As Graham Platner’s campaign for Senate teetered on a precipice on Tuesday, progressive-minded voters in Maine grappled with the possible end of a cherished dream: that an untested populist oysterman from Downeast would beat the odds to represent them in Washington.
Grief and disappointment prevailed up and down the Maine coast after the news on Monday that a former girlfriend of Mr. Platner’s had accused him of sexual assault. Amid increasing calls for him to abandon his bid to unseat Senator Susan Collins, a Republican who has held the seat since 1997, Mr. Platner said he would take time to mull his next steps.
“We’re sad and disheartened, because we had so much believed in his message,” said Paul Begin, 75, of Cape Elizabeth. “We thought we had a chance to give power back to the people.”
Of nearly two dozen Democrats interviewed in the state on Tuesday, most said they expected Mr. Platner to drop out of the race; most said it was the right course. “His ideas were great, but he has way too much baggage now,” said John Murray, 80, a retired mail carrier from Saco.
But several, including Mr. Murray, said they would probably stick with Mr. Platner, 41, if he opted to remain on the ballot. Mr. Platner has called the sexual assault allegation “false”; the deadline for him to formally withdraw from the race is Monday.
“We’d vote for a swamp frog — anyone — to defeat Susan Collins,” Mr. Murray said.
The high-profile race, considered critical to Democrats’ efforts to take control of the Senate, has been roiled by a series of concerning revelations about Mr. Platner, an Iraq War veteran who served several combat tours and has not previously held elected office. Several shoppers at a busy Trader Joe’s in Portland, the state’s largest city, said they had worried about the candidate’s past since last fall, when it was revealed that he had a tattoo, dating to his time at war, that resembled a Nazi symbol.
Yet even after other problematic aspects of Mr. Platner’s background came to light, including past comments he had posted online about victims of sexual assault, and allegations by several women of past abusive conduct, many Democrats had continued to stand by him. They cited his readiness to acknowledge past struggles with his mental health, apologize for his transgressions and detail his evolution into a better person.
Julianne Harris, 36, of Stonington, a registered Democrat and a painter who also works in communications, said she, too, was trying to assess whether Mr. Platner’s campaign could survive the latest allegations — and, if it did, whether she could still stick by him.
“I voted for Platner enthusiastically in the primary and that was exciting,” she said, drinking coffee as she worked on her laptop at a cafe near the harbor. “I was hopeful at the outset. Now I’m disappointed.”
With Mr. Platner’s campaign seemingly doomed, Ms. Harris said she was worried about a new candidate stepping in late, “the momentum being lost,” and the possibility that the last-minute upheaval would cost Democrats the election in November. Ms. Collins, a moderate, has generally been seen as the most vulnerable Republican incumbent in the Senate.
To some, including Linda Page, 71, a retiree from Alfred who is married to a Vietnam War veteran, it had felt deeply important to allow Mr. Platner to make the case that he had changed and grown.
“I like to give a person a second chance, especially a veteran who has tried to turn his life around,” she said outside the Portland supermarket. “I understand how hard it is for them to come home.”
But Ms. Page, who voted for Mr. Platner in the primary last month, said she was struggling on Tuesday to balance her strong belief in the possibility of change with a political reality that looked increasingly grim.
“It’s very sad — I really thought we had a chance with him, but now the forces against him are too great,” she said. “I think he would have done a good job. And I would probably vote for him if he stayed in.”
Al Chambers, 72, a retired sixth grade teacher from Hamden, and an unaffiliated voter who leaned Republican until President Trump took office, said he had never been enthusiastic about Mr. Platner, but had planned to vote for him in an effort to oust Ms. Collins. He, like several others interviewed, questioned the timing of the latest allegation — “Why didn’t this get reported on before?” — but said that it felt like a final death knell for the campaign nonetheless.
“Where there’s smoke there’s fire,” Mr. Chambers said. “He can’t survive this. I don’t see a path forward.”
Still, many voters were practical-minded, and already considering the field of potential replacements for Mr. Platner. That group includes several Democrats who ran for governor but lost to Hannah Pingree, a former Maine House speaker, in the Democratic primary last month.
Ms. Page said she would support Shenna Bellows, the secretary of state, or Troy Jackson, a former State Senate president. Both are progressive Democrats who ran for governor.
Mr. Jackson, a logger from rural northern Maine, was Mr. Platner’s choice for governor, and the two men campaigned together; each won the endorsement of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. On Tuesday, Mr. Sanders urged Mr. Platner to end his campaign.
Mr. Murray and his wife, Kathy, a retired nurse, said they would be happy to see Dr. Nirav Shah, who led the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and was their first choice for governor, step up to run for Senate in Mr. Platner’s place. Dr. Shah placed second in the primary.
Miriam Begin, 77, of Cape Elizabeth, said the possibility that Democrats might lose the Senate race now, after such hopeful momentum, felt especially painful given her age.
“We’re not getting any younger,” she said. “We want to see progressive change for our children and grandchildren.”
Esmé E. Deprez contributed reporting from Stonington, Maine, and Jesse Ellison from Rockport, Maine.
