best person to take on Susan Collins” in a post on Bluesky.
LaFlamme initially launched her write-in bid because of Platner’s earlier controversies, telling the student paper of the college she works for that electing Platner “sends the message that women are not valued.” Given the fate of her write-in campaign, and the number of well-known Democrats already running, it’s unlikely she will ultimately take on Collins.
Some names to watch
Chellie Pingree
Pingree is a longtime member of Congress serving Maine’s safe-blue 1st District. Her bid is more of a long shot, given the party would also have to replace her on the ballot — thus kicking off another rush of names — but her reputation as a longtime party leader could put her in contention. Her daughter Hannah is already the Democratic nominee for governor, as well.
“Mainers deserve a nominee they can trust, a campaign focused on the challenges facing our state and our country, and a Democratic Party that responds to allegations of sexual assault with clarity, compassion, and accountability,” Pingree said in a statement Monday, calling on Platner to step down.
Ryan Fecteau
Fecteau is the youngest person to ever become Maine’s state House Speaker.
He joined other Maine Democrats in pushing Platner to exit the race, saying POLITICO’s report “make[s] it clear that Graham’s campaign cannot be successful” in a post to Facebook.
Sara Gideon
After a failed run against Collins in 2020, Gideon has maintained a relatively low public profile. But she lands a spot on this list regardless — mostly because her campaign is still sitting on $2.4 million, which was noted in a required FEC report that was filed on Wednesday.
Alec Hernández and Jessica Piper contributed to this report.
Politics
Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner ended his campaign on Wednesday after facing a detailed allegation of sexual assault, an astounding and rapid fall for the progressive oysterman whose meteoric rise and grassroots support helped him overcome establishment opposition to secure his party’s nomination.
But a persistent accumulation of controversies weighed on Platner’s campaign for months, and Monday marked a turning point: Democratic leadership, many of Platner’s staunchest progressive backers and key groups who had been helping fund his bid withdrew their support of Platner and pressured him to drop out after POLITICO reported a new allegation of sexual assault.
Maine resident Jenny Racicot said Platner forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections. Platner called the allegations “all false” in the 11-minute, 15-second video posted on social media Wednesday night, adding, “it’s not real.”
“We are suspending campaign operations,” Platner said in the video. “I want to make clear, though: I intend to file my paperwork to withdraw.”
He did not immediately endorse another candidate to take his place, saying the process must be “open” and controlled by the “people of Maine.”
“We believe that for the movement to continue, it can’t be me,” Platner said. “This is incredibly difficult, because I know that some will think it’s an admission of guilt, and it most certainly is not. We’re not doing it because of the allegations, we’re doing it because of the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power.”
The Maine Democratic Party has until July 27 to name a replacement candidate, according to state law. Platner faced a July 13 deadline to decide whether he would drop out so the party could have time to replace him on the ballot.
The party approved a plan on Wednesday, shortly before Platner’s announcement, to choose the replacement candidate in a state party convention.
State party officials, who previously called for Platner to withdraw from the race, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Within hours of POLITICO’s article publishing Monday, top Democrats in Maine and Washington demanded that he end his campaign. Those figures included former major supporters, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The Democrat also lost key financial backing in a contest where cash will be king. He was abandoned by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee and the Senate Majority PAC, the top super PAC supporting Senate Democrats, which said it is “redirecting resources away from the Maine Senate race in light of the latest allegations.”
VoteVets, a group that supports veterans for elected office, and End Citizens United, a liberal good governance group, also rescinded their endorsements.
Racicot’s allegation is the latest and most serious one Platner has faced, after The New York Times reported that she and several other former romantic partners alleged the candidate had displayed disturbing and sometimes violent patterns of behavior. Platner denied those claims, too.
Racicot told POLITICO she cut off contact with Platner after telling him their encounter was not consensual. She said she was torn over coming forward, in part, because she agrees with him politically.
Platner first announced his outsider campaign for Senate in August of 2025 with a flashy launch video highlighting his rural Maine roots and pledge to take on corporate interests.
