Washington Examiner columnist Joe Concha said the “timeline” of when Graham Platner suspended his Senate campaign shouldn’t be ignored, highlighting a history of instances when the Democratic Party replaced scandal-riddled candidates ahead of general elections.
Concha’s comments come after Maine Democrat suspended his Senate campaign following allegations of sexual assault. Concha noted that a similar situation happened with former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell’s California gubernatorial campaign and with former President Joe Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign, which ended shortly after a disastrous presidential debate performance.
“This sort of stuff, I would hope, does not sit well with Democratic voters because, again, this is the party that says over and over they only exist to save democracy,” Concha said on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom Thursday.
“So what are they going to do again? They are going to install a candidate Soviet-style that the people have no say in whatsoever,” Concha added.
Following Platner’s dropping out of the race, the Maine Democratic Party announced it would host a first-of-its-kind convention to select Platner’s replacement.
At the convention, 500 delegates elected by their county committees proportionally, along with the entire 100-person state committee, will decide who will be the new Democratic nominee that will face off against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in November.
Concha likened the situation to forcing a child to eat something they don’t want.
“They’re going to say, ‘Here’s your candidate,’” Concha said. “Almost like giving your kid something to eat and be like, ‘You know what, you’re going to have that because it’s the only thing we’re serving at this point.’”
WHO IS RUNNING TO REPLACE GRAHAM PLATNER?
Similar to Biden and Swalwell, Platner decided to suspend his campaign after losing confidence and support within the Democratic Party.
Within hours of Politico’s report of the sexual assault allegation, key Platner allies began to pull their endorsements and call on him to drop out of the race, including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).