Maine Democrats Poised to Run a Convention for Senate

[Celerity]

Last edited Wed Jul 8, 2026, 10:18 PM - Edit history (1)

The state party has apparently decided that any process that didn’t allow voters to get a say would be fatally compromised.

https://prospect.org/2026/07/08/maine-democrats-poised-to-run-lighthouse-primary-senate-platner-collins/


Residents fill out their Maine primary ballots, June 9, 2026, in Belfast, Maine. Credit: Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo

Despite much shouting and allegations on all sides, the Maine Democratic Party is moving toward finalizing a statewide caucus to select a replacement for Graham Platner in the U.S. Senate race, the Prospect has learned. Platner would initiate this process by withdrawing from the nomination that he won last month, something that has also been heavily rumored to happen at any time. State rules surrounding party nomination vacancies set a deadline for replacement on the ballot by July 27, but the party itself is not bound by a specific process. A state committee must hold a meeting and make a decision, but the committee could adopt the wishes of the voters as their selection.

Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson said on Wednesday that the party is developing “a representative, transparent and inclusive process to select a new nominee,” and added that Platner supporters “are a vital part of our Party and deserve to participate in an open process to select [his] replacement.” That statement was buried in between a good deal of invective over the past two days about Platner trying to “manipulate this process” and vowing that he will “have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, nor in determining what this process will look like.”

Spencer Toth, organizing director of the party, resigned on Wednesday over the latter remark, saying that “the future of this race and this Party should not be decided without the people who made [Platner’s] movement possible.” A party spokesperson did not respond to questions from the Prospect. Some supporters of Platner have definitively expressed their preference for replacing him with “a progressive fighter.” The Platner campaign has more obliquely talked about how its supporters “deserve to have a real role in any nomination process.” Campaign manager Ben Chin sent supporters a survey Wednesday to give their thoughts to the party and Platner. The campaign did not respond to a request for comment. The demand to not turn over a replacement nominee to an opaque committee of insiders does seem to have yielded a result.

The timeline is incredibly tight, but a statewide caucus could be held as late as the weekend of July 25-26 and still be completed in time for the deadline. Several candidates have already formed exploratory committees to run, including three people who ran for Maine’s open governor’s seat last month: former state senator Troy Jackson, health official Nirav Shah, and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows. Dan Kleban, a local craft brewery owner who was briefly in the Senate race, has also announced, along with Jordan Wood, who lost the primary for U.S. House in Maine’s Second Congressional District, and state representative Valli Geiger. Those candidates and potentially others would be voted on in the statewide caucus, the details of which have not been fully determined. Maine Democrats select convention delegates through a statewide caucus, and therefore have some experience with putting on such a process.

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