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{"id":26162,"date":"2026-07-20T08:22:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T08:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/second-democrat-drops-out-of-maine-primary\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T08:22:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T08:22:29","slug":"second-democrat-drops-out-of-maine-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/second-democrat-drops-out-of-maine-primary\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Democrat drops out of Maine primary"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><svg focusable=\"false\" height=\"0\" role=\"none\" style=\"left:-9999px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute\" viewbox=\"0 0 0 0\" width=\"0\"><\/svg><\/p>\n<div id=\"page\">\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/#content\">Skip to content<\/a><\/p>\n<section>\n<div>\n<div><instaread-player publication=\"thehill\">    <\/instaread-player><\/p>\n<p>Maine&rsquo;s former CDC Director Nirav Shah dropped out of the Democratic primary for Senate on Sunday, a day after pleading his case to delegates in Augusta.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;A few weeks ago, I entered this race because I could not accept the idea of Susan Collins gliding to a sixth term at the very moment Maine families are being forced to pay the price for her votes,&rdquo; Shah wrote in a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nirav_maine\/status\/2078960353405190321\/photo\/2\">statement<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Today, I am stepping aside, and I am doing it for exactly the same reason that led me to get in: we must defeat Susan Collins, and the Democratic Party must be unified to do it,&rdquo; he added.<\/p>\n<p>His statement follows Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows&rsquo; decision to <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/5977222-shenna-bellows-drops-senate-race\/\">suspend<\/a> her campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Both Shah and Bellows were vying for the spot vacated by oyster farmer Graham Platner, whose platform gained traction but was overcome by allegations of rape, abuse and racism.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats in the Pine Tree State are now scrambling to find a replacement for Platner, who pulled in millions from PACs such as Act Blue and Majority Forward.<\/p>\n<p>More than 10 candidates threw their hat in the ring to earn the party nomination, but former state Sen. Troy Jackson (D) is leading the pack.<\/p>\n<p>Shah endorsed Jackson on Sunday, arguing he was the best candidate to defeat incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in November.<\/p>\n<p>However, less than 24 hours ago, Shah claimed to be the most electable out of the crowded field of candidates to replace Graham.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Senator Collins has been able to be elected and re-elected is that every cycle she peels off a small percentage of Democrats who cross over and vote for her. The key to defeating Senator Collins is achieving party unity,&rdquo; Shah said on Saturday at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/program\/campaign-2026\/us-senate-candidate-nirav-shah-speaks-to-reporters-at-maine-democratic-special-nominating-meeting\/683109\">Maine Democratic Special Nominating Meeting<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The candidate who can keep Democrats unified is going to be the candidate who is most able to defeat her. The reason why that matters is that I am the candidate that has the strongest case for electability,&rdquo; the former Maine CDC director added.<\/p>\n<p>Early in his campaign, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said Maine deserved a <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/5962847-shah-urged-to-drop-senate-bid\/\">&ldquo;better&rdquo;<\/a> candidate than Shah, criticizing the way he handled a deadly Legionnaires&rsquo; disease outbreak while leading Illinois&rsquo; public health department. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<section><span>Tags <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/tag\/graham-platner\/%09%09\">Graham Platner<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/tag\/maine-senate-primary\/%09%09\">Maine Senate primary<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/tag\/midterm-elections\/%09%09\">Midterm elections<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/tag\/nirav-shah\/%09%09\">Nirav Shah<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/nirav-shah\/%09%09\">Nirav Shah<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/tag\/sen-susan-collins\/%09%09\">Sen. Susan Collins<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/shenna-bellows\/%09%09\">Shenna Bellows<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/susan-collins\/%09%09\">Susan Collins<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/troy-jackson\/%09%09\">Troy Jackson<\/a><\/section>\n<hr>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/5977419-nirav-shah-drops-maine-senate\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Skip to content Maine&rsquo;s former CDC Director Nirav Shah dropped out of the Democratic primary for Senate on Sunday, a day after pleading his case to delegates in Augusta. &ldquo;A few weeks ago, I entered this race because I could not accept the idea of Susan Collins gliding to a sixth term at the very [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26162","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=26162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}