You will not recognise the name Jenny Racicot, a 41-year-old from Maine. But the fact we know it at all is a testament to her bravery. This week she came forward to describe the alleged sexual assault she claims she experienced at the hands of a man she knew. A man who walked into her house one night – when she had explicitly told him not to come over – and allegedly raped her. That man is now asking the voters of Maine to make him senator in one of the most hotly contested races of the US midterm elections.
Graham Platner is often called an “authentic” politician. He’s an oyster farmer. A Marine Corps veteran. A man who turned to politics later in life and sought to ruffle its establishment feathers. He’s a man now trying to unseat a Republican incumbent in a very Democrat-friendly state – Susan Collins has held the job for 30 years. Democrats see this as a way of getting her out.
Platner is described by his fans as a populist progressive – his platform focuses on housing affordability and universal healthcare, reducing the power of billionaires and pushing up the strength of the unions. When he first sought office, this word “authentic” became his passport. A way of explaining that he might not sound like your average senator, but that was no bad thing. Bernie Sanders, the original progressive populist, endorsed his campaign. Even Racicot herself says the reason it took her so long to come forward was precisely because she endorsed so many of his policies.
The initial vetting system threw up past comments he had made on Reddit. He asked why black people “don’t tip” – an observation he said came about from his experience as a bartender. He suggested rape victims should choose the company they kept and the underwear they wore to avoid having unwanted sex. Not when he was 15 years old. When he was in his twenties and thirties. The party digested this with various degrees of discomfort. In October 2025 several of his staffers left – one after being offered £15,000 in severance pay if she signed an NDA. She refused.
Earlier this year, there emerged the small matter of his Nazi tattoo. The totenkopf emblazoned on his chest, which he claimed he had never known was a Nazi symbol. He agreed to cover it up once it became public knowledge. In May, came reports of his sexting of multiple women. His wife was sent out to defend him. His wife. Later that month came the allegations of domestic abuse – a former girlfriend came forward to accuse him of manhandling her (he denies these allegations). His critics shouted her down as “a conservative” out to derail his political mission.
He won the June democratic primary with 72 per cent of the vote. He seemed unstoppable. And anyone who questioned his past was made to feel like they were part of the problem. The old guard. The stuffy past. They just didn’t understand the excitement he offered to voters. He was – they repeated – “authentic”.
And that’s why I’ve come to loathe that word. A folksy catch-all to excuse whatever a candidate has ever said or done or at least is accused of doing. “Authentically” racist? “Authentically” homophobic? An alleged abuser of women – “authentically” rapist? Don’t worry – the assumption goes – the voters will get it. He’s normal. This is the problem desperate parties create. So keen to find the answer to new politics, to Trump, to the younger voter – that all sense and morality goes out the window. They’ve allowed the candidates themselves to feel none of this is even a problem. As if an allegation of sexual abuse was a mere speedbump in the road of a male politician. It should be a screaming GIVE WAY sign.
Platner has denied the allegations and called them “troubling, serious and categorically untrue”. But he has simultaneously paused his campaign to give him time to reflect. By the time you read this he may even have pulled out. On Tuesday evening, Bernie Sanders withdrew his backing.
But it won’t be the allegations that convinced him to do so. It will be the growing number of senior Democrats now pulling their support and indeed their funding. A line has been crossed, they say, we are not a party that tolerates alleged rape. What a wonderful Damascene conversion that is. A blinding light when it was too darn obvious to ignore.
But perhaps that line was crossed long, long ago. And many knew it.
They just didn’t want to see it, until a progressive women – with a name and a troubling story – made it impossible for them to look away. That’s not authentic politics. It’s cowardice.
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