Washington Examiner senior columnist Guy Benson said the Democratic Party “nullified” the Maine primary results by selecting Graham Platner’s replacement after he dropped out of the race following allegations of sexual assault.
The Maine Democratic Party announced on Wednesday that it will hold a first-of-its-kind convention to select a candidate to replace Platner, who will face off against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in November for the U.S. Senate seat.
“Democrats in Maine voted just a few weeks ago in that primary, the vast majority of whom picked Graham Platner, who I think was awful and flawed for all the reason, although we knew most of those reasons before they made that choice, and now those votes are going in a trash can and they’ll be replace by 600 party insiders,” Benson said on Fox News’s America’s Report Thursday.
“That is a disenfranchisement rate of more than 99%, so let’s see how this goes for the hardcore Platner supporters,” he said.
While the Maine Democratic Party hasn’t released details about the convention process yet, they have until July 27 to select a replacement.
There will be 500 delegates elected proportionally by the county committee, along with the entire 100-person state committee, who will be present at the convention to make the decision. Each county committee must meet before the convention to elect the delegates.
Benson slammed the Democratic Party for disenfranchising Maine voters, drawing parallels to how the party handled former President Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 presidential election after his disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump.
After Biden dropped out of the race, former Vice President Kamala Harris assumed the position at the top of the ticket when she secured enough delegate endorsements to become the party’s nominee.
The party did not have another primary to select a presidential candidate to replace Biden.
“This is the state right now,” Benson said. “Twice in a row, Joe Biden one cycle ago and Graham Platner now, of the party that calls itself ‘the Democracy champions.’”
Benson said, from the Democratic Party’s “eyes,” Platner suspended his campaign because of “political viability.”
MAINE DEMOCRATS WALK A TIGHTROPE: SPURN PLATNER WHILE COURTING HIS VOTERS
“If the Democrats felt that Graham Platner could win, I think they would stick with him through thick and thin, as they did through all of it, the Nazi tattoo, the lying, the first serious allegation in the New York Times, the online posts that were vile,” Benson said. “They were fine, or at least willing to indulge all of that.
“As the polls started to come down and they got some agida, they decided ‘OK, we can’t win this anymore, what’s plan B?’ Just like we saw after the first presidential debate in 2024 and the Joe Biden switcheroo,” he added.
