Mitch McConnell releases health update, says he is ‘regaining’ strength

Now-former Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at his primary election night event on June 9 in Blue Hill, Maine. Platner officially dropped out of the race July 10 following rape allegations from a former romantic partner that he denies. CJ Gunther/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption CJ Gunther/Getty Images Graham Platner, Maine's Democratic nominee for Senate, is officially out of the race. The Maine Secretary of State said Platner filed the necessary paperwork to withdraw his candidacy two days after he announced he planned to do so following an accusation of rape by a former romantic partner. Platner denies the allegation. The Maine Democratic Party has until July 27 to pick Platner's replacement. In his withdrawal notice, Platner said "people are desperate for change" and that's why they voted "for a new kind of politics" by making him the Democratic nominee. He expressed gratitude for those who supported his campaign and said that he will continue to fight for "the movement we have built together and the future we believe in." He ended his notice with a strong statement aligned with the progressive platform. "F*ck ICE. Free Palestine. Up the Hearts." Platner announced his plan to withdraw from the race in an 11-minute video he posted to social media on July 8. He said he had no choice but to suspend his campaign, citing it was no longer viable financially. "We are going to lose our ability to fundraise. We are going to lose our ability to access voter data. We are going to lose all of the things that any campaign needs on the basic level simply to function," he said. Platner added that dropping out was not an admission of guilt. Rather, the decision, he said, is to keep the progressive movement in Maine alive to defeat Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November. Platner blamed the "political establishment" for his downfall and argued the goal was to force him out of the race. "We built a campaign. We engaged in electoral politics. We motivated people. We banded together. We did it the way that we were told we are supposed to make change and we won. And now they are not going to let us have it. Not if it's me," he said. Many powerful Democrats and progressives, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent, urged Platner to step down. Platner has had to answer to a waterfall of scandals since he launched his Senate bid. Despite those, he ran away with the nomination in the June 9 primary, securing more than 150,000 votes — more than any other Democratic Senate candidate in Maine's history. Platner ran on a progressive platform centered on affordability, universal health care and getting corporate money and influence out of politics. During his campaign, he generated an undeniable amount of enthusiasm, something the Maine Democratic Party will have to harness if it hopes to beat Collins in the general election. Multiple people have already launched campaigns to replace Platner, including former state Sen. Troy Jackson and former CDC official Nirav Shah, who both ran unsuccessful bids for governor. Platner called on the replacement process to reflect "the Mainers who on June 9 turned out and showed that they are desperate for a different kind of politics." "We were asking for real democracy, and we did it the right way. And we won. But now the ball is in the court of the Democratic establishment," he added. The Maine Democratic Party said that it intends to hold a new nominating convention where around 600 delegates will select Platner's successor. Candidates have until July 15 to declare their intent to seek the nomination and gather signatures from at least 8 of Maine's 16 counties. Party leadership added they will make the nomination process public and transparent.

