Troy Jackson, a former state senator, officially launched his bid to take over the Democratic nomination in the Maine Senate race, less than an hour after Platner announced he was suspending his campaign.

“There is a powerful movement of working class people in the state of Maine, and millions more across America who are ready to send a progressive fighter to the Senate,” Jackson wrote last night on X.

“I’ve been fighting for that movement my whole life — and I’m sure as hell not backing down now, when this fight is needed most,” he continued. “I’m in. And we’re going to defeat Susan Collins.”

Jackson, who ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for governor, filed paperwork yesterday to begin the process of replacing Platner. The state Democratic Party voted today to hold a nominating convention later.

While Jackson is a former ally of Platner, he said this afternoon that he did not want an endorsement from him.

“When it came down to a credible allegation of somebody that was sexually assaulted, that was the end. That was the bright-red line,” Jackson said on NBC News’ Meet the Press NOW.

SCARBOROUGH, Maine (AP) — Graham Platner said Wednesday that he plans to withdraw from the U.S. Senate race in Maine after facing an allegation of sexual assault, shuttering an insurgent campaign that had withstood months of controversy only to implode and imperil Democrats’ attempt to regain power in Washington.

Platner’s exit will most likely force a reckoning within the party, which has been divided between its moderate and progressive factions, when it is struggling to unify during this year’s midterm elections. Maine is considered a key state for control of the narrowly divided Senate, and Democrats were desperate for a candidate capable of defeating Republican Sen. Susan Collins while President Donald Trump is broadly unpopular.

READ MORE: Succession fight is underway as calls mount for Graham Platner to drop out of Senate race

Platner says the process to replace him needs to be “open, transparent and democratic” and to reflect the will and values of people who supported him. He also lashed out at Democratic leaders in Washington, D.C.

“People in D.C. need to stay in D.C.,” Platner said. “Decisions should not be made by people in places of political power.”

Platner stressed that his decision was not an admission of guilt.

Although Platner had never before held elected office, progressive leaders promoted him over Gov. Janet Mills, who was favored by the Democratic establishment. Mills dropped out of the race in late April as Platner, a military veteran and oyster farmer, consolidated support from primary voters who were eager for a more combative candidate and were willing to overlook his checkered past, which included a tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol and online postings dismissive of sexual assault.

Shortly before Platner clinched the Democratic nomination in the June 9 primary, there were reports that he had exchanged sexually explicit messages with other women while married and that he had become physical with a previous girlfriend during an argument.

But Platner’s support didn’t crater until Monday, when Politico reported that a woman said he drunkenly forced her to have sex after she told him to stop.

Jenny Racicot, who lives in Maine, told Politico she had been in an on-and-off relationship with Platner but cut off contact with him after that night in 2021 and told him the encounter wasn’t consensual. In a CNN interview, she said she had been raped “by definition.”

After the story was published, Platner in a video released on social media denied the allegation as “categorically false” but said he would be “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward” for his campaign. High-level backers pulled their support, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said the next day that he spoke with Platner and that “in light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside.”

State law includes a provision for Democrats to replace Platner before the general election. The state Democratic Party held an emergency meeting Wednesday, where more than 100 state committee members signed off on holding a nominating convention, in the event of Platner’s withdrawal.

According to the statute, party officials may select a new nominee if a candidate who won the primary withdraws by 5 p.m. on July 13. The replacement candidate must be named by July 27.

Democrats must net four Senate seats to gain control of the 100-member chamber, and party leaders viewed Maine as a critical piece of the puzzle, along with Alaska, Ohio and North Carolina.

Nazi tattoo, Reddit posts and more had already been challenges for Platner

Platner has faced difficult questions almost from the moment he started his campaign last year. News outlets uncovered years-old comments on Reddit that appeared to endorse political violence, dismiss rape in the military, criticize rural Americans and use anti-gay slurs.

There was another controversy over the skull-and-crossbones tattoo, which is widely recognized as a Nazi symbol, on his chest. He said he was unaware of the history and chose the tattoo while drunk and on leave with fellow Marines in Croatia. He covered the tattoo after becoming a candidate, and he said in an Oct. 21 interview with the Pod Save America political podcast that he was “not a secret Nazi.”

