2026年7月10日 / 美国东部时间下午5:53 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
格雷厄姆·普拉特纳已正式提交文件，暂停其缅因州联邦参议员竞选活动，距离投票截止日期已为时不远。
缅因州州务卿办公室已于周五确认收到普拉特纳的正式退选声明。
该办公室在一份声明中表示：“由于候选人于7月13日，即7月第二个周一下午5点前正式退选，其姓名将不会出现在选票上，其所属政党可替换候选人。”声明同时指出，政党提名替代候选人的截止日期为7月27日。
普拉特纳于周五在X平台上发布了致缅因州州务卿的信件，信中明确表示正式退出联邦参议员竞选。
“我的名字本可能出现在选票上，但这个席位属于缅因州人民。因此，请注意本通知为我正式退出该公职竞选的声明。”他写道。
普拉特纳于周三通过一段11分钟的社交媒体视频宣布暂停竞选，此前一名女性指控他性侵，且支持他的民主党人纷纷要求他退选。
他强烈否认性侵指控，称其为“虚假”且“子虚乌有”，但同时表示，来自州级和全国民主党人的压力使其竞选活动无法继续开展。他将此次局势归咎于“政治当权派”。
普拉特纳在竞选最后关头退出，促使民主党人紧急开展替换候选人的工作。缅因州民主党需在7月27日下午5点前选出替代人选。该党表示将举行提名代表大会。
“缅因州法规并未规定政党如何选出替代候选人，仅要求填补空缺的候选人必须为‘合格人士’。”缅因州州务卿办公室在声明中称，“关于如何选出替代候选人以及何时公布候选人的相关公告，将由各政党自行发布。”
缅因州联邦参议员竞选是本届选举周期中受关注程度最高的竞选之一，民主党人旨在推翻共和党议员苏珊·柯林斯的连任，这场竞选结果或将决定参议院的控制权归属。
普拉特纳此前曾敦促缅因州民主党以“公开、透明且民主”的程序替换他，并表示该决定不应由“政党官僚”做出。
一名名为珍妮·拉西科特的缅因州女性向《政客》和美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）指控，普拉特纳于2021年末在醉酒状态下未经许可进入她的家中，并对她实施性侵，无视她要求其停止的诉求。拉西科特表示，两人于2019年通过交友软件相识，在所谓性侵事件发生前，曾有过一段随意且双方自愿的交往关系。
拉西科特在接受CNN主持人杰克·塔珀采访时表示，普拉特纳“按照字典定义，强奸了我”。
“那晚他违反了多层同意原则。未经我允许闯入我家，在我明确拒绝后仍逼近我，此外还有另一件我明确要求他不要做的事。”拉西科特说道，她所指的是普拉特纳被指控拒绝使用防护措施。
她补充道：“在那一刻，我权衡了自身安全……我觉得最安全的做法就是顺从。”
在《政客》周一率先报道该事件后、拉西科特接受CNN采访前，普拉特纳随即发布视频称相关指控“完全虚假”。其竞选团队在一份声明中称这些指控是“精心策划的恶意抹黑”，是“由州外当权派特工授意并协调的”。
在宣布结束竞选的视频中，普拉特纳表示自己是通过媒体问询才得知相关指控，“根本没时间做出真正回应，也没时间开展调查，企业媒体体系和政治当权派就已经扮演了法官、陪审团和刽子手的角色”。
“指控本应是事情的开端，而非终结。”他说道。
“本周正是将我从选票上除名的最后期限，这也是此次事件发生的原因。”他补充道。
这些指控促使缅因州民主党、参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默以及参议院民主党竞选机构民主党参议员竞选委员会主席、纽约州参议员克里斯滕·吉利布兰德等人，于本周早些时候呼吁普拉特纳退选。民主党参议员竞选委员会表示，如果普拉特纳仍留在选票上，该委员会将不会为这场竞选投入资金；参议院多数党政治行动委员会也表示，鉴于相关指控，将把资源从缅因州联邦参议员竞选中转出，这严重削弱了普拉特纳竞选活动的可行性。
多名国会高层民主党支持者，如加州联邦众议员罗·卡纳和亚利桑那州联邦参议员鲁文·加列戈，也在事件曝光后撤回了对普拉特纳的支持。
周二，佛蒙特州独立参议员伯尼·桑德斯表示，他已与普拉特纳会谈，并“建议他退选”。此番表态分量十足，桑德斯此前曾是普拉特纳的核心支持者之一。
凯特琳·伊莱克与凯亚·哈伯德对本文亦有贡献。
Graham Platner formally drops out of Maine Senate race
July 10, 2026 / 5:53 PM EDT / CBS News
Graham Platner has formally filed the paperwork to suspend his campaign for U.S. Senate in Maine, with little time to go before the deadline.
