Platner officially terminates Senate bid after bombshell rape allegation ends campaign

Graham Platner the embattled Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, on Friday publicly released the letter formally withdrawing from the U.S. Senate race, thanking supporters before signing off with, "F**k ICE. Free Palestine. Up the Hearts."

Platner posted the July 10 letter on X after submitting it to the Maine Department of the Secretary of State's Division of Elections.

"I write to formally withdraw my candidacy for United States Senate," Platner wrote.

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The letter thanked the 156,084 Mainers who voted for him in last month's Democratic primary and argued they had backed "a new kind of politics" focused on issues including Medicare for All, stronger unions and limiting the influence of billionaires in politics.

"My name may have been on the ballot, but that ballot line belongs to the people of Maine," Platner wrote. "As such, please consider this notice as my official withdrawal from consideration for this office."

Platner concluded the letter by writing, "F**k ICE. Free Palestine. Up the Hearts."

The letter comes two days after Platner announced he was suspending his campaign amid mounting controversies and allegations of sexual misconduct that he has repeatedly denied, and a chorus of calls from top Democrats in Maine, the nation's capital, and across the country to drop out of the race immediately.

It also came three days before a crucial 5 p.m. Monday deadline. Missing it would have prevented Maine Democrats from replacing Platner with a new nominee on the general election ballot.

A populist Democrat who was backed last September by progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders, Platner was challenging longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a high-profile, combustible and expensive race in Maine, which is one of a handful that will determine if the GOP holds onto its slim Senate majority in November's midterm elections.

"For the movement to continue, it can’t be me. For that reason, we are suspending campaign operations," Platner said on Wednesday in a video posted to social media.

The end of his campaign came a month after Platner won a landslide victory in Maine's June 9 Democratic Senate primary, but just days after an explosive report contained an allegation of rape from a woman he previously dated.

Maine resident Jenny Racicot told CNN "by dictionary definition" Platner "raped" her. She also said over the course of three interviews with Politico that Platner forced her to have sex five years ago against her will, a claim that he denied.

Platner this week was hit with a second explosive allegation of sexual misconduct. In a report published by The Washington Post, Platner was accused of removing condoms during sex with his ex-girlfriend Lyndsey Fifield after she explicitly directed him to wear them.

Fifield had previously accused Platner in a New York Times report of physical misconduct during their relationship, saying that he sometimes grabbed her hard enough to leave marks on her body and that one time he twisted her arm around her back, pushed her into a bedroom and held the door shut until she "calmed down."

The Platner campaign responded that Fifield's latest allegations were "categorically false and politically motivated," pointing to her previous work for the conservative Heritage Foundation.

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Addressing the multiple allegations in his video announcement, a visibly angry Platner charged, "This is all false. The things that have been claimed did not happen. It is not real."

The Marine Corps combat veteran and oyster farmer became the all-but-certain party nominee in the spring after two-term Gov. Janet Mills, who was backed by Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and the party establishment, suspended her bid after significantly trailing Platner in fundraising and polling.

But as he moved towards capturing the nomination, Platner was forced to play defense amid multiple controversies that muddied the final days of his primary campaign and overshadowed his victory.

Past inflammatory online comments made on a now-deleted Reddit account came back to haunt him at the same time he was reeling from revelations of a now covered-up tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol. Then reports that Platner exchanged sexually explicit messages with several women while married came right before allegations from ex-girlfriends of a history of rape fantasies, heavy drinking and violent episodes.

Platner repeatedly called the allegations of violence untrue.

The mounting controversy drew plenty of attention, gave Republicans more ammunition to use against him and triggered some Democrats in the nation's capital to question whether Platner was damaged goods.

But the allegations didn't stop him from riding a populist wave to capture the nomination in a landslide.

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Platner, who struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from his three tours in the war in Iraq with the Marines and one tour with the Army National Guard in Afghanistan, apologized for his controversial Reddit posts after some of them made headlines after he launched his Senate campaign.

In his primary night victory speech last month, Platner emphasized that he was a changed man.

"If you believe, as I do, that we can change our politics and change our country, then you must also believe that people can change," Platner told the crowd. "And the reason I believe that is because I have lived it."

After the latest allegations went viral last week, a growing chorus of Democrats called on Platner to quit the race, from establishment figures like Schumer to progressives among his biggest backers, including Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mass., and Rep. Ro Khanna, Calif., who campaigned with Platner in Maine in June.

The Maine Democratic Party announced earlier this week that officials were working "around the clock" to determine a replacement process, but claimed Platner's team was trying "to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like."

Platner's team, responding, said they had reached out to the party but denied they were trying to put any "finger on the scale."

A day later, the state party announced it would hold a nominating convention, which Fox News Digital confirmed would likely consist of 600 voting delegates, to choose a new Senate nominee.

That didn't appear to sit well with Platner, who in his video said, "What comes next needs to come from the people. Needs to come from the people of Maine. Needs to come from the voters who on June 9….said no to this kind of politics. Voted for a politics that would actually represent them. Vote against the political system. Against the donor class. Against the entrenched forces."

Platner, who ran an outsider campaign, said that if he had continued his bid, he’d lose the ability to raise money and access crucial voter data, essential elements to any campaign.

"Those in power who have the ability to do so are using these allegations as an excuse to take away all the things that we need to run a campaign," he charged.

Since Wednesday's announcement, a slew of Democrats have jumped into the race to succeed Platner as the party's Senate nominee.

The list includes three gubernatorial contenders who came up short in last month's primary: progressive Troy Jackson, a former state Senate president who was also backed by Sanders; Nirav Shah, the former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention; and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.

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Collins, a moderate Republican who at times votes against President Donald Trump's agenda, is running for a sixth six-year term in the Senate.

Republicans currently control the chamber 53-47 and flipping the Senate seat in left-leaning Maine is a key part of the Democrats' path to retake the majority.