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The persistent question since the 2024 presidential election has been whether Democrats learned anything from the failures that handed Donald Trump a second term. A year and a half later, and just months before the midterm elections, the answer seems to be a resounding no.
Look no further than Maine, where the Democratic Party just watched its latest progressive darling implode in spectacular, if entirely foreseeable, fashion. Until a few weeks ago, leading Democrats were still backing U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner, ignoring red flags they should have caught early. He was billed as the party's best shot in years at flipping the seat from longtime moderate GOP Sen. Susan Collins, bringing relative youth, political newcomer appeal and a beard.
Now Platner is out after serious allegations of sexual assault – and intense pressure from fellow Democrats, including some who had enthusiastically backed him.
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Democrats settled on a replacement fast. Former state lawmaker Troy Jackson appears to have coalesced the support of Maine Democrats, who will vote July 25 at a party convention on who replaces Platner on the November ballot. Some outlets are already calling Jackson’s rise a “coronation.”
Who is he?
Jackson is a former logger who most recently made a failed bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, finishing third.
Politically, he's aligned with Platner's progressive stances now, even though he began his career holding more conservative positions. Following Platner's exit, Jackson quickly picked up the backing of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' fundraising operation.
Jackson has spent years in state politics, but a closely watched national Senate race is a different animal entirely – and he's unvetted for it. He doesn't have the fundraising chops for a campaign this pivotal, either. And reports are already surfacing about an unpredictable temper, the kind that tends to leave enemies behind. Expect more of that to come out in the days ahead.
What's happening in Maine feels a lot like 2024
In many ways, this is a replay of the 2024 presidential election, just on a smaller scale.
Platner, character flaws and all, decisively won Maine’s Senate Democratic primary in June – much like Joe Biden won the 2024 presidential primary. Voters made their choice.
Then came Biden's disastrous debate against Trump. His deteriorating health and advanced age became impossible for the party to hide any longer. By late July that year, the president was out, clearing the way for Vice President Kamala Harris’ coronation at the Democratic National Convention in August.
Even though party insiders quickly closed ranks behind Harris, voters never warmed to the last-minute swap. They hadn't chosen her, and that lack of enthusiasm followed her all the way to Election Day.
It’s easy to see the same thing playing out in Maine. Voters who already chose Platner may not take kindly to a completely different candidate getting tossed on the ballot in his place.
With Democrats, candidate optics trump substance
The Platner debacle exposes another longstanding weakness in the Democratic Party.
Party insiders picked him as “their guy” as much for how he looked as for his far-left agenda.
Platner looked the part.
With a gruff voice, facial hair and oyster-farming credentials, he checked every box on the Democrats’ “manly candidate” list.
After Harris lost handily to Trump, Democrats realized they had a problem with White male voters, particularly young men. In 2025, they spent $20 million just to study how to talk to them.
In the last presidential election, Democrats had bet that pairing Harris with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz would solve their man problem – he could “code talk” to men, in his own words, and give them “permission” to vote not just for a woman, but for a woman of color.
That plan flopped. It turns out men – and most voters – look for more than looks when picking a candidate. Messaging and policy still matter.
Clearly, Democrats haven’t learned from 2024. They were so starstruck by Platner's image that they never bothered digging into his background or character.
Now they've jeopardized their own hopes of retaking the Senate, since flipping Maine was central to that math.
By rushing to back Jackson, Democrats clearly want to bury the Platner debacle fast. But there's no guarantee he doesn't have his own skeletons that just haven't surfaced yet.
What’s happening in Maine is based on the same instinct that cost Democrats the White House: elevate the candidate who looks electable, skip the vetting, and hope voters don’t notice the switch. Until the party learns to do the boring work of vetting before the exciting work of anointing, it will keep handing Republicans the same gift.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected] or on X: @Ingrid_Jacques
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Maine Democrats anoint another candidate they didn't vet | Opinion
