By Supporters of former Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner are refusing to let his campaign die quietly.
A grassroots group of Platner loyalists is urging Maine voters to write in the disgraced former candidate as their first choice in November and rank replacement Democratic nominee Troy Jackson second, an unusual strategy that would use the state’s ranked-choice voting system to register dissatisfaction with the Democratic establishment without necessarily helping Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
The effort surfaced publicly Tuesday after a message from Scott Talkoot, an administrator of a private Facebook group supporting Platner, began circulating on social media.
Talkoot claimed that supporters met with Platner and his wife, Amy, over the weekend and that the former candidate had given them a political “mission.”
“Show up to the poll in November, Write-In Graham as your #1 choice, and rank Troy Jackson as your #2 choice. Under ranked-choice voting, voting Graham #1 honors our movement, while ranking Troy #2 ensures we consolidate our collective strength to defeat Susan Collins.”
The strategy illustrates how difficult it has been for Maine Democrats to put the Platner debacle behind them.
Platner, a Marine Corps veteran and oyster farmer who entered politics as a populist outsider, overwhelmingly won Maine’s Democratic Senate primary in June. More than 156,000 voters backed him after a campaign centered on working-class economics and hostility toward what he portrayed as a corrupt political establishment.
But his candidacy collapsed weeks later after a former girlfriend accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2021. Platner denied the allegation. The accusation followed months of damaging revelations involving his past behavior, offensive online comments, sexually explicit messages and a controversial tattoo.
As New Conservative Post previously reported, national Democrats and prominent progressives who had tolerated earlier controversies rapidly abandoned Platner after the sexual assault accusation. Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of his most important political supporters, called on him to step aside. Platner formally withdrew July 10.
His departure did not end the struggle over what would become of the political movement he had assembled.
New Conservative Post reported at the time that Platner and his allies were seeking influence over the selection of his replacement, with former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson emerging as the candidate most closely positioned to inherit Platner’s progressive coalition. Jackson had appeared with Platner and Sanders during the “Fight the Oligarchy” tour and shared much of Platner’s economic agenda, including support for Medicare for All and higher taxes on billionaires.
Maine Democrats ultimately selected Jackson at a special convention July 25. His rise was powered in part by organized labor and former Platner volunteers, and Jackson has explicitly pledged to continue the progressive “movement” Platner built.
That has not been enough for some Platner supporters.
The WriteInGrahamForME campaign argues that Democratic leaders effectively nullified the June primary result when Platner withdrew and party delegates, rather than primary voters, chose Jackson as his replacement.
Graham Platner supporters in a Facebook group claim to be in contact with Platner.
The group says Graham Platner has endorsed the idea of a write-in campaign where his supporters would write-in Platner’s name first and Troy Jackson’s second. pic.twitter.com/d5p6EOcA2G
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) August 25, 2026
“We refuse to sit quietly while Graham Platner was stripped from the Senate race under suspicious timing, omitted details, and zero opportunity to defend himself,” the Facebook group said, according to the Washington Examiner. “Graham put his life on the line serving this country and returned with PTSD. PTSD is a service-related illness, not a character flaw — and using it to orchestrate a political removal is disgraceful.”
Scott Niemi, a co-founder of the write-in campaign, made a similar argument in a Bangor Daily News op-ed last week.
“Our strategy is clear and cooperative,” Niemi wrote. “First choice: Write in Graham Platner to prove that the establishment doesn’t get to overrule the will of Maine voters. Second choice: Rank Troy Jackson second to keep the seat competitive and ensure the anti-establishment vote remains united against Susan Collins.”
Maine’s ranked-choice voting system makes the maneuver possible in theory. Voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority, the lowest-performing candidate is eliminated and ballots cast for that candidate are transferred to the voters’ next choices.
“If Graham does not have enough votes to advance during tabulation, those ballots are not wasted, they transfer over to Jackson in the next round if he is ranked second,” Niemi wrote. “I believe it is a mathematically solid plan to defeat Collins come election time.”
There is one major problem: Platner does not appear to want to be a candidate.
Maine required declared write-in candidates for the Nov. 3 general election to file with the Secretary of State by 5 p.m. Tuesday. State election officials make clear that write-in candidacies must be formally declared by that deadline.
The Facebook group acknowledged earlier Tuesday that Platner did not intend to file.
“We will be texting Graham today in one more attempt to persuade him to reconsider registering as a write-in,” Talkoot wrote. “Regardless, the mission stays the same and this time we have Graham’s endorsement.”
That purported endorsement was subsequently disputed by reporting indicating Platner was not encouraging supporters to write him in. The distinction is significant because undeclared write-in votes are not officially tallied under Maine law, meaning supporters could make Platner their first choice without producing an official Platner vote total.
The episode nevertheless demonstrates that the political coalition behind Platner has not simply transferred its loyalty to Jackson.
That could complicate Democratic efforts to consolidate voters ahead of a Senate race with national consequences. Collins is seeking a sixth term, and Maine remains one of Democrats’ most important opportunities to gain a Republican-held seat as control of the Senate hangs in the balance.
Jackson himself has acknowledged the problem. Although he called on Platner to withdraw after the sexual assault allegation surfaced, he said recently that he wished the scandal had never derailed his predecessor.
“I wish nothing would have happened with Graham,” Jackson said. “I wish, you know, things would have continued like all that. It would have been much better. But when it did, I just didn’t want to see all these people that are looking for somebody to fight for them go away once again broken and hopeless.”
Platner may be off the ballot, but more than a month after Democrats thought they had replaced him, part of his movement still has not moved on.
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