Maine Democrats plan convention to replace scandal-hit Graham Platner
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
The Maine Democratic party has voted to hold a convention after its Senate pick Graham Platner withdrew from the race following accusations of sexual assault.
Platner announced his decision in an 11-minute video posted to social media on Wednesday evening, in which he angrily accused the Democratic establishment and corporate media of “using these allegations to take away all of the things we need to run a campaign” and acting “as judge, jury and executioner”.
In the video, Platner vehemently stood by his assertion that the accusations were “not remotely true”, claiming they were driven by “large forces … working against [him] personally”.
Now the Maine Democratic party, which by law is responsible for naming a replacement, has said it will move forward with holding a nominating convention to choose a new nominee. Potential contenders have already started making clear their interest, with a tight deadline of 27 July in place.
An array of Democrats have already expressed interest in the nomination. Troy Jackson, a former state senator who ran for governor earlier this year, quickly announced his candidacy shortly after Platner’s campaign suspension, as did Dan Kleban, the owner of Maine Beer Company who ran in the Senate primary before dropping out before the vote.
Other possible contenders include the Maine secretary of state, Shenna Bellows; former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention director Nirav Shah; state legislator Valli Geiger; and ex-congressional aide Jordan Wood.
“There is an unprecedented amount of energy and enthusiasm among Maine Democrats, driven in part by many of the dedicated volunteers and supporters who were inspired by Graham Platner’s campaign,” party officials said in a statement issued less than an hour before Platner suspended his campaign.
“We look forward to coming together and harnessing that energy around our new nominee as we work to defeat Susan Collins in November.”
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
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Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would ask the US supreme court to reconsider its ruling that the 14th amendment to the US constitution guarantees birthright citizenship in light of what he described as shocking new evidence: a hospital in Texas advertising its services to expectant mothers in Mexico on a pair of billboards. “Signs and Billboards are being put up all over our Southern Border, and Mexico, advertising BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, with ‘Deliveries starting at $4000’, the president wrote on his social media platform, in what appeared to be a wild exaggeration of a Fox News report on just two billboards.
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Donald Trump flew from Turkey to England onboard the older Air Force One on Wednesday, rather than the new, Qatari-gifted aircraft he used to travel to the Nato summit in Ankara, an unexpected change in plans that prompted questions about security fears. Trump later boarded the new plane at Mildenhall air force base in the United Kingdom for the trip back to Washington.
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Andrew Giuliani, head of the White House’s World Cup taskforce, has defended Donald Trump’s lobbying of Fifa to lift the suspension of US player Folarin Balogun for Monday’s game against Belgium. The US president claimed that Brazilian referee Raphael Claus, who showed Balogun a red card in the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, was “a little bit suspect, if you check his past”.
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US stock markets fell on Wednesday as the US continued strikes on Iran and the Federal Reserve flagged concerns that would warrant higher interest rates. Donald Trump’s declaration at the Nato summit in Ankara that the Iran-US ceasefire is over sent oil prices sharply higher on Wednesday. Brent crude, the global benchmark, jumped more than 5% to crest $80 a barrel.
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A Manhattan federal court judge on Wednesday ordered the release of the more than $5m Donald Trump owes E Jean Carroll following her successful 2023 sexual abuse and defamation trial against him. Less than an hour after the judge issued his order, Trump filed paperwork indicating he was appealing the decision.
Key events
Melody Schreiber
The Trump administration may remove the temporary protected status (TPS) of Haitians and Syrians in the US, the US supreme court ruled in late June – a move that will worsen America’s growing caregiver shortage, experts say.
The US is now experiencing its fastest increase in the aging population in more than a hundred years, and more than 20% of the US population will be 65 or older by 2030. But the population of caregivers has not grown at the same pace, leading to staffing shortages.
Immigrants account for about one in six workers in the US – but they comprise about 30% of caregivers in longterm settings. The caregivers, often nurses and aides in hospitals, facilities, and homes, come from at least 163 countries, and Haitian immigrants are strongly represented at 7% of that workforce, according to a report from LeadingAge, the national association of non-profit and mission driven providers of aging services.
“Foreign-born staff are significant contributors to care and services our members provide, and that older adults and their families rely on,” said Lisa Sanders, vice-president of communications and media relations at LeadingAge. “Without staff, there is no care.”
Sophie Sullivan and Pablo Iglesias Maurer
The French men’s national soccer team, whose star Kylian Mbappé is one of the world’s most outspoken athletes against far-right politicians, has been using a charter airplane company that is at the heart of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
Images of the team posted on social media and flight tracking data show the French team have used Global Crossing Airlines (GlobalX) for at least three domestic flights between their World Cup games and base camp in Boston. That same airline charter company has operated more than half of ICE’s removal flights in 2024 and 2025.