Graham Platner's meteoric rise from relative obscurity to the Democratic nominee in this year's marquee US Senate contest has now ended in catastrophic collapse.The oysterman and former Marine who beat a popular governor and built a grassroots network of more than 15,000 supporters in Maine announced he was suspending his campaign on Wednesday night. The news came via recorded video posted on social media, just a little more than 48 hours after Politico published a story containing allegations from an ex-girlfriend that an intoxicated Platner had entered her home uninvited in 2021 and sexually assaulted her. He has denied the allegation."We went toe to toe with one of the most entrenched political systems in the history of the world, and we won," Platner said in his 11-minute video announcing the end of his campaign. "And now they are not going to let us have it, not if it's me."Platner, who had been championed by liberal stalwarts like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, was his party's chosen challenger to unseat five-term Senator Susan Collins – the only Republican in Congress representing a state that Democrats won in the 2024 presidential election.For Democrats, this race has become crucial.To take control of the Senate in November's midterm elections, they have to flip four Republican-held seats while defending all of theirs. Maine is widely considered a must-win target.Now, Platner's exit is threatening to deal a serious blow to their hopes. It is also re-exposing rifts between the party's left wing and moderates that could not only endanger their success this year but in the 2028 presidential race as well.The sexual assault allegation against Platner was just the latest, most serious, controversy to dog the novice candidate since he entered the race last August.Earlier reports of offensive social media posts, a chest tattoo with Nazi connotations, sexually explicit text messages sent to women after he was married in 2023, and allegations from former girlfriends of threatening and "toxic" behaviour did not deter 72% of Maine's Democrats from casting their ballots for him in June's primary.Platner adamantly denied this latest allegation, but within hours of the interview's publication, his political support evaporated. State and national Democrats, including his closest allies on the progressive left - Warren and Sanders included - withdrew their backing. The national party announced it would no longer help finance his campaign. By midweek, it became clear it was only a matter of when, not if, Platner would step aside.In announcing the end of his campaign, Platner said he was not stepping down because of the allegation."We're doing it because of the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power," he added, saying he would not formally file paperwork to withdraw until he's assured his replacement will be selected in a "open and democratic" way.Now Democrats, both in Maine and nationally, are scrambling to name a replacement before a state-mandated 27 July deadline. On Wednesday night, the state party announced it will select a new nominee at convention held sometime in the next two weeks, where reportedly hundreds of delegates would choose Platner's replacement. It previously had said it would seek public input and not make the decision behind closed doors."So much of Platner's base, whose passion Democrats are going to want to have, will sit on their hands and be very angry if it looks like this is another case of the establishment triumphing over what the people want," said James Melcher, a professor of politics at the University of Maine at Farmington.Tensions between that base and the establishment go back to Platner's success against Janet Mills, the Maine governor who was handpicked by Democratic leaders as the best chance to unseat Collins. She suspended her campaign in April in the face of his momentous popularity. In recent days, those tensions have been ri

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at a "Fighting Oligarchy" tour stop held by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in Orono, Maine. Platner the presumptive Democratic nominee and will face incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) for Maine's U.S. Senate seat in the general election. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Joe Raedle/Getty Images With only a few days until the primary election and voting already underway, the top Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine, Graham Platner, is answering if he should remain in the race after numerous concerns over his past have come to light. Platner has maintained frontrunner status to unseat longtime Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins. It's an election Democrats almost need to win if they want to take control of the Senate come November. But after The New York Times published a story where previous romantic partners called Platner's behavior "toxic" and described him as someone who "does not respect women," some wonder if his candidacy is kaput. Platner doesn't think so, though. "The whole point of these stories is to make sure we're not talking about healthcare, it's to make sure we're not talking about raising taxes on the rich, it's to make sure we're not talking about getting money out of politics," he told Maine Public in an interview on Friday. He also said no one from the National Democratic Party has told him to drop out of the race. The New York Times article hasn't been the only thorn in the campaign's side though. When the combat veteran turned oyster farmer announced he was running for Senate, Platner's tattoo of a Nazi-symbol came to light. Platner has said many times that he didn't know the skull and crossbones resembled a Nazi SS sign and that he was drunk with his fellow Marines when he got the tattoo in 2007. Platner's old and since deleted Reddit comments that were racist and others made blaming sexual assault vicitms also came to light. Then, the Wall Street Journal reported Platner, who is married, exchanged sexually explicit messages with several women early into the campaign in 2025. His wife, Amy Gertner, has since defended her husband and their marriage. The New York Times story followed. In that story, one of Platner's ex-partners, Lyndsey Fifield, who has worked for conservative causes and on Republican campaigns, described instances and recounted a time when Platner locked her in a room and said she would remain there until she was "calm." Platner told Maine Public' that the allegations were "just not true." He also discredited the status of his relationship with Fifield, stating they never dated and she was "someone I had a casual relationship with." Instead of seeing the article as damaging to his campaign, he took it as a sign they're doing something right. "To read in the New York Times, like someone gossiping about Amy and I's marriage, that's painful, but at the exact same time, it's almost a sign that we're on the right path," Platner said. "I mean, people would not expend this amount of money and resources and energy trying to rip through every single part of our lives if they didn't feel threatened."In a social media post made on X the day after The New York Times story published, Fifield said Washington's culture towards victims of abuse hasn't changed and that she came forward because she wants to set an example for her daughters. "I'm so done. This just cannot keep happening. I will not one day send my daughters to go work in a congressional office if this culture is not radically transformed," she wrote. "People need to know they can and should speak up when they're abused or when they see abuse—and know there will be no point scoring about what party affiliation they have." The campaign of Sen. Susan Collins did not immediately respond to Maine Public's request for comment. Platner has been upfront about his mental health struggles. After his deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Platner said he lived with