Progressives advocate a theory of candidate recruitment that, at its core, believes that the key to winning back working-class white voters, particularly in red areas, is to run working-class candidates.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is the modern champion of this theory, and while it has yet to be proven effective, there is a part of progressivism in the United States that tends to fall in love with candidate biographies and overlook the red flags.
The Democratic Party put itself in a difficult position in Maine’s Senate primary when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer endorsed Gov. Janet Mills in the Democratic primary. Mills is an older Democrat who those in Maine say has never expressed much interest in running in the primary, leaving a wide opening for the state’s progressives to win the Senate nomination.
I’m neither a Democrat nor a Republican, so I have no dog in the fight over who should have been the party’s nominee for Senate, but as a political scientist, I saw red flags around Graham Platner’s candidacy, and it’s also understandable why he won the primary.
The problem is, those warning signs turned into a massive five-alarm fire.
Policy first reported the rape allegation against Platner:
A woman who dated Graham Platner, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine, claims he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.
The woman, a 41-year-old Maine resident named Jenny Racicot, detailed the alleged incident to POLITICO in three interviews over the past two weeks. POLITICO also spoke with a man Racicot had dated and confided in in the years after the alleged incident, and reviewed documents including emails between Racicot and his therapist and messages between Racicot and an acquaintance whom she had warned against involvement with Platner years before he ran for office.
The accuser is a Democrat who shares Platner’s views, and the more details there are, the more disturbing the story becomes.