Rachel Flehinger was disappointed and frustrated when oyster farmer Graham Platner withdrew his name as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine after an allegation of sexual assault he denies.
Flehinger, 50, of Portland, Maine, and the founder of community activism group ActivateMaine, felt Platner was “canceled” by the Democratic Party before proper legal investigations of the allegations were conducted. She has known Platner since before he ran for office, she told USA TODAY, and found that he was always supportive and inclusive.
As someone with post-traumatic stress disorder, Flehinger also thinks he was unfairly judged for some of his past behavior. (Platner has apologized forcontroversial Reddit posts, including those in which he asked
"Why don’t black people tip?" and said that sexual assault victims should "take some responsibility," saying he made them when he had PTSD and depression after leaving the military.)
But for all her disappointment, Flehinger said she will “1000%” vote for Troy Jackson, the former Maine Senate President who officially replaced Platner as the Democratic nominee on July 25.
"He stands on progressive policies," she said.
"I am ‘Anyone But Collins,’ but I think Troy stands with me on the issues I care about," Flehinger said, referring to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, whom Jackson will face in November.
Many Platner supporters like Flehinger are hurt and disappointed. Some of them felt betrayed by Platner himself, while others don’t believe the accusations against him, find the timing suspicious or think there was more to the story.
For some, their anger is directed at the Democratic Party: Karen Heck, former mayor of Waterville, Maine, and a Platner supporter, said she is “sick to death of the establishment Democrats who were threatened by the energy Graham unleashed" and is planning to unenroll from the party.
Yet many remain committed to what they see as the movement Platner launched, starting with defeating Collins, which could be the key to Democrats’ hopes of taking control of the U.S. Senate.
Ryan Warren, a 43-year-old from Fairfield, Maine, who volunteered for Platner’s campaign since August 2025, said he felt uncertain and a sense of grief when the sexual assault allegation broke July 6 in Politico. But the principles he believes in, which include health care as a right, affordable housing and a minimum tax on billionaires, are bigger than just one candidate, he said.
"There was a lot of confusion and mixed emotions two weeks ago. If our movement was only about a candidate or an astroturf trend, we would have been sunk," Warren, now the organizer of a network of Platner's volunteers that want to keep his policies alive, said in an email to USA TODAY. "Most everyone I’ve spoken to, whatever their concerns about the recent past or the future of our movement, sees that Troy Jackson has worked hard for those principles, is genuinely committed to them."
Will Platner fans support Jackson?
In some ways, Jackson was the heir apparent to Platner, an oyster farmer from Sullivan, a coastal town just north of Bar Harbor. Jackson is a logger from Allagash, a tiny town almost as far north as you can go in Maine.
“He has the experience of being among people,” Flehinger said. “In the same way Graham had oystermen, he had loggers.”
Platner was formerly endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, as was Jackson in the Democratic gubernatorial primary he lost to Hannah Pingree. Platner and Jackson had endorsed each other before the primary. After Platner’s July 8 withdrawal announcement, Our Revolution, the grassroots political action organization born out of Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, endorsed Jackson.
University of New Hampshire Survey Center Director Andy Smith said in an interview that Jackson is “Graham Platner with a record," meaning Jackson has previously served in elected office, unlike Platner, but the two men have similar progressive, economically populist ideologies. On the other hand, Jackson lacks Platner's charismatic speaking style, Smith noted.
Jim Melcher, a political science professor at the University of Maine at Farmington, told USA TODAY in early July that Jackson would be the "closest thing to Platner in terms of his populism, on being critical of corporations, emphasizing labor unions."
Indeed, Flehinger said when she started looking at the possible candidates to replace Platner, she realized Jackson was the most closely aligned with her. Warren said he’s "excited" to vote for Jackson.
“His commitment to popular policies that help ordinary Mainers, I don't think his commitment to those ideas has been challenged by anybody, you know. I think he's been standing by workers for decades,” Warren said in an interview with USA TODAY. “He has the commitment to the right policies that will be good for Mainers, and I think that he has the legislative experience and ability to build coalitions to get things done.”
Jackson started his career as a Republican who opposed abortion and gay marriage, but is now a progressive Democrat who has received high scores from abortion and LGBTQ groups. There have been reports that he had a temper when he ran the state Senate.
But Flehinger, who runs a community organizing group called ActivateMaine, thinks it's admirable that he changed and said that they don’t have the luxury of looking for “perfect people” anymore.
Or will they spurn the party?
Maine voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election by nearly seven points, but Collins has won five terms in the state thanks to her moderate voting record. She's the only Republican senator to represent a Harris-won state, and this year, winning her seat is a key priority for Democrats as they hope to flip four GOP seats and take the majority in the Senate.
A poll from UNH Survey Center found that 51% of those who voted for Platner chose Jackson as their first choice for his replacement. Jackson drew his strongest support from self-described socialists (72%) and progressives (60%).
Yet it also found that Democrats aren’t as united behind him as Republicans are behind Collins: 88% of Democrats say they will vote for him, as opposed to 99% of Republicans who say they will support Collins. 4% of Democrats and 2% of Independents said they are considering another candidate, and 2% and 10% respectively aren’t sure.
Smith thinks that in the end, Democrats will coalesce around Jackson. Typically, party members will fall back in line when an election arrives, and Smith thinks that will be especially true in a midterm year when Democrats are angry.
“They're going to end up voting for the Democratic nominee, no matter who that is,” Smith said. “They're mad as hell, and they're going to get out and vote. And this vote for the Democratic candidate for Senate is essentially a vote against Trump.”
Flehinger said that many of her peers who support Platner are disillusioned. Warren was frustrated with the Maine Democratic Party's attitude after the sexual assault allegations became public, saying it felt condescending toward his supporters. Meanwhile, Flehinger objected to the party's accusation that Platner was trying to put his "thumb on the scale" in selecting a new candidate, an allegation his campaign denied.
Heck is planning on leaving the party but said she will still vote against Collins this election. Flehinger said there are a lot of “ABC” people—anyone but Collins—and Warren thinks that people will “vote strategically.”
“Some people feel this way, some people feel that way, right?” Warren said. “So I think that there are people who will be hurt and who will enjoy other things about the beauty that Maine has to offer in the fall instead of knocking doors. I think in terms of people's personal convictions that we will come together and we will vote strategically to defeat Susan Collins in the fall.”
Despite their disappointment, Warren and Flehinger don’t want Platner’s movement to die with his campaign.
“I don't think that it serves anybody to quit politics," Flehinger said. “I think it's our responsibility to stay there and keep voting and keep trying to change the system.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will Graham Platner supporters back Troy Jackson in Maine Senate race?
