Democrats drop Platner backing after sexual assault allegation

Graham Platner’s support in the Democratic Party unraveled quickly on July 6, 2026, after a former girlfriend, Jenny Racicot, accused the Maine Senate nominee of sexual assault. By nightfall, Rep. Ro Khanna and Sen. Ruben Gallego had rescinded their endorsements, and top Democrats including Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and the Maine Democratic Party were all calling for Platner to leave the race.

Platner denied the allegation and said it was false and categorically untrue. The backlash landed with unusual force because Platner, who won the June 9 Democratic primary, is now the party’s nominee against Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November, making him one of Democrats’ most closely watched Senate recruits in a state they see as a possible pickup.

The pressure on Platner is sharpened by Maine’s July 13 withdrawal deadline for general-election candidates. If he bowed out, party officials would have only a narrow window to replace him on the ballot, turning a political crisis into a race against the calendar as Democrats weigh how to handle a nominee already under intense national scrutiny.

The same day, Russia’s war in Ukraine put another set of leaders on the clock. A major attack on Kyiv on July 6 killed at least 26 people and injured dozens more in the capital and surrounding oblast, underscoring that the fighting remained active hours before NATO leaders gathered in Ankara for their July 7-8 summit.

NATO has put Ukraine near the center of the meeting, alongside defense investment and defense industrial production. Its official program includes a joint statement by Secretary General Mark Rutte and President Volodymyr Zelensky, a sign that the alliance is using the summit to show continued backing for Kyiv while trying to keep allied military assistance sustainable over the long term.

The attack on Kyiv added urgency to that agenda. As NATO members arrive in Türkiye, the alliance is trying to project durability on two fronts at once: at home, where Democratic leaders are being forced to make fast credibility judgments about a Senate nominee, and abroad, where Russia’s latest strike made clear that Ukraine’s security remains under immediate assault.