Maine Democrats are on the verge of announcing when they’ll hold a convention to pick a new nominee for US Senate to run in Graham Platner’s place in November — but some party members aren’t waiting until a new name emerges from the ashes of the accused rapist’s campaign.
Prominent lefties in Congress are already raising money — claiming the fate of the entire party is at stake.
“Our path to flipping the Senate runs directly through Maine. If we flip Maine, we flip the Senate,” Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) wrote in a desperate fundraising email Friday.
“But if Susan Collins wins, Trump gets two more years of unchecked power,” she pleaded, asking her base in New York to send $100,000 for an “emergency fund” for Maine by midnight.
“If we don’t flip this seat, our hopes of flipping the Senate are crushed,” added Gillibrand, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
The early fundraising pitch is also a way for Maine Democrats get a campaign war chest going before they have a new candidate who might not be all that appealing.
And most of those who have thrown their hats in the ring to replace Platner — who is dropping out after a woman publicly alleged this week he drunkenly raped her in 2021 — are all literal losers.
The leading contenders are all Democrats who lost in the party’s primary for Maine Governor just last month.
Former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nariv Shah, came in second in that race, while Maine fifth-generation logger, Bernie Sanders-backed Troy Jackson, was third and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows got fourth place.
In addition to losing in the governor primary, Bellows, 51, also lost badly to Susan Collins — the Republican nominee she’ll face off against if the party picks her. In that Maine Senate back in 2014, Collins got 68% of the vote, more than doubling Bellows who got 32%.
And if Maine voters are ready for a drink after the Nazi and assault allegations, one contender who hasn’t just lost a race is Maine Beer Company co-founder Dan Kleban.
“I’ve spent years talking to Mainers over a beer in our taproom,” Kleban wrote on his Substack Wednesday announcing his run.
State and local officials have until a July 27 deadline to choose a replacement for Platner.
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