Eight Democrats hoping to replace Graham Platner to debate Thursday

Eight candidates vying to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate will participate in a televised debate Thursday night. 

The 90-minute debate at 7 p.m. on News Center Maine will be the first time the candidates make their pitches statewide since Platner dropped out about a week ago after his support from the party tanked following an accusation of sexual assault, which he has denied. 

His exit upended the race for long-time Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’s seat, which Democrats consider pivotal to winning back the U.S. Senate majority. It has also left little time for the Maine Democratic Party, the entity responsible for replacing Platner, to meet the July 27 deadline set by Maine law to do so. 

The debate will offer a preview of the pitches the candidates will make at a first-of-its-kind convention in Bangor on July 25 to select the new nominee.

The debate will include: Troy Jackson (former state Senate President), Nirav Shah (former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention), Shenna Bellows (current Secretary of State), Jordan Wood (former congressional aide), Paige Loud (a social worker), Dan Kleban (Maine Beer Company co-founder), David Costello (who formerly worked in Maryland government and for the now-defunct federal foreign aid agency) and Elizabeth Dickerson (former state representative).

Thursday is the first U.S. Senate debate in Maine this election cycle, as Platner withdrew from debates after Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign in April, essentially handing him the nomination. 

Costello remained in the running but lost to Platner in the primary by a wide margin. Kleban had initially run for the seat but dropped out in October after Mills entered, and Wood switched from vying for the Senate seat to the U.S. House race to replace Rep. Jared Golden. 

While Thursday night will be the first time the candidates share a stage, several have discussed their policy stances in debates for other recent races.  

Initially, News Center Maine was only allowing candidates who had received at least 20% of the vote in their respective June 9 primaries to participate in Thursday’s debate but the outlet has since opened it up to all announced candidates. 

Jackson, Bellows and Shah ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, which Hannah Pingree beat them out for. The candidates had rarely disagreed with each other on issues, but touted their different backgrounds and approaches to governance to set themselves apart. In the race for the Democratic U.S. House nomination, Wood and Loud also largely agreed on policy. 

After federal immigration agents shot and killed a 25-year-old in Biddeford on Monday, many of the Senate candidates have called for U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement to be abolished and bashed Collins’ record expanding the agency’s budget. 

Campaigning in Maine’s U.S. Senate race over the past year has often centered on immigration, government corruption, abortion and fighting the uber-wealthy’s grip on politics. Platner had weathered a litany of earlier scandals, as many Mainers were energized by his progressive, anti-establishment pitch.