“Skulls and crossbones are a pretty standard military thing,” Platner added.

However, a former girlfriend told The New York Times that Platner joked about the tattoo being a Nazi symbol and called it “my Totenkopf.”

The revelations about the tattoo and the online comments stirred concern among Democrats that Platner had been poorly vetted as a political candidate and demonstrated questionable judgment. Some party leaders despaired over Platner’s chances to win even before allegations about previous relationships began to surface.

Platner drew progressive buzz and support

Before Politico’s story was published, Platner canceled some town halls planned around the state. Such events were a calling card for his campaign, which prided itself on a willingness to go anywhere to rally voters. Volunteers hosted happy hours and trivia nights that helped generate enthusiasm for a generational shift from Collins, 73, to Platner, 41.

At a time when Democrats have grown dissatisfied with the party establishment, Platner seemed like an appealing alternative. His deep voice could command a room, and voters were drawn to his gruff populism and focus on economic inequality.

They were also willing to look past controversies as Platner portrayed himself as a regular person who had made mistakes and was striving to better himself and his community. Sometimes he talked about his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, and he focused on the power of redemption.

Before the sexual assault allegation became public, some voters said they also wouldn’t want to be judged on their worst moments, such as drunken behavior or crude comments.

Platner was backed by progressives including Rep. Ro Khanna of California, but that support quickly eroded after Racicot’s allegations.

“I’ve been very clear that sexual assault or violence against women is a red line,” Khanna said Monday. “These allegations are very serious and credible. Graham Platner should drop out from the race. I am withdrawing my endorsement.”

By Abdallah Fayyad

Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, who will turn 80 this week, is running for his third full term in the US Senate. His Democratic primary challenger, Rep. Seth Moulton, has tried to make age and generational change the issue in this campaign. But Markey is hoping that this year will be a repeat of 2020, when he handily beat another younger (and now former) member of Congress, Joe Kennedy III.

While Markey has been able to overcome concerns about his age in the past, the reality is that time waits for no one. So on Tuesday, Markey told the Globe Editorial Board that should he win again, his next term in the Senate will be his last.

In that interview, Markey initially dodged questions about his age, arguing that he is energized and perfectly capable of doing the job. But one question on many voters’ minds is whether people in positions of power know when to call it quits. After all, Joe Biden dropped out late in the 2024 presidential race after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump fueled speculation about cognitive decline. Dianne Feinstein, the late California senator, died while serving in office amid controversies surrounding her cognitive health and memory issues. And right now, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell is in the hospital after having been recently found unconscious, and there’s little to no public information about his current condition.

Addressing these concerns about aging elected officials, Markey eventually gave the right answer to the board — one that other politicians facing similar questions about their age or health should take note of. “I would hold myself to the same standard that every elected member should,” he told the editorial board. “If I cannot do the job, I would step down. I believe the commonwealth is more than one person. I would put the needs of the people of Massachusetts first.”

For now, though, he’s running because he believes he’s still capable of doing the job. And that’s the case he has to make to voters between now and Election Day. One last time.

Entries by Joan Vennochi, Noah Rothman, and Abdallah Fayyad

Yes, another shoe has dropped on Graham Platner’s insurgent campaign for US Senate in Maine, and this was the biggest one yet: allegations of rape by a former girlfriend.

He denies the allegation, but just about all his one-time Democratic supporters – including senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Ed Markey – have called on him to quit the race. If he does so by Monday, the Democrats can pick a replacement candidate to challenge the incumbent Republican, Senator Susan Collins.

Here’s how our three writers view the situation.

– Jim Dao, Globe Opinion editor

By Joan Vennochi

It’s over for Graham Platner, the Democratic Senate nominee from Maine. After a woman with whom he once had a romantic relationship accused him of rape, politically speaking, he sleeps with the fishes.

And so does much of the hope that Democrats had of defeating longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins. Because today’s politics feel especially volatile, I am not saying all hope is lost. It’s not impossible – if someone other than Platner is the nominee.

It’s clear now that Platner was an exciting candidate with serious character flaws, and conduct which now includes an allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman while intoxicated.

