Graham Platner Rape Allegation Leaves Progressives Holding the Bag

 https://www.newsweek.com/graham-platner-rape-allegation-leaves-progressives-holding-the-bag-12167132

For nearly a year, progressives cast Graham Platner as the future of the Democratic Party, a plainspoken oyster farmer and combat veteran who could do what establishment candidates could not: energize working-class voters and unseat Susan Collins, a five-term Republican incumbent in Maine.

On Monday, that project was left hanging by a thread after a woman told Politico and CNN that Platner sexually assaulted her in 2021 and that she "absolutely" considered it rape. The allegation from Jenny Racicot, who said a heavily intoxicated Platner forced her to have sex with him after she told him not to come to her home, triggered an immediate collapse in Democratic support that had survived months of earlier controversies.

That support held through Platner's June 9 primary victory. It unraveled Monday as top Democratic endorsers abandoned Platner. By Tuesday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who had never endorsed him but whose senior aides helped run his campaign, said Platner should end his candidacy