These Maine Democrats could run to replace Graham Platner in the Senate race

By Sarah Ferris, CNN

(CNN) — Maine Democrats would have less than three weeks to find a new candidate to take on the nation’s most formidable blue-state Republican in one of their party’s most important midterms contests.

With the party’s current nominee, Graham Platner, seeking to navigate an exit from the race as soon as Wednesday in the face of heavy intraparty pressure, people familiar with the matter told CNN, a field of prospective candidates is quickly emerging to take on five-term GOP Sen. Susan Collins.

The behind-the-scenes scramble is being closely watched by Democrats in Washington, who see Maine as a critical seat in their effort to flip the Senate this November. But so far there’s no consensus pick, and anxiety is mounting inside the Democratic Party about how to elevate a top-tier nominee after Platner’s high-profile meltdown just 100 days from the election.

Three of the possible contenders — Nirav Shah, Troy Jackson and Shenna Bellows — are eyeing the Senate race fresh off their own failed gubernatorial bids. Jackson, a former state senator, and Bellows, the current Maine secretary of state, have described themselves as progressive populists, while Shah, a former high-ranking state and federal health official, is considered more moderate, with possible bipartisan appeal.

In an interview Tuesday with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Jackson acknowledged the manic sprint that any post-Platner candidate would face. “Short timeline, obviously money and all that. It’s gonna be a challenge, but I definitely think it’s doable,” he said.

But as one strategist who’s worked on statewide Maine races acknowledged to CNN: “Running against Susan Collins would be night and day compared to a governor’s race.”

Another Democrat, Maine Beer Company co-founder Dan Kleban, formally declared for the race on Wednesday. He had initially run for this same primary last year, only to drop out when national Democrats brought their preferred candidate, Gov. Janet Mills, into the race. Kleban, who would need to build a campaign from the ground up, had been gauging interest among fellow Mainers.

“I believe I can unite our party and finally defeat Susan Collins in November,” Kleban wrote in a Substack post he later shared on X.

Platner has encouraged at least one Democrat in Maine to consider running if he steps aside from the race, a source familiar with the matter said.

Platner called state Rep. Valli Geiger, a longtime backer, to “thank her for her support and encouraged her to consider running if he stepped down,” the source said.

“He’s not made any decision on endorsing,” the source added.

No one yet knows the precise path forward. Maine’s Democratic Party is still determining the process to replace Platner on the ballot. But multiple sources told CNN that it will be anything but a coronation: Democrats are expecting a snap convention or a formal caucus where voters can choose their candidate. As long as Platner drops out before Monday afternoon, Democrats will have until July 27 to choose an alternative.

Troy Jackson

The brash 58-year-old Jackson has already filed the paperwork to officially explore a possible Senate run. Jackson is perhaps best-known to Maine progressives, campaigning alongside Platner and Sen. Bernie Sanders during his gubernatorial run this year.

A fifth-generation logger and a union member, Jackson is a onetime Republican turned 2016 Sanders voter. But he also comes with an ideological record that could give some Democrats pause: In his long state Senate career, Jackson voted against legalizing same-sex marriage, and has previously opposed abortion except in certain circumstances.

Nirav Shah

The former director of the state’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention had initially received the most votes in this year’s gubernatorial election, though he ultimately placed second after ranked-choice votes were reallocated.

Shah was tapped by Mills to lead the state’s health agency in 2019 and then led the state’s pandemic response. While he was a household name in Maine during the time, his critics point out that he did not grow up in the state and point out that he voted in Georgia in the 2024 election. (He had been tapped by the Biden administration as the No. 2 official at the national CDC in Atlanta, a job he held through Trump’s election.)

Shenna Bellows

Bellows has gained national attention for her role as Maine secretary of state, once declaring Trump as ineligible for her state’s 2024 ballot after the January 6 Capitol riot. (The Supreme Court later overturned her decision.)

The self-declared populist has run against Collins before, losing by 30 percentage points in the 2014 election — a terrible cycle for Democrats — without any support from the national party.

But her supporters insist that much has changed. This year, Bellows got more second-choice votes than any other candidate. That would mean that if the state re-ran the ranked choice votes for this year’s gubernatorial election without the winner, Hannah Pingree, then Bellows would be first.

Raised in a small town near Bar Harbor, Bellows grew up without electricity or running water until she was in grade school and has pitched herself as a champion for the working class.

Dan Kleban

Kleban is, so far, the only political outsider eying the race. A resident of Cumberland, Maine, which is just north of Portland, Kleban co-founded Maine Beer Company in 2009 after losing his job during the Great Recession. Before dropping his initial Senate bid last year, he focused his campaign on affordability and climate issues.

This time around, Kleban is signaling that he’ll aim his campaign squarely at “rigged corporate interests” and “Washington establishment insiders.”

Valli Geiger

The former Rockland mayor and current state represenative has been an impassioned supporter of Platner, writing an op-ed in a local paper last fall headlined “Graham Platner deserves grace.”

Geiger spent decades working in health care, including as a registered nurse, and was elected to the Maine statehouse in 2020.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Arlette Saenz contributed to this report.