SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Graham Platner was once seen as the key to Democrats flipping enough seats to retake the U.S. Senate. Now, Democratic Party leaders are withdrawing their endorsements and calling for him to drop out of the Senate race in Maine. Yesterday, Politico reported that a woman he once dated accused him of sexual assault. Platner denied the accusation and said, quote, "any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically untrue." But this news came after other reports of unsettling behavior from women who previously dated Platner and an extramarital sexting scandal. So where does the race go from here? For that, we called Adam Jentleson. He's a Democratic strategist and the founder and president of the Searchlight Institute, a liberal think tank. Thanks for coming by, Adam.
ADAM JENTLESON: Thanks for having me.
DETROW: Is this campaign viable anymore?
JENTLESON: No, it's absolutely not. I'm surprised Platner hasn't dropped out already. Maybe he drops out by the time this segment is over. But he's gone, and, you know, the sooner, the better so - because Maine Democratic Party rules do allow the party to select a replacement as long as he drops out before Monday. So the clock is ticking. I think, you know, Democrats still have a great chance to win this seat if he drops out, so, you know, he should get out sooner rather than later.
DETROW: Platner had a lot of support from Democratic voters, even amid all those other scandals. What to you is the least terrible way to quickly choose a new nominee who the voters didn't get behind?
JENTLESON: I think you have to figure out a claim to legitimacy for this new nominee. You know, we saw how, you know, not actually being elected by voters dogged Kamala Harris as the nominee when she was picked by, you know, essentially party insiders to be the nominee. You know, she was vice president, but she was - she did not win the Democratic nomination in the traditional way. So I think you got to apply the same standard here. You know, there were seven Democratic candidates who ran for two statewide slots about a month ago in the primary, right? There was the race for senator, and there's the race for governor.
DETROW: Yeah.
JENTLESON: In those seven candidates, there are a lot of credible nominees, all of whom, I think, would have a solid chance at beating Susan Collins. The only one who can't is Platner himself. You know, and all of them would have some claim to legitimacy because a lot of people cast their votes for them. I think, you know, holding a convention that you have to plan in less than a month and then, you know, crafting rules and bylaws that everybody agrees to, you could make it work, but it's - you know, if you use subjective standards to choose the nominee at that convention, I think you're going to run into a lot of trouble and you run a real risk of leaving the party divided, which would be a real disaster as we head into the general election against Susan Collins.
DETROW: Well, that's what I want to ask about because a big part of Platner's strength was that he was not an establishment figure. He did not come up in politics in any way at all, and that really appealed to voters in a way that we've seen in a bunch of states right now. I mean, how do you get those people who supported Platner to be on board with a mainstream politician who is chosen one way or another through a very quick process that isn't as open as a regular primary?
JENTLESON: Well, I think there's risk in overstating that case, to be honest with you. I think, you know, the primary that Maine had a month ago was sort of a split screen, right? Because, you know, on the Senate side, you had people casting their vote for Platner, who, as you say, is an antiestablishment politician. But on the governor side, on the same day, those voters went to the polls and elected Chellie Pingree, who's - or, excuse me, Hannah Pingree, the daughter of Chellie Pingree, who is, you know, an establishment politician. You know, she's wonderful. I think she's going to be a great governor, and I think she's got a great chance to win, you know? But she wasn't an antiestablishment candidate, you know?
And when you look at the votes, you know, about 156,000 Mainers cast their votes for Graham Platner, you know? And the guy who is sort of positioned as the antiestablishment candidate, you know, who Graham is trying to, you know, railroad through as his replacement, Troy Jackson, only got about, you know, 45,000 votes. So 100,000 Mainers voted for Graham Platner but then supported either Hannah Pingree or Nirav Shah, as well.
DETROW: Adam, let me...
JENTLESON: So a lot of those same people who voted for him also supported some of the more estabishment politicians.
DETROW: I want to make sure we have time for one more thorny question with all of this. I'm wondering if you think the Democratic Party, the party that embraced MeToo, that talked about believing women, do you think it lost credibility or moral authority by sticking with Platner through all of the scandals leading up to this moment?
JENTLESON: Not if they get rid of him. I think, you know, one of the things the Republicans did is when they were faced with these questions, they stuck with them. They stuck with Trump. They stuck with Matt Gaetz. They stuck with any number of nominees after knowing deeply immoral things about them. So as long as we take care of business here and replace him with somebody we can all get behind, I think we can hold our heads high.
DETROW: And in 30 seconds or less, you still think Susan Collins is beatable?
JENTLESON: I absolutely do. You know, this is a very favorable national environment for Democrats. Trump's numbers are terrible. Susan Collins has been, you know, a die-hard supporter of Trump time and again. She's lost her independent streak. You know, we just have to get somebody in this race who can just, you know, be normal and, you know, make the case and prosecute the case against Susan Collins. And in that case, I think this seat is still very winnable.
DETROW: Put be normal on a bumper sticker. That is Adam Jentleson, Democratic strategist, founder of Searchlight Institute think tank. Thanks so much.
JENTLESON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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