A new poll shows Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) narrowly leading or within the margin of error for potential replacements of Democrat Graham Platner as his campaign struggles due to a stream of sexual assault allegations.
Platner announced the suspension of his campaign on Wednesday after scores of Democrats called for him to step down due to the allegations. Now, a Z to A Research poll shows the race tightening for Democrats seeking to take his place.
Surveying 988 likely voters between July 7-8 with a margin of error +/- 3 percent, the poll “pitted Collins against former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former state Senate President Troy Jackson,” per NOTUS.
It found the potential contests at 47 percent for Shah to 46 percent for Collins; 47-47 for Bellows versus Collins; and Jackson getting 47 percent to Collins’ 48 percent. All three results are within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Shah and Jackson have both announced plans to run, while Bellows said she is “seriously considering” it.
The survey was conducted by Z to A Research and commissioned by a pro-Shah outside group, according to a person directly familiar with the research.
According to Politico, the Platner campaign conducted their own flash poll on Tuesday, finding that his former ally, Troy Jackson, has the best chance against Collins – 49 percent to 44 percent. The Platner poll also found that Bellows and Shah were tied with Collins.
Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner (D) suspended his campaign on Wednesday due to a sexual assault allegations. He denirf the allegations against him while deflecting blame onto the establishment.
“My name might be on the ballot right now, but that ballot line belongs to the people of Maine,” he captioned the video on X.
“As many of you know, over the past couple days, I have faced some very serious allegations,” he began in the video. “I just want to make it clear: this is all false. The things that have been claimed did not happen. It’s not real.”
Platner further claimed that the “corporate media” and “political establishment” acted as judge and jury without allowing him a full investigation into the allegations. See full video:
On Tuesday, conservative commentator Lyndsey Fifield, who dated Platner between 2013-2014 and who previously accused him of physical abuse, told The Washington Post he would pull condoms off during sex, after she specifically told him she was not on birth control. The Platner campaign denied the allegations, calling them “categorically false and politically motivated.”
“He would pull condoms off,” she said. “He would do it in a sneaky way. He wouldn’t tell me.”
The outlet noted that Fifield initially spoke of the “alleged condom removal during a June 20 interview that was off the record.”
She said she decided to speak publicly about it Tuesday in part because, she said, she wanted to show that Racicot was not alone in experiencing issues with Platner involving sexual consent.
Removing a condom during sex without consent, known as “stealthing,” is classified as a form of sexual assault in several countries, including Britain, Canada and parts of Australia. In the United States, Maine, California and Washington state have laws that address the nonconsensual removal of condoms during sex. The alleged incidents involving Platner took place in D.C., Fifield said..
Fifield claimed that Platner removed condoms an estimated six times during sexual intercourse, and when she confronted him about it, he would often laugh the situation off.
“I confronted him both during and after [sex] because he knew that I was not on birth control and how dangerous that was,” she said one interview.
“He would act like cute about it, like ‘Oh sneaky me,’” she said in another.
Fifield also revealed this information to the New York Times in a previous off-the-record interview, adding that she did not wish to go public at the time for fear of embarrassment about her private life. At least one close friend of Fifield, Emily Zanotti, confirmed that she shared this information with her after the relationship with Platner ended.
Fifield’s allegation came after Jenny Racicot accused Platner on Monday of sexually assaulting her in 2021, entering into her home and raping her while he was intoxicated nearly five years ago, per CNN.
Racicot said one night in November or December 2021, Platner showed up drunk at her house after she asked him not to come and then forcibly had sex with her despite her repeated demands that he stop – at one point knocking over a sewing cabinet, which inadvertently left a needle stuck in her leg. When she confronted him the next morning, he said he did not remember what had happened, Racicot said.
The accusation prompted scores of Democrats to call for him to withdraw from the race to unseat Republican Maine Senator Susan Collins, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), his most loyal advocate.