A May 10 column entitled “The Platner Trap,” by David French of The New York Times was right on target. French said, “I’m seeing Democrats engage in the same process of absurd accommodation and justification that Republicans use to excuse their deep love of Trump.” David Frum was also right when he wrote a month ago that Democrats “have to choose between character and power.”

The counter-argument – What about Trump? – is not the right rallying cry for Democrats. Riding the horse picked by the people rather than the party is a fine idea, unless the horse has a totenkopf tattoo. There was enough information from Platner’s past to suggest he could be hobbled by it, and he was.

Imperfection is human. People deserve second chances. But how a man treats the women in his life is ultimately more important than how much he supports abortion rights and I’m sorry I did not write that instead of this in a recent column.

The big political names that backed Platner, especially powerful women like Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have a lot of soul-searching to do. If they allow ideology to blind them to deep character flaws, they are no better than the MAGA ideologues whom they deplore.

From that perspective, it’s interesting to consider an influential and progressive politician who did not endorse Platner – Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Asked to respond to Platner-related controversies on June 9, the day of Maine’s Senate primary, Ocasio-Cortez told CNN: “Obviously, there’s a lot in that behavior that’s really challenging – it’s hard to stomach. But at the end of the day, I think it’s a choice.” She added, “If the choice is between that and a senator who’s voted to take healthcare away from millions of Americans, that’s the situation that we have to weigh.”

She did not explicitly say what her choice was, but instead staked out a middle ground that I recognize – neither support nor outright rejection.

At that point, the Platner controversies included a tattoo with Nazi implications that he had covered up; Reddit posts flagged as racist and sexist that had been deleted; and reports from The New York Times about sexual texts he sent to women who were not his wife, followed up by a report about his behavior from three of Platner’s previous romantic partners.

One of those previous romantic partners was Jenny Racicot, who told the Times about a 2021 incident in which Platner arrived at her house drunk after she asked him not to come over. While she said she found his behavior “reckless” and “unsettling,” she didn’t share further details until this week in Politico, when she accused Platner of rape.

He called the allegations false, but said he would “reflect” on what he would do next.

While he reflects, Democrats should also reflect on how embracing him before knowing more about him affects the battle for control of the Senate.

By Noah Rothman

In a way, Democrats were well-served by their reflexive, stubborn refusal to entertain the implications of an early June story in The New York Times alleging that Graham Platner had engaged in “unsettling” behavior with women.

The “unsettling” behavior it uncovered included allegations of physical abuse. One of Platner’s named accusers, Lindsey Fifield, claimed that the Maine Senate candidate put his hands on her more than once, “sometimes hard enough to leave marks,” and even “shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn’t get out.”

But the Times also devoted several paragraphs to Fifield’s work as a conservative political operative, and that was all Platner’s supporters needed to rationalize their summary dismissal of her allegations.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said he was “unimpressed” by the charges, all of which struck him as “a lot of nothing.”

Congressman Ro Khanna said the charges didn’t amount to “evidence of violence,” and he deferred to the judgment of Maine’s Democratic primary voters, to whom the charges probably “didn’t come as a surprise.” After all, “he came back broken in a dark place” from his combat tours in Iraq – as if sexual assault were common among veterans.

“President Trump set a new standard,” Senator Mark Warner declared with mock resignation. “Whether that low standard is what we ought to proceed with is going to be, again, in the hands of the voters.”

Platner’s second accuser, Jenny Racicot, might not have told her Graham Platner story if Democrats had not taken the Times’s bait. She described in vague terms her ordeal to the Times’s reporters, but Racicot told Politico she “felt compelled to go public” because “the reaction to the Times story struck her as egregiously partisan. “My part of the story was just a read-over,” Racicot said. “And the story was Lyndsey, and the accusations of her being politically motivated.”

And Racicot’s story is harrowing. She alleges what she described as “rape” – a graphic episode in which Platner drunkenly forced himself on Racicot and had sex with her against her will. Suddenly, even Platner’s defenders – including even the morally compromised Hassan Piker – were willing to entertain the possibility that Platner’s accusers were telling the truth.

Their about-face was less a reaction to the details of Racicot’s assault than they were to her politics. “One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was, the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him as a person,” Racicot confessed.

