{"id":382,"date":"2026-07-08T21:40:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=382"},"modified":"2026-07-08T21:40:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:40:06","slug":"maine-democrats-poised-to-run-a-lighthouse-primary-for-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=382","title":{"rendered":"Maine Democrats Poised to Run a Lighthouse Primary for Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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<\/em> has learned.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump Blows Up His Own Iran Deal<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

More from David Dayen<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson said on Wednesday that the party is developing \u201ca representative, transparent and inclusive process to select a new nominee,\u201d and added that Platner supporters \u201care a vital part of our Party and deserve to participate in an open process to select [his] replacement.\u201d That statement was buried in between a good deal of invective over the past two days about Platner trying to \u201cmanipulate this process\u201d and vowing that he will \u201chave no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, nor in determining what this process will look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spencer Toth, organizing director of the party, resigned on Wednesday over the latter remark, saying that \u201cthe future of this race and this Party should not be decided without the people who made [Platner\u2019s] movement possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

A party spokesperson did not respond to questions from the Prospect<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Some supporters of Platner have definitively expressed their preference for replacing him with \u201ca progressive fighter.\u201d The Platner campaign has more obliquely talked about how its supporters \u201cdeserve to have a real role in any nomination process.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

The demand to not turn over a replacement nominee to an opaque committee of insiders does seem to have yielded a result.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s open governor\u2019s 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\u2019s Second Congressional District, and state representative Valli Geiger.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Read more When in Doubt, Moderates Veer Left<\/a><\/p>\n

The party has not detailed who would be eligible for a caucus, though the expectation is that it would be open to Maine Democrats. In recent years, caucuses in presidential primaries have been criticized for not allowing absentee ballots and reducing voter turnout. But with a little more than two weeks to assemble, and with the state not interested in putting on a traditional election, a caucus is the only real solution to give voters a chance to have a say in the next nominee.<\/p>\n

One rather dangerous idea floated has been to use a web-based technology the party employed during COVID to select state committee members. Cybersecurity experts have repeatedly warned against online voting as wholly unreliable.<\/p>\n

This was not an inevitable outcome. Initially, Maine party leaders were talking about a second convention, using delegates selected in February to choose a committee that would decide the nomination. But that was seen as too close to a backroom deal and too reminiscent of the 2024 anointing of Kamala Harris as the presidential nominee after the primaries concluded and Joe Biden said he would not seek a second term.<\/p>\n

Supporters see a caucus as the only outcome that can keep the fragile coalition of Mainers wanting to defeat Susan Collins together, and if leveraged properly by the candidates and the eventual nominee, it could even make it more likely that Collins is defeated. The focus would be on organizing and building on momentum that led to record turnout last month, even as Platner faced only token opposition after Gov. Janet Mills dropped out.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not yet clear under what terms the lead-up to the caucuses will be undertaken. Because this is a party-run affair, Democrats could, for example, disqualify any candidate who runs television ads or has a super PAC running ads on their behalf.<\/p>\n

The ability to come together has been marred by jockeying from both sides. The Platner camp intimated that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was on the ground working with the state Democrats on selecting the nominee, something a spokesperson from the DSCC characterized as false. \u201cThe Maine Democratic Party has made it clear that they are working to put forth an open process to select a nominee,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The party, however, had not released the details of that process, and as of Tuesday were saying that they would not release such details until Platner withdrew. The statement on Wednesday said they were \u201cdeveloping\u201d the process, and while it nudged toward something allowing voters to choose the candidate, that had not been publicly confirmed.<\/p>\n

Read more The Great AI Repricing Isn\u2019t Going Well<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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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. 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