Politics

Graham Platner ends Maine Senate campaign

Published

3 months ago

July 9, 2026

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.”

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.

“We believe that for the movement to continue, it can’t be me,” Platner said in the Wednesday announcement. “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.”

Party officials, who previously called for Platner to withdraw from the race, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Within hours of Blue Light News’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 Blue Light News 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.

Blue Light News 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 Blue Light News 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.

The Maine Democratic Party approved a plan on Wednesday, shortly before Platner’s announcement, to choose the replacement candidate in a state party convention.

Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.

Politics

Crypto weighs revenge against Democrats — and the risks that come with it

Published

5 hours ago

September 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The cryptocurrency industry is at a political crossroads.

Reeling from the demise of its longtime top legislative priority, crypto companies must now decide how scorched-earth to go against Senate Democrats, who last week voted unanimously against the so-called Clarity Act, a sweeping bill that would create a bespoke new regulatory framework for digital assets.

A crypto-backed PAC network’s move this week provides a hint of what may be to come. The group, known as Fairshake, announced it would spend at least $30 million to help block Democrat Sherrod Brown from recapturing a pivotal Ohio Senate seat, representing the first major signal of how the industry plans to deploy its massive campaign war chest in the final weeks before the 2026 midterms.

Some crypto executives have publicly signaled an appetite in recent days for punishing Democrats. But a partisan strategy carries major political risk for the industry: A broad offensive against Democrats ahead of an election where they have a chance to reclaim power on Capitol Hill could further alienate lawmakers the industry may soon need to revive its agenda.

“As much as some people may want to, they can’t wave a wand and make Democrats go away,” said Sheila Warren, the former CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, an industry trade group. “Every industry — not just crypto — has to figure out what to do with that reality.”

The crypto industry’s spending could have immediate consequences after the election. Democrats are signaling that a Senate GOP-aligned spending spree would suppress any appetite for lame duck dealmaking involving the Clarity bill — although it remains a long shot that it would come back to life regardless. A Senate Democratic aide involved in the crypto effort said a full-scale assault on the party’s Senate candidates “would absolutely eviscerate any hope” of a post-election deal.

The Fairshake PAC group, funded primarily by crypto firms Coinbase and Ripple and venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, had more than $120 million at its disposal as of the end of August. It has previously deployed its war chest to help members of both parties who support industry-friendly policies.

Fairshake is preparing to announce additional spending decisions supporting both Democrats and Republicans in the coming days, according to a spokesperson for the group, Geoff Vetter. But it’s unclear what races — or which chamber — it will target next.

Kara Calvert, Coinbase’s vice president of U.S. policy, said in an interview that bipartisanship has been crypto’s “superpower.”

“Nobody is eager to erode that,” she said.

Though Fairshake says it will maintain a bipartisan approach, it hasn’t specified what shape that will take. One potential avenue for the PAC is to continue to back crypto-friendly Democrats running for the House — where the Clarity bill advanced with 78 Democratic votes last year — but primarily help Republicans in the Senate.

Fairshake spent in favor of several Senate Democrats in the 2024 elections, including in battleground general election races in Michigan and Arizona, where it backed Democratic Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Ruben Gallego, respectively. It also plowed more than $40 million into the effort to help defeat Brown in his 2024 reelection campaign — by far its biggest spend of the cycle.

This time, Republicans are pressing the industry to recalibrate its approach and ditch the Democrats.

“To reward people who voted against the motion to proceed on Clarity after the Democrats got 126 amendments in the bill would be a huge mistake,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, the crypto bill’s leading champion in the Senate. The Wyoming Republican is retiring when her term ends in January.

Democrats, who feel increasingly confident about their chances in November despite the GOP’s spending advantages, say Republicans are trying to play the crypto industry.

It’s “been the goal of Republican colleagues all along to try to get folks to invest in races, versus them trying to get a piece of legislation done, and someone needs to call the Republicans out on their bullshit,” said Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), who added: “Sherrod’s gonna win.”

Politics

Can Mitch Landrieu break through in 2028?

Published

5 hours ago

September 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Can Mitch Landrieu break through in 2028?

