Graham Platner, the Democratic Party nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine, announced Wednesday that he’s suspending his campaign. The move comes two days after Politico reported allegations of rape against him by a former girlfriend. He posted an emotional video explaining his decision.
“And I just want to make it clear this is all false,” Platner said.
“The things that have been claimed did not happen; it’s not real.”
He described the past few days as an ordeal no regular person should have to survive, a normal guy suddenly thrust into a spotlight he says he never wanted. He accused the media and the political establishment of skipping the investigation entirely and jumping straight to a verdict.
“I learned about this through press inquiries with no time to truly respond, no time for investigations before a corporate media system and the political establishment got to act as judge, jury and executioner,” he said.
“Accusations are supposed to be the beginning of things, not the end.”
Platner claimed the allegations surfaced now for a specific reason. His official nomination locks in on July 13, and he says this was the last window anyone had to knock him off the ballot before that happened.
“I only have until July 13th until I am officially the nominee. This was the last week to try to get me off of the ballot, and that’s why this is occurring,” he said.
He argued the real threat was never the allegations themselves, but what the political establishment plans to do with them. Cut off his fundraising. Cut off his voter data. Starve the campaign of everything it needs simply to function. He made his read on their real preference painfully clear.
“They would rather see Susan Collins win than have me be the next senator from Maine,” he said.
He leaned heavily on his June 9 primary win, in which he pulled in more votes than any primary candidate in Maine’s history, to argue that whatever happens next should be decided by voters, not party insiders in Washington.
“It needs to be open, transparent, and Democratic,” he said.
“Party apparatchiks are not the ones to make these decisions.”
Then, the announcement itself.
“We are suspending campaign operations,” Platner said, adding that he intends to file paperwork to formally withdraw from the race.
He framed the decision as anything but an admission of guilt; instead, he blamed outside forces for making it impossible for the campaign to continue functioning, even after beating what he called one of the most entrenched political systems in the world just weeks earlier.
“We went toe-to-toe with one of the most entrenched political systems in the history of the world, and we won,” Platner said.
“We beat them on June 9th in overwhelming numbers.”
Before signing off, he insisted the movement, and the ballot line his name currently occupies, still belongs to the voters who built it, not to party leadership in Washington.
“But now the ball is in the court of the democratic establishment,” Platner said.
“My name might be on the ballot right now, but that ballot line belongs to the people of Maine.”
Platner closed by thanking his supporters.
“From the bottom of my heart, thank you,” Platner said. “Thank all of you and keep fighting. We’re gonna win someday.”
Hellbound and Down 
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