A Wedgewood Poll released before a rape allegation surfaced found 75% of Maine voters want Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner to quit if another negative story about his personal life emerges. The finding underscores how quickly his campaign has been des
For Maine voters watching Graham Platner’s campaign unravel, the question now isn’t just what happened—it’s whether he should still be there.
Just before Platner was accused of rape in a report that landed Monday, a new Wedgewood Poll found 75% of Maine voters said he should drop out of the Senate race if another negative story about his personal life comes to light. Another 20% said he should remain in the race, while 5% were undecided.
The poll’s breakdown shows the pressure is not limited to political rivals. Wedgewood said the “headline number” is inside the Democratic coalition itself: 65% of 2024 Harris voters told the pollsters that Platner should drop out if another negative personal-life story emerges. Only 28% said he should stay.
Within his own base, the numbers are stark enough to suggest that even additional fallout may be hard to absorb. Wedgewood said a level of support “to absorb a further hit” is “a strikingly shallow well. ” and described “real fragility beneath Platner’s topline standing against” Republican incumbent Susan Collins.
The survey was conducted between July 4 and Monday and included 405 respondents. It arrived immediately before Politico reported a woman who dated Platner about five years ago accused him of sexual assault.
In that account. the accuser—Jenny Racicot. a 41-year-old Maine resident—said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021. Racicot said Platner was deeply intoxicated and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact after telling him the encounter was not consensual.
Platner denied the allegation, saying “any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically untrue.”
His response on Monday was to pause his campaign. Platner said he was going to take “time to reflect on the best way forward.”
That turn comes after a campaign already shaken by multiple controversies. Platner has faced scrutiny over an infamous Nazi “Totenkopf” tattoo, which he has since removed. He also faced news that he sexted a number of women who were not his wife. and a set of unsavory Reddit posts were unearthed during the scrutiny.
Even with those earlier controversies, he won the Democratic primary in June without much difficulty. But the rape accusation, arriving after the poll’s release, has brought his campaign “to a screeching halt,” according to the timeline of events described in the report.
The timing matters. The poll captured voters’ willingness to accept a step aside only if more damaging details surface—then those details became the story. For now, the campaign is no longer just managing past controversies. It is confronting a new one. with voters already signaling what they would do if the negatives deepen again—by insisting he should leave the race.
Maine politics Graham Platner Susan Collins Democratic Senate nominee Wedgewood Poll Maine voters rape allegation Jenny Racicot Totenkopf tattoo sexting allegations