The Maine Secretary of State’s Office confirmed receipt of Platner’s official withdrawal on Friday.
“Because the candidate officially withdrew before 5 p.m. of the 2nd Monday in July (July 13, 2026), his name will not appear on the ballot, and his political party may replace him,” the office said in a statement, noting that the deadline for the party to name a replacement candidate is July 27.
In his letter to the Maine secretary of state, which Platner posted to X on Friday, he wrote that he was formally withdrawing his candidacy for U.S. Senate.
“My name may have been on the ballot, but that ballot line belongs to the people of Maine. As such, please consider this notice as my official withdrawal from consideration for this office,” he wrote.
Platner announced the suspension of his campaign in an 11-minute social media video on Wednesday, after a woman accused him of sexual assault and the Democrats who supported him said he should step aside.
He vehemently denied the sexual assault allegations, calling them “false” and “not real,” but said the pressure from state-level and national Democrats had made it impossible for his campaign to continue. He blamed the “political establishment” for the situation.
Platner’s 11th-hour exit from the race has prompted hurried efforts from Democrats looking to replace him. The Maine Democratic Party has until July 27 at 5 p.m. to select a replacement. The party said it would hold a nominating convention.
“Maine Statute does not address how a replacement candidate may be chosen by a party, only that the candidate filling the vacancy must be a ‘qualified person,’” the Maine Secretary of State’s Office said in its statement. “Announcements about how a replacement candidate will be chosen or when that candidate will be announced will come from the political party.”
The Senate race in Maine is one of the most closely watched races of this cycle, as Democrats seek to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a contest that could determine control of the Senate.
Platner had urged the Maine Democratic Party to use an “open, transparent and democratic” process to replace him, and said the decision shouldn’t be made by “party apparatchiks.”
A Maine woman, Jenny Racicot, told Politico and CNN that Platner entered her home without permission in late 2021 when he was drunk and forced himself on her, ignoring her demands for him to stop. Racicot said the two met on a dating app in 2019 and had a casual, consensual relationship before the night of the alleged assault.
Racicot told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Platner, “by dictionary definition, raped me.”
“He violated multiple layers of consent that night. By coming into my home when I asked him not to, and by advancing on me when I told him not to, and furthermore, another incident that I had told him not to do,” Racicot said, referring to his alleged refusal to use protection.
She said: “In that moment, I evaluated my safety. … I basically felt safest just complying.”
Platner called the allegations “categorically false” in a video shortly after Politico broke the story Monday, before Racicot’s CNN interview. In a statement, his campaign called the allegations “desperate smears” that were “coached and coordinated by out of state establishment operatives.”
In his video announcing the end of his campaign, Platner said he learned about the allegations through press inquiries “with no time to truly respond, no time for investigations before a corporate media system and the political establishment got to act as judge, jury and executioner.”
“Accusations are supposed to be the beginning of things, not the end,” he said.
“This was the last week to try to get me off of the ballot, and that’s why this is occurring,” he added.
The allegations led the Maine Democratic Party, along with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who chairs Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, to call on Platner to withdraw earlier this week. The DSCC said it would not invest in the race if Platner remained on the ballot, and the Senate Majority PAC said in light of the allegations, it was redirecting resources away from the Maine Senate race, severely limiting his campaign’s viability going forward.
And a number of Platner’s highest-profile supporters in Congress — like Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California and Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona — also took back their endorsements shortly after the story became public.
On Tuesday, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said he spoke with Platner and “recommended that he step aside.” The statement carried significant weight, with Sanders having been a key supporter of Platner’s.
Caitlin Yilek and Kaia Hubbard contributed to this report.
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