But as he drew national attention, a slow drip of controversial moments from his past emerged.
POLITICO and other outlets revealed last fall a series of Reddit posts that Platner had made including posts that disparaged rural Mainers, promoted violent political action and described himself as a “communist.”
He later drew further criticism when an old photograph revealed a tattoo on his chest of a skull that resembled a Nazi totenkopf. Platner later had the tattoo covered and denied that he knew of its Nazi associations.
Still, Platner continued to gain momentum in the polls, and his rise forced Democratic Gov. Janet Mills — establishment Democrats’ preferred pick to take on GOP Sen. Susan Collins — to suspend her bid before the primary, citing a lack of financial resources. Platner went on to win the largely uncontested June 9 Democratic primary with 72 percent of the vote.
Platner’s decision to drop out leaves Democrats scrambling ahead of a critical Senate race against Collins — one that the party had identified as a must-win in order to regain control of the upper chamber in November.
It is unclear if Mills might be open to rejoining the race, though a person familiar with the situation told POLITICO that there was little prospect of party chiefs receiving support for her. Other potential Democratic candidates include former public health official Nirav Shah, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson — who unsuccessfully ran for governor this year — as well as state Rep. Valli Geiger and brewery owner Dan Kleban, who briefly launched his own Senate campaign last year but dropped out when Mills entered the race.
Aaron Pelish contributed to this report.
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Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, speaks on the House floor on Feb. 27, 2026. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
A legislative ethics committee found that Homer Republican Rep. Sarah Vance violated Alaska ethics law when she used official legislative letterhead to publicly condemn a Homer News story last September. The story was about a local vigil she helped organize for Charlie Kirk, a right-wing political activist who was assassinated last year.
The House Subcommittee on the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics launched a probe into Vance’s conduct after receiving 18 ethics complaints from September to December last year. On June 26, the seven-member ethics committee, by a majority vote, found probable cause that Vance violated the Legislative Ethics Act “by using Alaska State Legislature letterhead for a nonlegislative purpose, for involvement in or support of or opposition to partisan political activity.”
The committee determined that Vance’s use of official legislative letterhead violated Alaska statute that states that legislators may not use “public funds, facilities, equipment, services, or another government asset or resource for a nonlegislative purpose, for involvement in or support of or opposition to partisan political activity.”
The committee determined no corrective reaction is warranted, other than adhering to the authorized use of official legislative letterhead in the future.
Vance opposed the ethics committee’s decision, saying in an interview on Wednesday her letter was not partisan activity and it was within her free speech rights to communicate with constituents. “I respectfully disagree,” she said. “The letterhead is mine, and my free speech should not be limited on how I can speak on behalf of my constituency.”
At issue in the probe is how Vance responded to a Homer News story published on September 17, 2025 that covered a local vigil for Charlie Kirk. Kirk was shot and killed at a public event on a college campus in Utah the week before. One suspect was arrested and is currently standing trial. Kirk was a vocal ally of President Donald Trump focused on mobilizing conservative students on college campuses, and many conservative supporters staged vigils and events around the country to memorialize him.
Vance wrote to the newspaper’s publisher, Sound Publishing, Inc. owned by Carpenter Media Group, an international chain, on her official legislative letterhead condemning the coverage of the Homer vigil. She also posted the letter to her official legislative Facebook page. The story described Kirk as a “far-right activist and Christian-Nationalist icon,” and described his views as “often racist” and “controversial,” characterizations to which Vance objected.
“In the letter Representative Vance expressed her displeasure with portions of the content of the article and her perception that the Homer News is biased, engages in partisan rhetoric and political talking points,” the committee wrote in their decision.
The committee identified several key phrases in her letter that violated Alaska statute, including that Vance noted a “growing movement to boycott” the Homer News that she said would result in potential financial repercussions. “If the paper continues to treat community events as opportunities for partisan spin, the consequence will be financial as well as reputational,” Vance wrote.
