ME-SEN: The Low-Key Lawyer at the Center of the Search for a Platner Replacement
If Graham Platner withdraws from the Senate race in Maine, the task of finding a new Democratic nominee will fall in part to Charles F. Dingman, a progressive with a soft-spoken, professorial style who is chair of the Maine Democratic Party.
Mr. Dingman, 72, a lawyer from rural Leeds, Maine, who enjoys hiking mountains — sometimes two a day — has been in his role for about a year and a half.
But now, with Mr. Platner’s campaign upended by a rape allegation that he denies, Mr. Dingman’s position has taken on a new urgency.
Mr. Platner, who has quickly bled support from his most important backers, has suggested he is considering leaving the race. If he were to do so, Mr. Dingman would preside over the process of finding a new candidate to run against the vulnerable incumbent Republican, Senator Susan Collins, in a race that will help determine control of the Senate.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/08/us/politics/charlie-dingman-maine-democratic-party-chair.html