Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont urged Graham Platner on Tuesday to withdraw from the Maine Senate race, becoming the most prominent early supporter of the Democratic nominee to push for his departure after a rape accusation.
“I have spoken with Graham Platner about the best path forward for Maine,” Mr. Sanders said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon. “In light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside.”
Mr. Sanders, a progressive independent who often caucuses with the Democrats, had defended Mr. Platner throughout prior scandals in his campaign. After The New York Times reported before the primary that several of Mr. Platner’s ex-girlfriends had called his behavior volatile and “toxic,” Mr. Sanders said the candidate was the “only one” in Maine’s Senate race who would act to address a “rigged economy,” “endless wars” and “a corrupt campaign finance system.”
“We cannot continue to allow the Republican Party to control the Senate and push forward Trump’s oligarchic and authoritarian agenda,” he wrote. “And there is only one candidate who will do something about it.”
Mr. Sanders’s reversal in stance comes after Mr. Platner’s other early backers, including Representative Ro Khanna of California and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, also pulled their support in response to the news that Jenny Racicot, a Maine Democrat, said that Mr. Platner had raped her in 2021.
In a Politico report and then a CNN interview on Monday, Ms. Racicot, 41, recounted that Mr. Platner, whom she dated on and off from 2019 to 2021, had entered her home uninvited and forced himself on her, persisting after she repeatedly said no and tried to push him away.
Mr. Platner has denied “any accusation of non-consensual behavior.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City, a fellow progressive, joined the chorus of Democrats calling on Mr. Platner to drop out earlier on Tuesday. He told reporters that withdrawing from the race was the “only appropriate response” to Ms. Racicot’s allegation.
Mr. Platner, a Marine Corps veteran and oyster farmer aligned with the party’s left wing, won the Democratic primary in a landslide on June 9. He had long animated the party’s hopes of flipping the Maine Senate seat, currently held by Senator Susan Collins, a Republican. The race is seen as central to Democrats’ hopes of winning back the Senate.
After Politico first published Ms. Racicot’s account, Mr. Platner said he was “taking time to reflect on the best path forward for the state,” but he has not announced whether he plans to remain in the race or not.
Sally Goldenberg contributed reporting.
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