Graham Platner quit Maine's Senate race this week after a rape allegation destroyed his campaign.
Maine Democrats raced to find a new nominee before the ballot deadline.
The man Democrats lined up to replace him is now accused of hurting a woman too.
Troy Jackson Faces A Bottle Throwing Allegation From The Left
Troy Jackson built his reputation as a Bernie Sanders-backed labor champion in Augusta.
Then his own allies turned on him.
Progressive Victory, a left wing organizing group, dropped a bombshell claim about the man Maine Democrats wanted to install as their savior.
The group said "Troy Jackson in a heated disagreement struck a female colleague with a bottle" during a closed door Senate caucus meeting years ago.
Progressive Victory claimed multiple witnesses saw it happen and described the incident as a long standing open secret in Maine political circles.
Jackson's team denied it immediately.
Progressive Victory was not buying it and dismissed the denial as insufficient on its own.
The group said it would keep digging.
Republicans didn't have to dig this up because the left did it to itself.
This is a left wing group that helped drive Platner out of the race just days earlier.
They turned around and torched their own next pick within hours.
Jackson had already declared himself the man for the job.
He told reporters he was "very, very interested" and called himself the best person to replace Platner.
Now the same movement that demanded Platner's head is stuck defending its own frontrunner.
Democrats built their entire Maine strategy around defeating Susan Collins this fall.
This is one of the handful of seats that decides whether Republicans keep the Senate majority.
Democrats Have Until July 27 To Pick Platner's Replacement
Platner's collapse came fast and it came ugly.
A woman he used to date accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2021, saying she resisted the entire time.
Chuck Schumer and a string of top Senate Democrats demanded he drop out within hours.
Bernie Sanders, who campaigned for Platner and vouched for him for months, told him to step aside too.
Platner still refused to admit fault on his way out the door.
He blamed "the structures that are being taken away from us by those in power" rather than the allegations themselves.
That left the party scrambling with the clock running out.
Maine Democrats now have until July 27 to name a new nominee against Collins.
The list of would be replacements reads like a Democratic Party fever dream.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows wants in.
Former CDC pandemic bureaucrat Nirav Shah wants in.
A beer company founder named Dan Kleban wants in.
A failed congressional candidate named Jordan Wood wants in.
And Troy Jackson, the bottle thrower, wants in too.
The Maine Democratic Party insists the process will be "transparent" and that Platner himself will have no say in who replaces him.
Platner's own team reportedly tried to influence the pick anyway before he was gone.
Susan Collins has survived every Democrat wave for three decades in this seat.
She responded to the Platner allegations with careful restraint, saying only that "it is not up to me to choose the Democratic nominee".
Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters was far less restrained.
He said Democrats "rolled in the mud with Platner, and now they are completely stained" by that decision.
Democrats aren't just bad at politics right now, they're bad at basic self preservation.
Now the party trying to distance itself from one alleged predator is vetting a man accused of physically assaulting a female colleague.
Nobody in Augusta or Washington seems to have learned anything.
They lost their oyster farmer to a rape allegation and immediately reached for a logger accused of striking a female colleague with a thrown bottle.
The Democratic Party has lectured the country all cycle about respecting women.
Maine voters watching this circus have every reason to ask who these people actually are.
Susan Collins does not need to run a single negative ad.
The Maine Democratic Party is doing the work for her, one scandal at a time.
Sources:
- Matt Vespa, "Here Are the Dems Running to Replace Graham Platner. It's a Total Circus," Townhall, July 9, 2026.
- Hannah Knudsen, "Leftist Group Reveals Troubling Allegation Against Potential Platner Replacement," Breitbart, July 7, 2026.
- Staff, "Leading DSA Candidate To Replace Platner Accused Of Hitting Female Colleague During Argument," Daily Wire, July 7, 2026.
- Staff, "Bottle-Throw Allegation Jolts Maine Senate Race," Newsmax, July 7, 2026.
- Staff, "Graham Platner suspends his Maine Senate campaign amid controversies," Fox News, July 8, 2026.