A 2025 Guardian investigation into the Trump administration’s deportation program, which closely examined five-months worth of leaked GlobalX data, revealed the extent to which the company served as the vehicle to move thousands of detainees – domestically and internationally – without notice, to locations far from their families, communities and legal counsel, leading to what experts have called violations of constitutional due process rights. Among other destinations, the company has flown detainees to El Salvador’s Cecot, a notorious mega-prison. Many onboard have described being kept in the dark about where their plane was headed or being shackled at their hands and feet.
GlobalX has not responded to requests for comment. Representatives for the French national team did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Maine contenders: the Democrats who could replace Graham Platner
Joseph Gedeon
A month after he won Maine’s Democratic primary, Graham Platner, the oyster farmer turned insurgent candidate has suspended his campaign after being accused by a former girlfriend of severely sexually assaulting her in 2021 – an allegation he denies as “categorically untrue”.
Now that Platner has said he will file paperwork to withdraw from the race, Maine Democrats have until 27 July to select a replacement to face Susan Collins, the Republican incumbent, in a race widely seen as pivotal to control of the Senate. The state party said on Wednesday it would hold a nominating convention to pick a new candidate.
But one complicating factor has been that Platner won more primary votes than any Democratic Senate candidate in the state’s history, and energized a coalition that the establishment favorite, governor Janet Mills, never matched. Some have suggested that his successor will need to carry forward that energy, while others are arguing the new nominee will have to be independent from him, or risk being seen as his protégé.
Whoever takes the position will have little time to prepare for a general election against Collins, a five-term incumbent. Here are the options so far:
Maine Democrats plan convention to replace scandal-hit Graham Platner
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
The Maine Democratic party has voted to hold a convention after its Senate pick Graham Platner withdrew from the race following accusations of sexual assault.
Platner announced his decision in an 11-minute video posted to social media on Wednesday evening, in which he angrily accused the Democratic establishment and corporate media of “using these allegations to take away all of the things we need to run a campaign” and acting “as judge, jury and executioner”.
In the video, Platner vehemently stood by his assertion that the accusations were “not remotely true”, claiming they were driven by “large forces … working against [him] personally”.
Now the Maine Democratic party, which by law is responsible for naming a replacement, has said it will move forward with holding a nominating convention to choose a new nominee. Potential contenders have already started making clear their interest, with a tight deadline of 27 July in place.
An array of Democrats have already expressed interest in the nomination. Troy Jackson, a former state senator who ran for governor earlier this year, quickly announced his candidacy shortly after Platner’s campaign suspension, as did Dan Kleban, the owner of Maine Beer Company who ran in the Senate primary before dropping out before the vote.
Other possible contenders include the Maine secretary of state, Shenna Bellows; former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention director Nirav Shah; state legislator Valli Geiger; and ex-congressional aide Jordan Wood.
“There is an unprecedented amount of energy and enthusiasm among Maine Democrats, driven in part by many of the dedicated volunteers and supporters who were inspired by Graham Platner’s campaign,” party officials said in a statement issued less than an hour before Platner suspended his campaign.
“We look forward to coming together and harnessing that energy around our new nominee as we work to defeat Susan Collins in November.”
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
-
Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would ask the US supreme court to reconsider its ruling that the 14th amendment to the US constitution guarantees birthright citizenship in light of what he described as shocking new evidence: a hospital in Texas advertising its services to expectant mothers in Mexico on a pair of billboards. “Signs and Billboards are being put up all over our Southern Border, and Mexico, advertising BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, with ‘Deliveries starting at $4000’, the president wrote on his social media platform, in what appeared to be a wild exaggeration of a Fox News report on just two billboards.
-
Donald Trump flew from Turkey to England onboard the older Air Force One on Wednesday, rather than the new, Qatari-gifted aircraft he used to travel to the Nato summit in Ankara, an unexpected change in plans that prompted questions about security fears. Trump later boarded the new plane at Mildenhall air force base in the United Kingdom for the trip back to Washington.
-
Andrew Giuliani, head of the White House’s World Cup taskforce, has defended Donald Trump’s lobbying of Fifa to lift the suspension of US player Folarin Balogun for Monday’s game against Belgium. The US president claimed that Brazilian referee Raphael Claus, who showed Balogun a red card in the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, was “a little bit suspect, if you check his past”.
-
US stock markets fell on Wednesday as the US continued strikes on Iran and the Federal Reserve flagged concerns that would warrant higher interest rates. Donald Trump’s declaration at the Nato summit in Ankara that the Iran-US ceasefire is over sent oil prices sharply higher on Wednesday. Brent crude, the global benchmark, jumped more than 5% to crest $80 a barrel.
-
A Manhattan federal court judge on Wednesday ordered the release of the more than $5m Donald Trump owes E Jean Carroll following her successful 2023 sexual abuse and defamation trial against him. Less than an hour after the judge issued his order, Trump filed paperwork indicating he was appealing the decision.
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