“Late last week, the rumors reached a fever pitch. Graham Platner, the Marine Corps veteran and oysterman who mounted a quixotic bid for the U.S. Senate in Maine, was used to controversy—headlines had been bad enough already, and his campaign aides spent much of their time dealing with lurid rumors. That there was a sex tape on the verge of leaking. That notes from his therapist were floating around,” Vanity Fair reports.

“On Friday, as fresh rumors of serious misconduct began to swirl, Morris Katz, one of Platner’s top strategists, took the first step toward ending the turbulent campaign. Fearing the worst, he contacted several pollsters to commission surveys for alternative candidates. Platner’s advisers, meanwhile, questioned the candidate directly on what they were hearing.

Said one: “We continued to ask Graham for the billionth time in this race if there was any information he had not shared. He continued to say no.”

“A poll of potential replacements for Graham Platner, who dropped out of the Maine Senate race on Wednesday, found a trio of former gubernatorial candidates in tight head-to-head battles against Republican Sen. Susan Collins,” NOTUS reports.

“The statewide poll  pitted Collins against Nirav Shah, Shenna Bellows and Troy Jackson. It found the potential contests at 47% for Shah to 46% for Collins; 47%-47% for Bellows versus Collins; and Jackson getting 47% to Collins’ 48%.”

“Graham Platner privately told staff that he is planning to officially file paperwork to end his Senate campaign on Monday — the drop-dead deadline for him to exit the race,” Axios reports.

“Why it matters: Though Democrats largely appear to think Platner is done with his bid, his last-minute timing is likely to cause a final pang of anxiety within the party.”

The Downballot released calculations of the results of the 2024 presidential election for every congressional district that will be used in the 2026 midterms—including updated data for all 10 states with new maps.

New York Times: “Out of more than 500 Senate races over the past 30 years, we identified only nine previous instances when a major party replaced its nominee.”

“Only two of those nine races ended in a win for the replacement candidate, though the circumstances varied widely. Often the replacement candidate’s party had little chance of winning anyway. A substitution in a closely contested race, like this year’s in Maine, is even more rare.”

“Graham Platner went down swinging — even as some of his political confidants urged him not to,” Politico reports.

“Several of the embattled Maine Democrat’s closest advisers pleaded with him Wednesday to strike a ‘conciliatory’ tone in the announcement terminating his Senate campaign.”

“But the progressive bucked their advice and made it a condition of dropping out of the race that he get free rein to assail establishment Democrats and blame them for the ignominious end to his rapid political rise.”

Playbook: “The result was an 11-minute, vertically shot video in which a visibly emotional Platner raged against the unstoppable party machine that, he claimed, finally brought him down.”

“Graham Platner’s implosion in Maine is driving an intense debate among Democrats over how they wound up in this mess — and if the progressive, populist push for more ‘outsider’ candidates has come at the expense of rigorous candidate vetting,” NOTUS reports.

“James Talarico, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, raised a staggering $30 million from April through June, his campaign announced Wednesday — more than triple the amount brought in by his Republican opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton,” the Texas Tribune reports.

“The haul is a record total for a U.S. Senate candidate in the second quarter of an election year.”

Bloomberg: Talarico’s $30 million haul crushes Paxton in Texas Senate race.

“Susan Collins’ fight to hold onto her seat just got messier,” Politico reports.

“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, Collins’ team will have to start from scratch in their strategy against a new nominee — who may not be known until close to the party’s July 27 deadline to declare one.”

“And according to a person familiar with the campaign’s thinking, Collins’ team had viewed Platner as a uniquely vulnerable opponent whose personal controversies could help offset a big challenge in 2026: running as a Republican in the era of President Donald Trump.”

“The red flag that led to Graham Platner’s collapse was hiding in plain sight,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“For months, a 2024 Facebook post cautioning women against dating Platner, the Democratic nominee for the Senate in Maine, had been circulating among the political class in the state and in Washington, D.C. The post was written by one of Platner’s former romantic partners, and her name was attached.”

“It was one of many signs overlooked by a set of upstart political activists who recruited Platner and ran his campaign. They had set out to prove that they knew better than Democratic leaders how to win elections, but they failed to reckon with the flaws in the candidate they had backed for one of the party’s most important elections of the year.”

“The selection of Maine’s next Democratic Senate nominee will come down to roughly 600 people — 500 of whom haven’t been chosen yet,” Politico reports.

”Graham Platner suspended his campaign on Wednesday following POLITICO’s reporting on an allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2021, which he denies. That clears the way for the Maine Democratic Party to begin the process of replacing him. Platner continued to deny the allegations on Wednesday, but said he’s leaving the race because he lost the resources needed to continue running.”

CNN: These Maine Democrats could run to replace Graham Platner in the Senate race.

“Democrats’ top Senate super PAC said it was ‘committed’ to defeating GOP Sen. Susan Collins now that Graham Platner has suspended his campaign,” Politico reports.

“Graham Platner has not yet officially submitted the paperwork to withdraw from the Senate race, according to a spokesperson for Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ office,” Politico reports.

Said a spokesperson: “A public declaration is not an official withdrawal, and a candidate must formally withdraw to the Elections office in writing, including signature.”

“Graham Platner, the populist political newcomer who Democrats had hoped could flip a critical U.S. Senate seat in Maine, ended his campaign Wednesday night after a woman he previously dated publicly accused him of sexual assault,” the Washington Post reports.

Said Platner in a video: “We believe for the movement to continue, it can’t be me and for that reason, we are suspending campaign operations.”

“President Donald Trump told reporters that the firestorm engulfing Maine oysterman Graham Platner is ‘really a question of whether you believe the woman’ who accused him of sexual assault,” Politico reports.

Said Trump: “It’s very hard for them to do. It’s really a question of whether you believe the woman. A lot of people say big falsehoods. It’s a — he’s in a bind. He’s in a bind. But should they be able to do it? Well, I guess he’s going to lose. I would imagine he’s going to lose.”

He added: “It’s very interesting when a Republican woman came out with the same charge, nobody believed her. When this woman came out, everybody believed her.”