This story will be updated.
U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner, the political upstart who overwhelmingly secured the Democratic nomination just one month ago, has ended his candidacy. His withdrawal from the race now sets up a frantic scramble to replace him on the November ballot.
Platner announced Wednesday that he's quitting the race in a defiant video statement that blamed the political establishment for his downfall, saying that it conspired against him.
"We believe that for the movement to continue, it can't be me," he said. "And for that reason we are suspending campaign operations."
He also framed his plight as one shared with his base of supporters.
"We live in a political system that is not built for normal people. It is built structurally so that movements like ours cannot flourish, that if they begin to succeed they can be crushed," he said. "What we have accomplished here you made possible ... and I have all the faith in the world that we could win if we continue to harness that. But the brutal political reality is that they're going to take everything away from us."
The moves followed a report by POLITICO that detailed allegations that he sexually assaulted a former girlfriend five years ago. The oysterman and combat veteran strongly denied the report, but it quickly led to a cratering of support from national and local Democrats who had endorsed him. That included leaders in the Maine Democratic Party who will now decide who will replace him on the November ballot to run against Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
In his statement Wednesday, Platner said the allegations against him were false and designed — and timed — to knock him out of the race.
Platner also lost support from congressional Democrats who endorsed him during the primary campaign. His biggest backer, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., released a statement Tuesday saying Platner should withdraw from the race.
"I have spoken with Graham Platner about the best path forward for Maine," Sanders said in a statement. "In light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside."
Platner's exit from the race is a remarkable development for a candidate who skyrocketed from political obscurity last summer and built a movement that swept him to the Democratic nomination in June, winning more votes than any previous Democratic senatorial candidate in state history. Along the way, he forced two-term Gov. Janet Mills out of the race and became the center of national media interest, first by intrigue then by scrutiny.
He also channeled Democrats' anti-establishment anger at a party that's failed twice to defeat President Donald Trump. That anger has become part of a factional fight over the direction of the Democratic Party between progressive firebrands and the centrist wing. His position there drew sharp criticism from establishment politicians and activists who repeatedly questioned his fitness to serve, especially as other controversies began accumulating last fall.
Under state law, party leaders now have until July 27 to choose another candidate, but they have yet to say exactly how that process will work and only that it will involve a nominating convention.
The stakes are high. The Maine Senate race is key to national Democrats retaking the majority next year and Platner's insurgent candidacy became a proxy fight between factions of the party jockeying for the upper hand in its future. Those same divisions could play out in the race to replace Platner, a progressive firebrand who was endorsed early by Sanders.
Democrats, including several vanquished in a crowded gubernatorial primary, have signaled interest in running.
