A woman who dated Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.

The woman, a 41-year-old Maine resident named Jenny Racicot, detailed the alleged incident to POLITICO in three interviews over the past two weeks. POLITICO also spoke with a man Racicot dated and confided in the years after the alleged incident, and reviewed documents, including emails between Racicot and her therapist and messages between Racicot and an acquaintance whom she warned against getting involved with Platner years before he ran for office.

Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner, who is now the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.

“I remember him grabbing my pelvis and being really forceful of me,” she said. “I remember the specific moment where I thought to myself, like, ‘This is no longer my choice.’”

  • iluvlamp37@lemmy.zip
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    2 days ago

    Platner just isn’t going to win after this unless it’s roundly debunked. Would I still vote for him over Collins in November if I lived in Maine? Probably, but I wouldn’t be pumped about it at all anymore.

    Best case scenario is he drops out and the Maine DSC nominates a new candidate who isn’t Mills.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      unless it’s roundly debunked

      Not possible.

      And, honestly, if I were him, I’d cut a deal to just recoup costs and go home.

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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      Nominating a new person is a loss. Platner got to where he is because he’s an outsider and charismatic. Which is what wins elections. Subbing in someone who the party establishment chooses will be neither of those things.

      We’re stuck relying on that charisma and anti-establishment sentiment to blow through this. And if many other elections are anything to go by, it’s got a good chance of doing so.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        Subbing in someone who the party establishment chooses will be neither of those things.

        Yeah. That trick has never worked. Most recently, it didn’t work for VP Harris.

      • iluvlamp37@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        You are asking Democratic voters to overlook a credible rape allegation, we are not Republicans. It’s not going to happen, Platner is not going to win after this.

        I don’t know how the Maine DSC works, but it’s not a given they’ll shit out Mills depending how they work. In my state, delegates from each caucus would vote for it, and our delegates this year were HEAVILY left-leaning (a midwestern state).

        • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
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          2 days ago

          we are not Republicans.

          Seems to be a lot of folk arguing we should still support Platner in here.

        • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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          2 days ago

          Bill Clinton still gets a speaking slot at Democratic conventions.

          • iluvlamp37@lemmy.zip
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            2 days ago

            That’s not a good comparison at all. People don’t vote for speakers at conventions, and Bill is very unpopular and would get decimated in any election right now even if he was 20 years younger

            • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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              Source on Bill Clinton’s unpopularity? Because him speaking is only ever a minor controversy with progressives and that’s more because of his shitty third way policies that have caused a lot of harm.

              He’s the 12th most popular Democrat in this YouGov poll, sandwiched between Mark Kelly and Pete Buttigieg.

      • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
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        Platner got to where he is because he’s an outsider and charismatic. Which is what wins elections.

        Apparently so is forcibly raping people.

        • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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          1 day ago

          That’s how the accusation hits the front page, but the Not Guilty verdict is on page 16 in a year. If he comes out not-guilty, I wanna see lawsuits.

          • velma@sh.itjust.worksOP
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            1 day ago

            Should Platner take his own advice then?

            “Holy fuck, how about people just take some responsibility for themselves and not get so fucked up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to? Men and women, you make a choice to consume enough of a substance to lose your self control. So if you don’t want to be in a comprising situation, act like an adult for fucks sake.”