PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday became the latest and most notable lawmaker to pull support for Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner following an allegation of sexual assault, adding to a chorus of calls for him to step aside as party leaders scramble to determine the next steps.
Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, has long backed Platner in the high-stakes race against Republican Sen. Susan Collins, but he said in a statement that he spoke with the candidate and “in light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside.”
Platner, who denies the allegation, has not heeded the calls to resign. Instead, he posted a video on Monday saying he was considering the next steps for his campaign while canceling town hall events.
Platner posted the video after reports that a woman who previously dated the first-time candidate said he drunkenly forced her to have sex after she told him to stop.
The allegation is the latest in a string of controversies Platner has faced and so far weathered since the oyster farmer and Marine veteran entered the race. But the seriousness of the assault claim has put the Maine contest — and Democrats' ability to win control of the Senate — at risk, with even some of his strongest supporters questioning whether Platner should continue his campaign.
If Platner steps down, a possible succession battle would inflame a Democratic divide as the party seeks unity ahead of the November midterms.
Platner became a populist hero among the party's left flank, pulling far ahead of an establishment-backed candidate, Gov. Janet Mills, in the primary. Now, if he quits the contest, progressive groups are demanding that the state's Democratic Party choose a similarly shake-up-the-system candidate to replace him.
“To the Democratic establishment: This is not your opening,” said Joseph Geevarghese, who leads an organization founded by Sanders, Our Revolution.
Joanie Monteith, a passionate supporter from the southern Maine town of York who organized a trivia night about Platner in March, said through tears Tuesday that she was devastated by the news. She was waiting for another public statement from Platner before making a decision about whether she could keep supporting him.
“I’m numb, and I’m waiting for what Graham has to say," she said. "I’m trying not to be a part of this public trial. And I’m heartbroken. And I’m heartbroken for him and his wife.”
She added that she believes the allegations are serious.
“I’m not going to blame a victim. Because if this is true I feel very bad for the woman,” she said.
Jenny Racicot, who lives in Maine, told Politico that Platner entered her home in 2021 while drunk and assaulted her. Racicot said she had been in an on-and-off relationship with Platner, but she cut off contact with him after that night and told him the incident wasn’t consensual. She said in a CNN interview on Monday evening that she opted not to fight back for fear of Platner, a former Marine, becoming more violent.
Another Maine voter, Lee Holman, said she wants Platner to stay in the race.
“I feel like the people of Maine have spoken,” the Democrat said. “If they wanted Janet Mills, they could have voted for her.”
She said the allegation against Platner may be legitimate, but she questions the timing. Democrats, she added, can be too quick to “throw the baby out with the bathwater” by calling on politicians facing allegations to resign.
“Every time we think we have a chance to snatch our democracy back, something gets in the way,” she said.
The pressure for Platner to withdraw from the Senate race has only increased given the short deadlines Maine law allows for replacing general election candidates.
There is no mechanism for Democrats to remove Platner from the ballot, meaning Platner must first opt to drop out of the general election before a replacement can be selected. The deadline to withdraw is 5 p.m. on July 13.
Just who should replace Platner if he drops out appeared to be further splintering Democrats. Some argued the next Democrat should echo Platner's progressive messaging, pointing to his success at rallying voters across the state. Others cautioned that having ties to Platner will only doom an already uphill campaign against Collins.
Joe Baldacci, a Democratic state senator, said he’s concerned about what the latest allegations will do to the voter excitement over the past year.
“I think the major concern, even with a nominee, a new replacement, is that person is going to start very much behind the eight ball,” Baldacci added.
Mills, who sought the Democratic nomination but dropped out before the June 9 primary, could be considered as a nominee. Mills was supported by Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer but abandoned her campaign saying she couldn't raise the money needed to compete.
Another possible replacement is Troy Jackson, Maine’s former state Senate President, who unsuccessfully ran to be the Democratic gubernatorial nominee earlier this year with the backing of Platner and Sanders.
While Jackson hasn’t publicly said he’d run for the Maine Senate seat, he did file paperwork Tuesday to launch a Senate exploratory committee with the Federal Election Committee. Separately, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna threw out his name as someone who stands up for “progressive values” after the California Democrat withdrew his support for Platner.
Nirav Shah, the former director of Maine’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday he was “evaluating” whether to join the race should Platner depart. Shah came in second in this year’s Maine Democratic gubernatorial primary, where he was considered more moderate compared with Jackson.
Jordan Wood, a former U.S. Senate candidate who then switched to unsuccessfully run for Maine's 2nd District, posted Tuesday that he was “continuing conversations” with voters about joining the race.
Other names include Shenna Bellows, the current Maine Secretary of State; Dan Kleban, founder of Maine Beer Co.; Maine U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, who is not running for reelection; as well as Hannah Pingree, currently Maine's Democratic gubernatorial nominee.
Kruesi reported from Providence, R.I.
FILE - Graham Platner, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, join hands at an event in Orono, Maine, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
PARIS (AP) — Far-right leader Marine Le Pen says she’ll run for the French presidency next year despite being sentenced Tuesday to wear a court-ordered electronic monitor for embezzlement.
