A woman who dated Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.

The woman, a 41-year-old Maine resident named Jenny Racicot, detailed the alleged incident to POLITICO in three interviews over the past two weeks. POLITICO also spoke with a man Racicot dated and confided in the years after the alleged incident, and reviewed documents, including emails between Racicot and her therapist and messages between Racicot and an acquaintance whom she warned against getting involved with Platner years before he ran for office.

Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner, who is now the Democratic Senate nominee in Maine, for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.

“I remember him grabbing my pelvis and being really forceful of me,” she said. “I remember the specific moment where I thought to myself, like, ‘This is no longer my choice.’”

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[–] 55 points 2 months ago (28 children)

Well this seems a lot more believable than everything in the NYT story. I was all in on Platner and still have some skepticism of this just due to the sheer amount of political ratfuckery in this country, but yeah this probably could end his campaign unless some other evidence against it comes out fast.

The timing of this, seeing some random people on Threads/Twitter say another accusation against him is coming a few hours ago, articles about how to replace a candidate in Maine ready to go right away etc., is definitely really suspicious too. This whole thing fucking sucks dude.

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  • [–] 25 points 2 months ago (21 children)

    End his campaign and then what? Why would anyone, with the state the county is in, want Susan Collins to continue to provide a fascist vote?

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  • [–] 22 points 2 months ago (12 children)

    Platner just isn’t going to win after this unless it’s roundly debunked. Would I still vote for him over Collins in November if I lived in Maine? Probably, but I wouldn’t be pumped about it at all anymore.

    Best case scenario is he drops out and the Maine DSC nominates a new candidate who isn’t Mills.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago (10 children)

    Nominating a new person is a loss. Platner got to where he is because he's an outsider and charismatic. Which is what wins elections. Subbing in someone who the party establishment chooses will be neither of those things.

    We're stuck relying on that charisma and anti-establishment sentiment to blow through this. And if many other elections are anything to go by, it's got a good chance of doing so.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    You are asking Democratic voters to overlook a credible rape allegation, we are not Republicans. It’s not going to happen, Platner is not going to win after this.

    I don’t know how the Maine DSC works, but it’s not a given they’ll shit out Mills depending how they work. In my state, delegates from each caucus would vote for it, and our delegates this year were HEAVILY left-leaning (a midwestern state).

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  • [–] [S] 12 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    Yeah I really wanted to believe that Platner was better than he seemed.

    I'm sad to have my expectations met :(

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  • [–] 24 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    He was a "military history buff" who had no idea what a totenkopf was but miraculously had one on his chest for decades. And he joined fucking Blackwater as a merc. The only thing he had going for him was he said a few good things about health insurance. Oh, and he had no political history at all so there was no track record of him doing anything other than "being an oyster farmer" with his family money.

    So many of us were pointing out he was an even shittier version of fetterman (who also had massive red flags everyone chose to ignore). None of this is a surprise.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    People supported Platner despite his red flags because he's an outsider. Which as you already pointed out, it's exactly how Fetterman got in. There are plenty of candidates who got in who lived a regular life. Plenty of people don't have pasts as sordid as this guy. I can't imagine running at all knowing he has so many skeletons.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago*

    What is especially frustrating is that one of the other people in the primary basically had a very similar platform AND was also a military vet. But she was a she so of course the podcast bros didn't care.

    I get that this is maine so "drain the swamp" probably WAS a smart play but... holy fuck there were so many red flags.


    And he had a LOT of support from establishment Democrats since at least January of this year. Which is another thing he and other "outsiders" have in common, I guess.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    No real winning outcome on this. A guy with a credible SA allegation doesn’t deserve to be a Senator, we don’t deserve another term of Susan Collins or a Republican majority in Congress. I just don’t think a replacement for Platner is beating Collins

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  • [–] [S] 10 points 2 months ago*

    He should have never been chosen to run against Collins. Everyone looked past the Nazi tattoo, the sexist and racist comments, and the other sexual assault allegations and now here we are.

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  • [–] 23 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    So, off the top of my head:

    • Did a tour at Abu Ghraib (yes, THAT Abu Ghraib), decided that wasn't enough, and signed up to Blackwater
    • Brags about how he ignored the rules to fire grenades into civilian centers
    • Had a fucking totenkopf (see: Are We The Baddies?) on his chest for decades
    • Replaced it with a REALLY sketchy "celtic" tattoo
    • Fucking rapist

    What next will the evil opposition make up about this wonderful and heroic leftist?

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    [–] 18 points 2 months ago (10 children)

    Wonder what all of the people calling us purity-testing republican plants for seeing the blatant signs he was a piece of shit have to say now

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  • [–] [S] 14 points 2 months ago (9 children)

    They're going to ask why this woman is coming forward now and cast doubt on her claims.

    They're already doing it in this thread.

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  • [+] 14 points 2 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago

    I mean... you know that SNL joke about "This is the part of New York that still flies the confederate flag"? Maine is basically an entire state of Upstate New York.

    Some of the candidates in the primary actually did seem a lot better. But... rich white blackwater rapist is gonna be hard to beat. Wouldn't be overly shocked if they decide to stay in with a mix of "fake news" and "she was dressed like a slut".

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago (7 children)

    Welp, I guess we'll be getting a fascist then.

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    [–] 10 points 2 months ago*

    Being a leftist is a lot like pointing to a dead canary in a coal mine and having everyone around you say 'well that could mean anything!' but it turns out it was the most probable thing the whole time. It also means saying 'man I would have loved to be wrong' a whole hell of a lot.

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  • [–] [S] 7 points 2 months ago

    Now we know why Platner postponed a bunch of events this week.

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