As Democrats pick up the pieces after Graham Platner, many wonder: how did this happen?

Summary

The former US Senate candidate’s spectacular fall has upended the Maine Senate race and left voters fuming at the party Almost exactly one year ago, Graham Platner, who has no political experience, was cherry-picked by out-of-state political activists. According to a person familiar with the campaign, Daniel Moraff and Leanne Fan, who have made a name for themselves by recruiting populist candidates across the country, traveled to Maine and rented a house near Platner’s home in Sullivan to convince him to run for the US Senate . Throughout the process, Moraff became Platner’s “right-hand man”, the person described, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of backlash. But homing in on Platner as a newcomer to oust long-serving Republican Susan Collins came at a cost. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Moraff asked for an expedited, cheaper background check to be completed in a matter of days. The firm Moraff and his team contracted with also did not do a candidate interview or questionnaire, per the Journal’s report. In a midterm year with record spending across the country, the Democratic party had come to pin its hopes on Platner to help clinch Senate control with his meteoric campaign and ability to unite independent and progressive voters alike with a clear, anti-establishment message. Asked in an interview on CNN whether Platner raped her, the woman, Jenny Racicot, replied: “By definition, yes, absolutely.” His support collapsed. If she had been elected, Mills would have been the oldest freshman in Senate history. Platner and his allies in Congress argued the uproar was overblown.