Platner withdrawal renews debate over candidate scrutiny, strategists say

Female candidates say they face higher bar on past conduct than male peers

The collapse of Graham Platner’s U.S. Senate campaign in Maine after a rape allegation — which he denies — has revived a debate among Democrats about which candidates’ personal controversies are considered disqualifying, according to a Guardian analysis.

Platner, a Marine veteran turned oyster farmer, faced a series of controversies before the allegation that ended his campaign, the Guardian reported. These included online posts the Guardian described as racist, sexist, and homophobic; a tattoo widely recognized as a Nazi symbol, which he later covered up; sexually explicit messages sent to other women while he was married; and allegations from former partners of toxic and threatening behavior, which he denied. His campaign ended earlier this month after a woman accused him of rape, an allegation he also denied.

Amanda Litman, co-founder of Run for Something, which recruits young progressive candidates, said the case demonstrates that “white men get to fail,” according to the Guardian. “Women do not get to make mistakes. People of color do not get to make mistakes,” Litman told the Guardian. She said her organization’s vetting process reveals that women and people of color are more likely to “self-censor” or decide not to run at all. Litman compared Platner to high-profile men such as the Fyre fest guy and Adam Neuman, saying there is “inherent trust and faith in capabilities that they don’t have to prove.”

Chris Rabb, who won a closely watched Democratic primary in a deep-blue Pennsylvania House district, said on the Breaking Points podcast last month that “folks who have been identified as hardscrabble, populist, left-of-center white guys get far more leeway than folks like me, Black progressives,” according to the Guardian. He called it “a double standard that is largely based on race.” Rabb added that if he had a problematic tattoo related to white people, he did not think he would be viable even in a majority-Black district because the money would not be there to run the campaign he needed.

Annie Andrews, the Democratic Senate nominee in South Carolina, wrote on X, “I’m just a girl, running for the US Senate, with a medical degree, a record of service, and a non-problematic past,” a post the Guardian said captured a view widely shared among other female candidates. Michelle White, executive director of Emily’s List, said in a video that “time after time, we have to watch strong women candidates get dismissed and treated like a backup plan, while some disastrous men take up all the oxygen — and ultimately make it harder to win the seats we need to take back our country,” according to the Guardian.

In Texas, Democratic state house nominee Sara McGee disclosed what she called her “deepest, darkest secrets,” including a teenage drunk-driving offense, a divorce from a violent partner, and old debts that ended up in court, the Guardian reported. “I was legitimately worried about these things tanking my chances of representing my community,” she wrote on X, according to the Guardian.

Kelly Dittmar, a scholar at the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University, told the Guardian that research shows women and people of color often start from a deficit, needing to prove not only that they are qualified but that they fit voters’ expectations of what leadership looks like. She cited the Barbara Lee Family Foundation’s concept of the “character pedestal,” in which voters expect women to be more honest and trustworthy than men. “The fall from the pedestal is longer and harder,” Dittmar said, according to the Guardian. Dittmar also pointed to a 2008 survey of state legislators finding that women described their decision to run as “relationally embedded,” weighing how a campaign would affect their families, communities, and careers, while men were more likely to run simply because they wanted the job, the Guardian reported.

MSI previously reported on the fallout from Platner’s campaign after he faced escalating calls to drop out, and on his eventual suspension and withdrawal from the race.