Maine contenders: the Democrats who could replace Graham Platner

Troy Jackson

A logger and former state senate president, Jackson ran for governor this year with Bernie Sanders’ backing before losing the primary. Shortly after Platner’s announcement, Jackson said he was running. “I’m in. And we’re going to defeat Susan Collins.”

He has already filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to form a Senate exploratory committee. Ro Khanna, the California congressman and a leading Platner ally before this week, has said publicly that Jackson should receive the nomination, describing him as “someone who has spent his life standing up for these progressive values”.

Janet Mills

The sitting governor, who suspended her own gubernatorial primary campaign before the vote, is not being discussed as a viable replacement, despite her national profile. She was being trounced in campaign spending and polling ahead of the primary vote, before she her campaign came to an end. Though she has clarified that she only suspended “active campaigning”.

Valli Geiger

A state representative from Rockland and an early Platner supporter, Geiger says Platner himself has asked her to run as his replacement. She told the Maine’s Total Coverage that Platner called her and offered to back her, telling her, in her retelling, that she’d “been with this movement since the beginning”. Geiger said she accepted his support – which he has not confirmed publicly – but that she wanted the state party to run an “open” and “robust” process rather than have a nominee handed down.

Nirav Shah

The former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, who became a familiar public face during the Covid pandemic, also ran and lost in the gubernatorial primary. Shah has said his team has “received hundreds of encouraging messages” urging him to run for the Senate seat, and has called for the party to hold “a transparent and open” selection process, including at least one televised debate among contenders.

Shenna Bellows

Maine’s secretary of state, and another defeated gubernatorial primary candidate, Bellows was beaten by Collins in the 2014 Senate race by more than 30 points. She said in a statement that she would “seriously consider entering this race”, arguing she is “uniquely fit to unite Mainers and defeat Susan Collins in just over 100 days”.

Jordan Wood

A former congressional chief of staff, Wood originally challenged Platner for the Senate nomination before switching to run in the 2nd congressional district, where he ultimately lost. He wrote on social media this week that he was “continuing conversations with voters across Maine” about entering the Senate race if it opens up.

Paige Loud

A social worker who received about 10% of the vote in the same 2nd district primary, Loud has already filed paperwork to run for the Senate seat. In a statement, she said that if Platner withdraws she was “prepared to carry forward the same pro-worker, anti-imperialist, anti-billionaire vision” from her congressional campaign. Her team said she was “being proactive in keeping options open for supporters across the state who have voiced a desire for a woman to be considered as the nominee.”

Dan Kleban

A co-founder of Maine Beer Company, Kleban ran in the Senate primary before dropping out earlier this year. Announcing his renewed interest, he cast the race as a referendum on Collins rather than on Platner: “For too long, this race has been about everything but Susan Collins’s repeated failures to do what’s right for Maine,” he said, citing her votes to confirm judges who overturned federal abortion protections and her support for Donald Trump’s economic agenda.

Kleban said he had been “overwhelmed by the countless calls from Mainers” encouraging him to run, and called for “an open, transparent process” to choose the nominee over the next two weeks.

David Costello

A former Maryland state official who placed third in the June Senate primary, Costello wrote on Facebook that he was “back in” the race if Platner withdrew.