The Maine Democratic Party approved tentative plans for a nominating convention in the event Senate candidate Graham Platner drops out of the race, it announced Wednesday evening.
The convention would include roughly 600 people who would be selected by county-level Democratic committees, according to two people familiar with the specific plans and granted anonymity to share them. Every county committee would have to meet prior to the state nominating convention to elect 500 of those delegates, and the 100 current state committee members will also serve as delegates. State committee members voted to approve the plan Wednesday evening at the end of a lengthy emergency meeting.
It’s unclear if that plan would satisfy the Platner campaign’s demand for “the supporters and volunteers who built this movement” to have “a real role” in the process to name his successor on the ticket to take on GOP Sen. Susan Collins this fall.
Plans for a 600-person convention were reported first by the Bangor Daily News.
The party confirmed its plans to host a convention on social media and via a press release but didn’t include details, saying it would announce specifics “soon.”
Any proposed convention must take place on or before July 27, the last day the party can legally name a replacement. Platner must drop out before Monday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time in order to be replaced.
Platner’s campaign has exchanged barbs with the state party over what the process could look like to replace him. He has faced broad calls from Democratic leaders both in Maine and nationally to drop out of the race after POLITICO reported on Monday that a woman he dated accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2021. Platner denied the allegations, calling them “troubling, serious, and false” but said in a video released shortly after the article came out that he would be “taking the time to reflect” on his candidacy.
Since then, his campaign has canceled fundraisers and stopped running ads.
