Graham Platner Officially Quits Senate Race, and His Withdrawal Letter Is Peak Platner
Graham Platner is done pretending. The communist Nazi rapist who spent months building a populist crusade against Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has officially withdrawn from Maine’s Senate race, the Secretary of State’s office confirmed late Friday afternoon, and he made sure his exit was every bit as insufferable as his campaign.
Platner suspended his campaign earlier this week after a former girlfriend accused him of rape, an allegation he denies.
Make no mistake about it, Platner didn’t leave quietly.
In his official withdrawal letter to the Maine Department of the Secretary of State’s Division of Elections, he framed his exit as some kind of populist sacrifice rather than a retreat from a rape allegation. “My name may have been on the ballot, but that ballot line belongs to the people of Maine,” Platner wrote. “As such, please consider this notice as my official withdrawal from consideration for this office.”
Then came the sign-off. “F\*\*k ICE. Free Palestine. Up the Hearts,” Platner wrote, closing his letter with “Solidarity forever.”
What a jackass.
The Republican National Committee wasn’t in a forgiving mood. “Republicans have been sounding the alarm about Graham Platner for months and today he exited the race without taking any accountability,” RNC spokesperson Kristen Cianci said in a statement. “Instead, he declared himself kingmaker and his successor the carrier of his legacy – too bad his legacy is one of a sick Nazi rapist.”
Curiously, the withdrawal came early.
Axios reported that Platner privately told his campaign staff Wednesday night that he planned to file paperwork Monday to formally withdraw from the Democrat primary, the same deadline the state gives Democrats to be able to select a replacement to appear on the ballot. He made those comments shortly before publicly announcing he was suspending his campaign. “On Monday … I intend to file the requisite paperwork with the Secretary of State to remove my name from the ballot,” Platner said, according to a person on the call.
That decision to wait until the last possible moment raised eyebrows. Liam Kerr, co-founder of the center-left Welcome PAC, told Axios it “seems like people are underrating the odds he just doesn’t file the actual withdrawal.”
I honestly thought Platner’s beef with his own party might have kept him from withdrawing at all, leaving Democrats stuck defending him whether they liked it or not.
In the end, he filed the paperwork.
So, it’s over. Or is it? He may not be the candidate anymore, but don’t expect Graham Platner to disappear quietly into the Maine woods. Something tells me he’ll still be a thorn in the Democrat Party’s side long after his name comes off that ballot.