NPR News: 07-07-2026 2PM EDT

Lakshmi Singh· Host0:01

Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Maine's Democratic Senate nominee, Grant Platner, is now losing the support of fellow progressive Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in light of a new sexual assault allegation. In an unrelated news conference today, New York City Mayor Zoram Mamdani also urged Platner to drop out of the race.

Speaker 20:22

The focus of today should be to respond to the gravity of what so many of us have read, and I think that the only appropriate response is for the campaign to come to an end.

Lakshmi Singh· Host0:31

Politico had published a bombshell report that a Maine woman, Jenny Rasico, said Platner sexually assaulted her in twenty twenty-one. Platner says that's categorically false. NPR has not independently confirmed Rasico's allegation. As NPR's Elena Moore tells us, the report is the latest in a series of controversies to overshadow Platner's campaign to defeat veteran Republican incumbent Susan Collins in November and give the party a shot at taking back the US Senate.

Elena Moore1:00

This is a race Democrats have seen as key to taking back the Senate in the fall. Trump lost Maine in twenty twenty-four, and people think that Republican Senator Susan Collins is vulnerable. You know, if Platner were to drop out, Maine election law says that a general election candidate has to drop out on or before Monday, the second Monday in July. So if he were to do that, Maine Democrats would have until the twenty-seventh to select a replacement.

Lakshmi Singh· Host1:26

NPR's Elena Moore reporting. The death toll from last month's powerful