Maine Dems to Hold Convention 2 Days Before Deadline to Replace Platner

Craig Bannister
July 13th, 2026 5:19 PM

Text to Speech

00:00 00:00
Font Size

With two days to go before the deadline to replace Graham Platner, Maine Democrats will meet to try to select another Senate candidate to fill in on the ballot for Platner, who withdrew from the race Friday amid a growing number of scandals.

The Maine Democratic Party (MDP) has until July 27 to file paperwork replacing Platner on the ballot. The nominating convention to pick Platner’s replacement will be held on July 25 at the Bangor Cross Insurance Center, the MDP announced on Saturday. There, 601 delegates will vote to select the party’s new nominee.

“Candidates will go through rounds of voting until one reaches a majority. The five candidates receiving the most votes in the first round will advance to the second round, and so on, until one candidate is chosen,” NBC affiliate 10 Boston reports.

But first, each of Maine’s 16 counties will hold its own nominating meeting, on either July 18 or 19, to vote to select the county’s delegates to attend the July 27 convention. The date, time and location of those meetings, which can be virtual, must be announced by July 15 – which also serves as the deadline for registering to run for a delegate position.

In a social media video post announcing the process, Maine Democratic Party Chair Charlie Dingman framed the battle for the Senate seat as an effort to combat “the tide of a billionaire-driven, corrupt and cruel national government.”

Parroting a party talking point, Dingman twice called the bid to regain control of the Senate a fight against an “existential” danger.

After declaring his party’s support for abortion, Dingman claimed that Democrats are engaged in in an “existential struggle for democracy, economic justice and a secure future.”

He then evoked the specter of climate change by calling for a “strong and visionary response to the existential threat to our natural environment.”

Donor Privacy Policy