Washington — Democrats are facing a rapidly closing window to replace Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who dropped out of the race Wednesday following a sexual assault allegation.

At stake is one of the most closely watched and heavily contested Senate races of the year, as national Democrats seek to deny Republican Sen. Susan Collins a sixth term.

Platner’s insurgent campaign collapsed just days after a Maine woman he previously dated, Jenny Racicot, told Politico and CNN that Platner raped her in 2021 — an allegation he denied. Almost immediately, he faced calls to step aside from the Maine Democratic Party and top national Democrats, including figures who supported him through prior scandals. 

Even before Platner dropped out, several high-profile Maine Democrats hinted that they’re interested in replacing him on the ballot, and some former Platner allies began making the case that he should be replaced with a fellow progressive. The Maine Democratic Party accused Platner’s campaign of trying to “manipulate” the succession process.

The party will now have less than three weeks to pick a new candidate to go up against Collins. The exact process is not clear, but state Democratic officials have promised “transparency” — and say Platner himself will not be involved.

How could Platner be replaced?

Under state law, Platner had until Monday afternoon to withdraw from the race and remove his name from the general election ballot. Since he met that deadline, the Maine Democratic Party can replace him, but it must make a decision by July 27 at 5 p.m.

“If a political party makes a replacement nomination for the general election by the deadline,” the law says, “the Secretary of State shall produce new general election ballots or amend or supplement general election ballots already printed.” 

State law does not delineate how the party should choose a replacement. The Maine Democratic Party announced Wednesday it would hold a nominating convention to select a nominee. It said it would announce the timeline, details on the process, how to participate and requirements for candidates “soon.” 

“We will keep the public informed throughout the process — transparency is of the utmost importance,” it said in a statement. 

In Maine politics, the sudden need to replace a nominee for statewide office appears to be unprecedented, Dan Shea, a political science professor at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, told CBS News. But national Democrats struggled with a similar dilemma two years ago, when former President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and was replaced by then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I think Maine Democrats are keeping in mind some of the controversy surrounding the … very narrow process leading to Kamala Harris’s nomination — the very quick, truncated process,” Shea said.

Who will replace Platner?

It’s unclear who the party will choose to replace Platner, who won last month’s primary with 72% of the vote. His top rival for the Democratic Senate nomination was outgoing Gov. Janet Mills, but she suspended her campaign before the primary election, and it’s not certain that the 78-year-old governor is interested in reentering the fray or would be viewed as a top contender.

The Democratic primary for governor was far more crowded, and some watchers of Maine politics told CBS News a few of the candidates who came up short in that race could be near the top of the list to replace Platner as Senate nominee. 

Three of those former gubernatorial candidates have already expressed interest: Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former state Senate President Troy Jackson and former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah.

Jackson — a former Platner ally whose gubernatorial bid was backed by independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont — announced “I’m in” less than an hour after Platner dropped out. In a post on X, Jackson said “Maine deserves a Senator that will fight for working families.”

Bellows, who previously ran against Collins in 2014, announced her candidacy Thursday. 

“The people of Maine have been building a movement that deserves to continue all the way to November when we beat Susan Collins,” she said in a statement. 

Shah announced Thursday morning that he is throwing his hat in the ring. Shah told “CBS Mornings” on Thursday that Democrats are “feeling 1,000 emotions at once,” but “the one that is overriding is the eagerness and the commitment to defeating Susan Collins in the fall.” 

On Tuesday, Shah posted on social media that his team has “received hundreds of encouraging messages” in a statement that laid out his platform. Shah argued a new nominee should be chosen through a “transparent and open” process with at least one televised debate.

Another name that has circulated is state Rep. Valli Geiger, a former Platner supporter. Geiger told local TV station WMTW on Wednesday that Platner called her two days earlier and said he wanted to throw his support behind her. Platner has not publicly backed Geiger or any other potential replacement candidate.

Some former Senate candidates have also publicly entertained the idea of jumping in.

