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Replacing Senate Candidates Is a Risky Business

July 10, 2026 · 1:01 pm ET · Leave a Comment

Ed Kilgore: “The lesson of the very limited history of Senate replacement candidates is that they aren’t especially handicapped if they are running in the right place at the right time. Despite Susan Collins’s strength, Maine hasn’t gone Republican in a presidential race since 1988, and the Platner substitute will have more than three months — a bit longer than replacement candidate Kamala Harris had two years ago — to establish a clear identity and make sure Platner’s excited backers are in the fold.”

“If Collins ultimately wins, Democrats will have nobody to blame but themselves. They had one shot and now another.”

New York Times: Maine Democrats hope to replace Platner as Senate nominee. Has that ever worked?

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Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

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