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{"id":25570,"date":"2026-07-09T12:02:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T12:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-collins-loses-her-foil-in-platner\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T12:02:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T12:02:23","slug":"capitol-agenda-collins-loses-her-foil-in-platner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-collins-loses-her-foil-in-platner\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Collins loses her foil in Platner"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Susan Collins\u2019 fight to hold onto her seat just got messier.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans had welcomed Graham Platner as a foil to Collins, who is trying to win a sixth Senate term in a state that voted for Kamala Harris in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>But now, while Maine Democrats prepare for an intense two week sprint <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/08\/graham-platner-drops-out-maine-senate-00991087\" target=\"_blank\">to replace<\/a> Platner, Collins\u2019 team will have to start from scratch in their strategy against a new nominee \u2014 who may not be known until close to the party\u2019s July 27 deadline to declare one.<\/p>\n<p>And according to a person familiar with the campaign\u2019s thinking, Collins\u2019 team had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/07\/08\/congress\/susan-collins-graham-platner-exit-00991434\" target=\"_blank\">viewed Platner as a uniquely vulnerable<\/a> opponent whose personal controversies could help offset a big challenge in 2026: running as a Republican in the era of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Polling published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/06\/29\/us\/politics\/collins-platner-maine-senate-poll.html?eafs_enabled=false\" target=\"_blank\">in late June<\/a> showed Collins and Platner in an extremely close race.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe can certainly win, but they didn\u2019t want to change candidates,\u201d the person familiar with the campaign\u2019s thinking said. \u201cThe stuff we already knew about Platner was going to propel Collins to overcome the Trump anchor. Now it\u2019s going to be a Democrat with a cleaner record, presumably.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Collins didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans are signaling at least one playbook for moving forward: trying to tar any replacement Democrat with Platner by association. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/06\/graham-platner-sexual-assault-allegation-00987737\" target=\"_blank\">POLITICO reported<\/a> Monday about an accusation of sexual assault against Platner, which he denies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDemocrats rolled in the mud with Platner, and now they are completely stained by their association with this sick monster,\u201d Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Now all eyes are on Maine\u2019s Democratic Party, which Wednesday approved tentative <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/07\/08\/congress\/maine-dems-convention-platner-replacement-00991253\" target=\"_blank\">plans for a nominating convention<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Platner, for his part, did not immediately endorse another candidate, saying in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/08\/graham-platner-drops-out-maine-senate-00991087\" target=\"_blank\">his withdrawal video Wednesday night<\/a> the process must be \u201copen\u201d and controlled by the \u201cpeople of Maine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Washington Democrats, meanwhile, are turning their focus to Collins while wanting to avoid the appearance of interfering with the selection of a new nominee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDemocrats are going to defeat Susan Collins, win Maine, and take back the Senate,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/chuckschumer\/status\/2075023964800225502?s=46&amp;t=ncdqfRV74gcQrRg3XkYQbA\" target=\"_blank\">posted<\/a> Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has encouraged a Maine-centric process to replace Platner, according to a person familiar, granted anonymity to discuss the situation.<\/p>\n<p>Top Democratic funding groups have also announced they\u2019re <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/07\/08\/congress\/dem-groups-dscc-smp-maine-platner-00991372\" target=\"_blank\">jumping back into the race<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSusan Collins is more vulnerable than she has ever been after voting with Trump 96 percent of the time, being the decisive vote for the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, and selling out to the special interests that fund her campaigns after three decades in the Senate,\u201d Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Executive Director Devan Barber said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Read also: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/09\/graham-platner-maine-democrats-replacement-process-00991464\" target=\"_blank\">What we know \u2013 and don\u2019t \u2013 about how Maine Democrats will replace Graham Platner<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b><i>What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 NO END IN SIGHT FOR HILL&#8217;S EPSTEIN PROBE: <\/b>Nearly one year into House Oversight\u2019s Jeffrey Epstein investigation and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/09\/jeffrey-epstein-trump-house-investigation-00990996\" target=\"_blank\">neither party sees a reason to stop<\/a>. Oversight Chair James Comer, who had originally hoped to wrap up interviews by August recess, said \u201cit\u2019s probably going to be hard because it seems like \u2026 after every deposition we get another name or two that we need to talk to.\u201d That means the congressional Epstein probe could continue for the foreseeable future regardless of who wins the midterms, not only out of hopes of finding a smoking gun but also because the political incentives to keep investigating \u2014 for both parties \u2014 are impossible to resist.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 DEMS LOOK TO VOTES, DOLLARS IN IRAN WAR PROTEST: <\/b>Democratic leadership is eyeing ways to check Trump\u2019s ability to wage war in Iran after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/06\/23\/senate-votes-halt-iran-war-00972648\" target=\"_blank\"><u>a successful vote on the issue last month<\/u><\/a> didn\u2019t slow him down. Democrats could force votes on new war powers measures when the chamber returns next week in an attempt to replicate last month\u2019s politically symbolic win. But the party\u2019s best leverage for stopping the war may be money.<\/p>\n<p><i>Jordain Carney, Sophia Cai, Hailey Fuchs, Connor O\u2019Brien and Leo Shane III<\/i> <i>contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Susan Collins\u2019 fight to hold onto her seat just got messier. Republicans had welcomed Graham Platner as a foil to Collins, who is trying to win a sixth Senate term in a state that voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. But now, while Maine Democrats prepare for an intense two week sprint to replace Platner, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25570\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}