Maine Beer Company cofounder Dan Kleban, who launched a Senate campaign last year before abandoning it, announced Wednesday that he’s “in to replace Platner.” He wrote in a statement before Platner dropped out: “I’ve been overwhelmed by the countless calls from Mainers encouraging me to consider this race.”

Former U.S. House staffer Jordan Wood, a Lewiston native, announced on Thursday that he is seeking the nomination. Wood briefly ran for Senate last year before dropping out to run to replace Democratic Rep. Jared Golden in the House, a race he lost to State Auditor Matt Dunlap. (Golden’s team has told several news outlets he’s not interested in replacing Platner.)

Actor Patrick Dempsey, another Lewiston native who founded the Dempsey Center for cancer care, said Wednesday that he will not be seeking the nomination. In an op-ed in the Portland Press Herald, he called the speculation “flattering” but wrote that ultimately he is opting not to run. 

“Not because public service isn’t honorable — it absolutely is,” Dempsey wrote. “But because I believe I can contribute more effectively through the life I’ve already built.”

Will Platner have a say in his successor?

The Maine Democratic Party says no.

Shortly after the party called for Platner to drop out of the race, Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson wrote in a statement: “In no scenario is there a legal possibility for a nominee to be selected by an individual campaign.”

Murphy-Anderson was more forceful late Tuesday, saying in a video that Platner’s team “has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like.”

“We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner’s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, nor in determining what this process looks like,” she said.

A Platner campaign spokesperson quickly fired back, denying that the campaign had tried to put its “finger on the scale” but arguing that Platner “would want to make sure the voters and volunteers make this decision — not the political establishment.”

In a mass text to supporters Wednesday, the campaign accused the party of trying to prevent their “movement” from having any say in who the candidate will be.

In a video Wednesday announcing the end of his campaign, Platner called for an “open, transparent and democratic” process that isn’t controlled by “party apparatchiks.”

Some of the national progressive groups that supported Platner before the sexual assault accusation came to light have argued the next nominee should broadly share Platner’s politics and outsider image.

“To the Democratic establishment: this is not your opening,” Our Revolution Executive Director Joseph Geevarghese wrote Monday evening. The group, which has its roots in Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, specifically warned against picking a “status-quo candidate” like Mills.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee said in a statement shortly after Platner dropped out that the party “should immediately make clear that they will honor the record turnout in June’s primary — and the appetite for a candidate with a bold economic vision for working Americans — by running an open process that all Maine Democrats can participate in.”

One high-profile former Platner supporter — Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California — was more explicit, arguing Jackson should get the nomination because he “has spent his life standing up for … progressive values.”

But state Sen. Joe Baldacci argued on social media the new Democratic candidate “has to be someone who is independent minded from Platner, otherwise they will be viewed by voters as a protege.” Baldacci, who previously ran for the Democratic nomination to replace Golden, has said he isn’t personally interested in replacing Platner.

Do Democrats still have a chance of beating Susan Collins?

The Democratic nominee will face Collins, a moderate Republican who has long vexed her opponents in the blue-leaning state. 

In 2020, Collins defeated Democratic nominee Sara Gideon by an 8.6-point margin even as Biden won statewide in Maine by nine points, and six years earlier, Collins defeated Bellows by more than 30 points. Collins sits on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, and her campaigns usually zero in on the federal funding that she has secured for Maine.

Ronald Schmidt, a political science professor at the University of Southern Maine, said he thinks Collins will be “very difficult to beat” regardless of the eventual Democratic nominee.

“Sen. Collins is very, very good at running for reelection,” said Schmidt. “She’s got a group of people who, although they aren’t necessarily in her party or … aren’t necessarily huge fans of hers, think she can do the job, and so they vote for her again and again and again.”

Schmidt believes Democrats could still mount a competitive challenge to Collins even after swapping out Platner at the last minute, though he said it’s still an open question whether the party can “summon up the energy they need to get the big turnout that it would take to dislodge Susan Collins.”

Shea said he thinks an exit by Platner could make defeating Collins more likely. He argued that many Maine voters were “interested in making a change” from Collins and agreed with Platner’s political views, but “worried a lot about Graham Platner’s character.”

“My sense is that it may be a blessing in disguise,” he said.