Democrats have a narrow path to win back the Senate majority from the Republicans in this year’s midterm elections.
And part of their playbook is flipping Maine — a historically moderate state that votes blue in presidential elections but whose two senators are a Republican and an Independent who caucuses with Democrats.
Graham Platner‘s candidacy is cratering as he faces calls from top Democrats in Maine and across the country to quit his Senate bid a day after Monday’s explosive rape allegation emerged against him. And the latest controversy decreases the party’s odds of recapturing the Senate in November.
“The forced implosion of Graham Platner does not make life any easier” for Democrats, a Republican strategist who works on Senate races told Fox News Digital.
DEMOCRATS ABANDON PLATNER AFTER BOMBSHELL ALLEGATIONS
Platner, a military combat veteran turned oyster farmer who was, until Monday, backed by top progressives, is the party’s nominee in the race against longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in blue-leaning Maine.
The showdown is a high-profile, combustible and expensive ballot box battle, and one of a handful that will determine if the GOP holds onto its slim Senate majority in the midterms.
If Platner suspends his campaign before 5 p.m. next Monday, July 13, the Maine Democratic Party will be able to replace him on the general election ballot with another candidate from the party, whom they would need to select by July 27.
Beating Collins, who is seeking a sixth six-year term in the Senate, won’t be easy.
Six years ago, public opinion polls indicated the senator was headed to defeat, but Collins defied expectations and won re-election by defeating then-Democratic state House Speaker Sara Gideon by nine points.
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Fast-forward to present day and the 73-year-old Collins should be vulnerable, with her party facing a rough political climate fueled in part by persistent inflation and President Donald Trump’s approval ratings hovering well into negative territory.
But the Platner implosion is a gift to Collins and her party. Republicans quickly took aim at other Democrats on the 2026 ballot and attacked them for previously backing Platner.
A veteran Democratic strategist told Fox News Digital the path to take back the majority isn’t any easier due to the drama in Maine, but added, “it depends on who replaces Platner.”
The bombshell in Maine came a day after a political grenade exploded in the Democratic Senate primary in battleground Michigan, when state Sen. Mallory McMorrow suspended her campaign.
McMorrow, who has seen her national profile expand in recent years and was running as a progressive in an ideological space between left-wing candidate Abdul El-Sayed and establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens, suspended her campaign amid faltering poll numbers and fundraising that weren’t keeping pace with her two main rivals.
The Aug. 4 primary showdown between El-Sayed, endorsed by progressive champions Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Stevens, who is backed by Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is seen as the biggest battle yet between the far-left and establishment for the future of the Democratic Party.
The winner will face off in the midterm elections in November against former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, who is on a glide path to the GOP nomination. The winner will succeed retiring Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat.
The seat is a top Republican target and is a must-hold for the Democrats as they aim to win back the Senate majority from the GOP.
Schumer and the party establishment, which are spending big bucks to back Stevens, view her as more electable than El-Sayed, who has sparked controversy with his past comments. They worry that El-Sayed as the party’s nominee would jeopardize the Democrat-controlled Senate seat by pushing the party too far to the left in a state that Trump carried two years ago by just over one percentage point.
With the race in Maine, the only state that then-Vice President Kamala Harris carried in the 2024 presidential election that Senate Republicans are aiming to hold, looking more problematic for the Democrats, the stakes in Michigan also just got a lot higher.
Republicans currently control the Senate 53-47, which means the Democrats need a net gain of four seats in the midterms.
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The Democrats’ playbook relies on flipping Maine and battleground North Carolina, plus flipping two more seats in red-leaning states like Ohio, Alaska, Iowa, or Texas.
At the same time, Democrats need to hold their open seats in Michigan and New Hampshire, and Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff needs to win re-election in the critical red-leaning swing state of Georgia.
Besides providing the GOP more political ammunition, the mess in Maine is further inflaming tensions between the far-left and the Democratic establishment.
Moderate Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania on Monday night took aim at Sanders, whose early endorsement of Platner last September helped boost the populist Senate candidate.
FETTERMAN DEMANDS SANDERS APOLOGIZE FOR BACKING ‘PREDATOR’ PLATNER
“I would really call Bernie Sanders to apologize for pushing this kind of predator more than anyone,” Fetterman said Monday on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”
The Republican strategist, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, said the Democrats’ intra-party sniping “is just further complicating their path to the majority.”