The committee members invited Vance to answer questions and appear before them, but she filed a request to dismiss the ethics investigation and declined to appear. On June 26, the committee held a public hearing with public comment, then moved to a nearly four hour executive session before announcing the majority vote finding probable cause that Vance violated ethics law.
Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, one of two House members on the committee, penned a dissenting opinion, which the committee issued with the decision. He questioned whether the authority of ethics law extends to official letterhead and defended Vance’s First Amendment right to free speech.
The committee dismissed three other statutory violations cited in complaints, related to political fundraising and campaigning, legislative employee political parties and campaigning, and donations. The 18 complaints are confidential, and were not made public with the decision.
In an interview, Vance said she believes the complaints were politically partisan and should have been dismissed. She said she is aware of the ethics rules barring the use of letterhead for campaigning for a specific candidate or fundraising. She rejected the finding that her letter was politically partisan.
“I called out the media for being biased and engaging in partisan activity, that doesn’t make me partisan, that’s just providing accountability,” she said. “Just like when I write letters to the Board of Fish for not following the public process, and I call them to account and say ‘you need to take a look at this and redo your actions.’ It’s the same advocacy on behalf of my constituents.”
Vance said she was expressing her free speech right and communicating with constituents with her letter and on her social media page. She said that includes noting the potential boycott and financial repercussions for the Homer News.
“I wanted them to know the seriousness of what was happening with their paper that had been for a long time, and it wasn’t a threat, it was just saying ‘you need to know what’s going on.’ I meant it more informational, but people perceived it differently,” she said.
Vance said she is still deciding whether to appeal or take further action on the issue.
Nationwide, Kirk’s killing prompted a pressure campaign by Republicans and conservatives to clamp down on language deemed critical of Kirk. A Reuters investigation found more than 600 people were fired, suspended or investigated for comments about Kirk’s death within the first two months of his killing. Some have successfully sued for First Amendment retaliation and have received large settlements or monetary damages.
The fallout from Vance’s letter was significant, though it was not mentioned in the ethics committee’s decision.
In response to Vance’s letter, the management of Sound Publishing, Inc. and parent-company Carpenter Media Group changed the story, removing some of the language Vance objected to without consulting the reporter or editor at the Homer News, who later resigned over the decision.
In a joint letter, four reporters and editors with the Homer News and the Peninsula Clarion — also owned by Carpenter Media Group — said they did not have a problem with Vance’s criticisms, but voiced strong objections to the management changing a story “at the behest of a local official.” They called the decision a betrayal of the journalists on staff and the company’s integrity.
“We believe this destroys the credibility the public has placed in us as reporters and editors,” they wrote. The group said they could not continue doing their job knowing the possibility of future pressure from an elected official could result in stories being changed without their consultation.
Vance said she was surprised that the publisher responded and changed the article, and learned later that reporters and editors were not consulted.
“It was never my intent for anyone to lose their job or to create a disagreement within the inner workings of the paper, but what it did do that was highlighted by those articles is it revealed there were long term issues that had been going on for quite some time,” she said.
“People say that I bullied and intimidated the media, I don’t believe that for one minute,” Vance said. “Sound Publishing is a pretty big corporation, and it was never my intent to bully, but just to say ‘no, this is wrong. You need to be aware of what’s going on in this community.’ And I’m going to speak up on behalf of my constituents, because their voice has been drowned out down here.”
Jake Dye, one of the reporters that quit the Peninsula Clarion, said by email on Wednesday that voters will decide whether they approve of Vance’s actions in the November election where she is running for re-election in House District 6. He said Vance’s comments implying financial repercussions crossed a line and “represents a problematic effort to explicitly intimidate the press.”
He said he doesn’t blame Vance for what happened and said Sound Publishing and Carpenter Media management are responsible for their response.
“There are three fewer journalists on the Kenai Peninsula today than there were a year ago,” Dye wrote. “That’s not because Vance wrote a letter, but because our corporate overlords chose to fold under her pressure and let down the talented people they employed to do reporting in the state.”