The decision by the 57-year-old veteran of three presidential races sets up a fourth campaign like no other: potentially seeking votes while subject to the monitoring and a judge's determination of how, and for how long, the punishment is applied.
Le Pen said she will appeal the ruling to France’s highest court and that the process will suspend the sentence that she wear the monitor for a year.
“I will therefore campaign without an electronic bracelet,” she said in a television interview Tuesday night. “Tonight, I am a candidate for the presidential election."
The appeals court ruling cleared the way for Le Pen to run again by shortening a ban handed down by a court last year that kept her from seeking public office for five years.
But the appeals court also said she must wear an electronic monitor. Le Pen previously said that campaigning while wearing one wouldn't be possible. But she made clear Tuesday night that she now believes that she won't be subjected to monitoring at all, and that she'll be vindicated in her appeal to the Cour de Cassation.
"My hands are clean," she said.
The Court of Cassation prevously said it would be able to rule before the presidential election. Its first round is in April.
The appeals court ruled that Le Pen oversaw years of misuse by her National Rally party of European Parliament funds by paying staff with money intended for European Union parliamentary assistants. She had denied criminal wrongdoing but said during the trial that the party had made a “mistake.”
The appeals court upheld guilty verdicts for all 11 accused, including Le Pen and other party members. The party itself also was declared guilty.
However, the court scaled back the punishments handed down by a lower court last year.
From five years handed down in March 2025, the ban was cut to 45 months, with two-thirds of it suspended. Le Pen has already served 15 months of the ban, meaning that the potential obstacle is effectively removed.
Le Pen previously said that not being able to make a fourth run in 2027 would amount to “political death.”
The verdict also cut her prison sentence from four years, two of them suspended, to three years with two suspended.
How often Le Pen will be allowed to go out wearing the monitor, and other details about the monitoring, aren't yet known. Conditions will be determined by another judge in the coming weeks or months.
After at least six months of wearing it, the judge could allow Le Pen to remove it as a reward for good behavior that would include her paying the 100 million euro ($114 million) fine the appeals court included in her sentence.
From the courthouse, Le Pen went to the National Rally's headquarters in Paris, where her protege Jordan Bardella was seen earlier in the day. The party faces a potentially difficult decision choosing which among the two might be better placed to run in 2027.
Bardella, a European Parliament lawmaker, lacks Le Pen's experience and it would be his first presidential election campaign.
A Le Pen has been on the ballot papers at every presidential election since 1988: four times for her father and three times for her.
The party was called the National Front when her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, founded it in 1972. It ditched that name in 2018, part of Marine Le Pen’s efforts to broaden her appeal by moving away from her polarizing father’s legacy. His associations with people who collaborated with France’s Nazi occupiers in World II and his multiple hate-speech convictions, including Holocaust denial, made the National Front anathema to many voters.
Le Pen has steered her party’s growth in popularity as it sought to become more mainstream. It has been the largest single party in parliament’s National Assembly since 2024, although it doesn't have a majority in that sharply divided lower house.
But her embezzlement conviction would leave her open to criticism from potential election opponents.
The court said Le Pen’s party embezzled 2.8 million euros ($3.2 million) over more than 11 years.
“The facts are serious,” said the chief judge, Michèle Agi.
But the court, in written notes detailing the verdict, pointed out “the voter’s freedom of choice” and said the 15 months of ban from seeking elected office that Le Pen has served have repaired harm done to public integrity by her wrongdoing.
“Disregarding this would undermine the principle of freedom to stand for election, an essential condition for the democratic expression of universal suffrage,” the court said.
The judge had been expected to spend several hours reading out the full verdict. Instead, the proceedings were over in less than 40 minutes in the courtroom without air conditioning, on a day when Paris temperatures surpassed 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit). Table fans provided a slight breeze.
Associated Press journalists Nicolas Vaux-Montagny in Paris and Samuel Petrequin in London contributed to this report.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen leaves the courtroom after the verdict of her appeal trial, in Paris, France, Tuesday, July. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen leaves the courtroom after the verdict of her appeal trial, in Paris, France, Tuesday, July. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen leaves the courtroom after the verdict of her appeal trial, in Paris, France, Tuesday, July. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at the courtroom for the verdict of her appeals trial, in Paris, France, Tuesday, July. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at the courtroom for the verdict of her appeals trial, in Paris, France, Tuesday, July. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at the courtroom for the verdict of her appeals trial, in Paris, France, Tuesday, July. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at the courtroom for the verdict of her appeals trial, in Paris, France, Tuesday, July. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Far-right party National Rally president Jordan Bardella speaks during a rally in Lievin, northern France, Saturday, July 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
Far-right party National Rally president Jordan Bardella is embraced by far-right leader Marine Le Pen at a rally in Lievin, northern France, Saturday, July 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
FILE - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen delivers her speech during the French far-right party national rally near the parliament in Paris, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
FILE - Far-right leader Marine Le Pen walks outside the courtroom during a short break in her appeals trial in Paris, on Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
