ME-SEN: Deluzio, once a backer of Platner's Senate bid, calls on him to withdraw after assault alleged

U.S. Congressman Chris Deluzio of Pittsburgh has joined other Democrats nationally in calling on Graham Platner to withdraw from his bid to challenge Republican Susan Collins in Maine's critical U.S. Senate race this fall.

"Graham Platner should end his campaign for the U.S. Senate," Deluzio said in a Monday-night social media post after Politico reported that Platner had sexually assaulted a woman he was dating in 2021.

Deluzio previously backed Platner, a first-tine candidate whose campaign by turns galvanized and alarmed Democrats.

Supporters saw Platner as a charismatic populist outsider who trounced the state's Democratic governor in a primary last month. But critics pointed to a series of red flags relating to a Nazi-inspired tattoo, a history of offensive social-media posts, and — more recently — to allegations of "unsettling" behavior by a women who had previously been involved with him.



https://www.wesanews.org/politics-government/2026-07-07/deluzio-once-a-backer-of-platners-senate-bid-calls-on-him-to-withdraw-after-assault-alleged