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Politics

Sen. Jon Husted: Iran war ‘needs to come to an end as quickly as possible’

Published

20 hours ago

September 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Jon Husted became the latest battleground Republican this week to call for a quick end to the Iran war, as panic grows over how high gas prices and President Donald Trump’s agenda could imperil the party’s chances in November.

“The war needs to come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices,” the Ohio senator told Blue Light News, in his furthest comments yet on the matter.

Coming after Iowa Senate nominee Ashley Hinson, who broke from Trump over the war on Monday, and Michigan Senate nominee Mike Rogers, who followed suit hours later, Husted’s comments are another example of the pressure he and other Republicans are under to address prices at the pump. Several candidates are creating some distance from Trump, as voters continue to blame the president for the current economy and the Iran conflict for high costs of living.

Husted said in the interview that he still thinks Iran needs to reach a deal with Trump to end the conflict, but added: “I don’t know anybody that doesn’t want the war to come to an end.”

He has a finer line to walk with Trump in his state, and Republicans close to him say he can’t and won’t completely break with the president. Husted does not plan to support the Democratic-led war powers resolution when it comes up for a vote in the Senate this week, a spokesperson said. And Trump and Vice President JD Vance are expected to visit the state in the coming weeks to shore up his campaign and drive GOP turnout.

Husted is staring down a tight race against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, where millions in spending and recent polling have put Brown slightly ahead. Top Hill Republicans and Senate GOP operatives have said the Ohio Senate race is among their primary concerns in the battle to keep control of the chamber.

But Ohio is just one in a series of battlegrounds where rising gas prices have become a defining issue. Beyond Hinson and Rogers, a growing number of Republicans are starting to call for emergency actions like a diesel export ban to lower gas prices, including Iowa GOP Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

“Hinson broke the dam,” said one GOP operative, who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who is locked in an incredibly competitive race, called Tuesday for a diesel export ban to provide voters relief. He didn’t mention the Iran war.

The panic is being felt most acutely in the Midwest, as high gas and diesel prices and Trump’s tariffs hammer families, truckers and farmers just a few weeks ahead of the peak harvest season with no relief in sight.

By Sunday night, Rogers had filmed an ad at a grocery store decrying high prices and, straight to camera, breaking with Trump to call for an end to the Iran war, according to two Republicans involved in the matter, granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

Rogers’ team was putting the finishing touches on the ad Monday morning when Hinson posted her break with Trump over the war directly on social media.

“The war’s just gone on too long. Mike still thinks Iran shouldn’t have a nuclear weapon, but we originally thought this would take six weeks,” said one person with direct knowledge of the conversations in Rogers’ camp about the move. “Voters have been paying for it at their kitchen tables for too long.”

Michigan’s GOP nominee for governor, Rep. John James, also said Tuesday the Iran war needs to end “quickly.” And Rep. Tom Tiffany, Wisconsin’s GOP governor nominee, said Tuesday he believes “we should be exiting Iran, that it’s time to move on, we’ve degraded their nuclear facilities, we’ve degraded their military … time to come home, take care of business here in America.”

Trump, for his part, told reporters Tuesday that he asked his team to consider a diesel export ban, and that his administration is mulling it.

But the move is rife with internal GOP fighting behind the scenes: Trump’s team is getting an earful from GOP lawmakers in oil states who oppose the move, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter who were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. That makes any decision before the midterms highly problematic with at least one corner of the party.

Both the top House GOP leaders — Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise — have opposed similar measures from the past to protect their oil state of Louisiana. The Texas GOP delegation is also “strongly opposed,” according to another Republican.

Husted told Blue Light News on Tuesday that he supports his state legislature suspending Ohio’s gas tax for a period. Democrat Amy Acton, who is running for governor, called for a gas tax suspension Monday. Her GOP opponent Vivek Ramaswamy and a broader swath of Republicans called for the state legislature to convene and pass legislation to suspend the state’s gas tax hours later.

“I think in the long run we are going to have lower gas prices,” Husted said, citing the war in Ukraine as a factor for spiking diesel costs as well as the war with Iran. “It’s taking longer than any of us wish it would. So in the interim, while those things are concluding, the idea of providing relief from the gas tax for Ohioans for a short period of time is a reasonable thing for Governor [Mike] DeWine to consider.”