Democrats may get lucky. They have a week to figure out how to cajole Platner out of the race and replace his name on the ballot before the state’s deadline expires. But even if the party can salvage its fortunes in Maine, the party’s dalliance with Platner will leave a legacy that will haunt the party.

They don’t believe all women. They believe women with the right politics.

By Abdallah Fayyad

It’s the end of the road for Graham Platner’s campaign. The insurgent Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine has been in scandal after scandal. And though he had so far been able to overcome negative stories about him in the past — in part because of his anti-establishment cred that propelled him to win the Democratic primary against the incumbent Democratic governor, Janet Mills — the latest allegation is a bridge too far: A woman has now accused Platner of rape.

In a story in Politico, Jenny Racicot, a 41-year-old woman in Maine who had dated the Senate candidate years ago, says that in 2021, Platner came into her house and forced himself on her despite her objections. “I had been telling him these words, like: ‘No, don’t,’” she told Politico. “And, the look on his face and realizing what was happening, I just realized that, like, I am in a situation where there’s no consent here.” Platner’s campaign denied the allegation.

Since the story dropped, Platner’s supporters in Washington, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have rescinded their endorsements of him and called on him to drop out of the race. And that’s exactly what Platner should do. This is a disturbing and credible allegation, and even if his supporters believe that his policy positions are better suited for Maine and the country than Republican Senator Susan Collins’s, there is no excuse for this kind of behavior. He has until July 13 to withdraw his name from the ballot, and the Democratic Party can nominate a new candidate by July 27.

The question now is whether Platner has completely sabotaged Democrats’ potential to finally unseat Collins. If he stays on the ballot, he’s all but guaranteed to lose. And if he drops out, Democrats will need to find a candidate that can quickly build a grassroots campaign that voters can still get excited about.

I wouldn’t count out the possibility that Democrats can come back from this. There are potential candidates that are being recruited or have already expressed interest in replacing Platner. Some are also promising. Former state Senate president Troy Jackson and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows both recently ran in the Democratic primaries for governor. And though they ultimately lost, they could quickly reignite their campaigns.

The reality is that Collins faces an unfriendly political environment. These midterms will be a referendum on President Trump and his policies, which have proven to be deeply unpopular. While the Democratic Party has its fair share of problems with voters across the country, Democratic voters are energized and want to see a check on Trump’s power.

If Democrats are able to pick the right candidate to replace Platner — ideally someone who has similar policy positions so that Democratic primary voters don’t feel entirely robbed of their choice — then they could still unseat Collins. But before any of that happens, Platner needs to drop out.

By Rami Abou-Sabe

Elsewhere in New England, this weekend was spent commemorating America’s 250th. As usual, the team at Globe Ideas took a unique approach, recontextualizing the anniversary through the lens of lesser-known stories and historical figures. In “America at 250: An unexpected history‚” seven writers explore the stories behind the Declaration of Independence, our Founding Fathers, and Boston’s role in all of it.

Abdallah Fayyad takes a look at James Wilson, “the Founding Father you’ve probably never heard of,” who hated the Senate and didn’t believe in the Electoral College. Harvard professor Danielle Allen shines a light on a British Duke whose role in the Revolution often goes unrecognized. And historian Ted Widmer pulls together a hilarious argument that Boston, not Philadelphia, should actually get credit for the Declaration of Independence.

By the way… if you’re not already following us on TikTok, be sure to check out Ted’s video, which, unsurprisingly, is really riling up our neighbors down in Philly.

In the mood for a podcast instead? On “Say More,” host Anna Kusmer talks to Yale historian Beverly Gage about liberals’ patriotism problem. “Whether or not people on the left like patriotism, it exists, and it’s a powerful, powerful force,” Gage tells Kusmer. What do you think? Do liberals have a patriotism problem? The transcript of the “Say More” episode has spurred a ton of debate in the comments. Take a look for yourself and join the conversation.

This is an excerpt from Globe Opinion’s weekly politics newsletter Right, Left, and Center. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every Wednesday.

Abdallah Fayyad can be reached at abdallah.fayyad@globe.com. Follow him @abdallah_fayyad. Joan Vennochi is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at joan.vennochi@globe.com. Follow her @joan_vennochi. Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review and a regular contributor to Globe Opinion.