Democrats are in the process of exorcising Graham Platner from the party and the Maine Senate race, but Platner’s ghost could haunt Democrats for years to come. Platner’s candidacy was an ambitious experiment led by progressive party outsiders, as self-proclaimed socialists racked up wins from California to New York and plenty of states in between. Primarily due to an intentional lack of proper vetting, the Platner experiment has failed. Lucky for the Democrat establishment, because a Platner win would have upended decades of party elite dogmas. It was not scandal but survival that caused establishment Democrats to flip on Platner. Platner suspended his campaign operations on Wednesday, and formally withdrew on Friday afternoon in the wake of sexual assault allegations levied by a former girlfriend, Jenny Racicot. BREAKING: PLATNER OFFICIALLY WITHDRAWS https://t.co/G6BU7sO1ya— Bradley Devlin (@bradleydevlin) July 10, 2026 Progressive strategist Dan Moraff was the “mad scientist” behind the Platner experiment, to borrow a phrase from the Wall Street Journal. And Moraff has a type, according to Matthew Yglesias of the New York Times: “Military veterans with blue-collar jobs and no electoral experience but with an interest in politics and (typically) labor unions.” Platner’s background as a Marine veteran, labor organizer, and mediocre oyster farmer, however, does not fully explain why he was plucked out of obscurity to run for the upper chamber. It was reverse-DEI in action: Platner is a straight, white male in his forties. The band of progressive outsiders behind the Platner campaign intuited one of the conclusions from Democrats’ recently-released autopsy of the 2024 presidential election: Identity politics isn’t cutting it, especially with young men—white, black, and otherwise. Most party insiders largely wrote off the autopsy, including Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, who released a heavily annotated version after a delay while claiming the report was not up to his standards.  Nevertheless, establishment Democrats had a major incentive to malign the post-mortem because their power stems from a system built on the opposite assumptions. The biggest part of the Platner story is that if a progressive, middle aged white guy wins come November, it will expose the Democrat establishment’s strategy for the last 20 years has been dead wrong.Dem establishment has everything on the line. pic.twitter.com/gDbfBLRRZd— Bradley Devlin (@bradleydevlin) July 10, 2026 In the wake of his failed 1984 campaign, Jesse Jackson started the Rainbow Coalition to court, activate, and recruit candidates from a more diverse Democrat Party. Over the next 15 years, the Democratic Party establishment would internalize and operationalize the Rainbow coalition’s governing strategy. The DNC has strict rules requiring diversity, and in some cases parity, in its leadership and membership. To be a viable candidate in the Democrat party, you have to check at least one diversity box. Hillary Clinton checked the woman box. Pete Buttigieg checked the LGBT box. Joe Biden checked the ‘differently abled’ box—and even then he had to promise on the debate stage to choose a female running mate if he got the nomination. Platner does not check any boxes, though he might have to check a different box on employment forms in the future. In Platner, the rising socialist insurgency saw a candidate that could put the Democrat establishment on the run. For progressives, a Platner win in Maine would prove to party elites that hard-line progressives could not only win in districts where a “glass of water would win with a D next to its name,” as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., once described AOC’s district in 2019, but unseat entrenched Republicans in toss-up races. But for establishment Democrats, a Platner victory would prove they have repeatedly doubled down on a losing electoral strategy. The Maine oyster farmer’s implosion couldn’t have happened at a better time for establishment Democrats. Prior to the sexual assault allegations that became his undoing, poll after poll had Platner beating Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a nearly three-decade Senate veteran, in November.  In the June 9 primary, Platner captured 72.1% of the vote despite a number of scandals—from a Nazi tattoo on his chest to unhinged Reddit comments to a June 4 New York Times report in which several scorned lovers accused Platner of “unsettling” behavior. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s preferred candidate, sitting Gov. Janet Mills came in a distant second with less than 20% of the vote. Political reality forced establishment Democrats to embrace Platner—any hope Democrats have to flip the Senate come November relies on a win in the Pine Tree State. Schumer, Martin, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and the DSCC pledged to support Platner’s campaign. And then the Platner experiment met its violent end. The sexual assault allegations prompted calls from establishment and progressive Democrats alike for Platner to drop out. Schumer, Gillibrand, and the DSCC vowed that Platner would be completely cut off. The Democrat establishment is not out of the woods quite yet. Early polling indicates that Troy Jackson, a former state Senate president, progressive, Platner ally, and straight white male, would be a formidable candidate in November. New #MESen poll (7/7, post-scandal): Susan Collins (R) – 47% (+5) Graham Platner (D) – 42% Susan Collins (R) – 48% (+11) Janet Mills (D) – 37% Troy Jackson (D) – 49% (+5) Susan Collins (R) – 44%PPP | n=785— Jessy Han (@hjessy_) July 8, 2026 If Jackson gets the nod, it will be the first time Democrats nominate a straight white male for Collins’ seat since 2008–and only the second time this century. If Jackson wins, it could prove the progressive insurgents right and establishment Democrats dead wrong.

South Korea is favoring Chinese companies while deliberately attacking American-owned businesses, raising national security concerns, a GOP congressman warned the Daily Signal Wednesday. South Korea utilized “burdensome obligations, aggressive enforcement practices, and even the threat of criminal penalties to punish U.S. companies and prevent them from successfully competing against their Korean rivals,” a July 1 House Judiciary Committee report alleges. According to the report, the Korea Fair Trade Commission has issued a “whole-of-government assault” on American companies such as Amazon, Meta, Google, and Coupang, causing some of their market capitalization to fall more than 40% in South Korea. “I believe that what we are seeing right now with South Korea’s behavior is a national security risk,” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told the Daily Signal. The report noted that, according to some estimates, the discrimination against U.S. companies “could lead to over $500 billion in economic losses for the United States and cost the average American household $3,800 over the next 10 years.” China and the National Security Risk South Korea is deliberately “promoting China and Chinese companies” over American companies, charged Issa. According to the report, the Korea Fair Trade Commission is burdening American companies with digital laws and regulations but “exempts smaller firms and, in effect, Chinese rivals.” “China has become the largest trading partner of South Korea, and that is not an accident. That is, in fact, the active work of this government,” Issa warned the Daily Signal. Issa explained that China-friendly, pro-communist leadership has taken root in South Korea while acting “hostile to the United States, a country that literally protected them from the Russians and the Chinese for the last 70 years.” Since 1953, South Korea and the United States have been allies. Issa noted that South Korea was supposed to play an important role in growing the size of the U.S. Navy to match China’s. “We were planning on having South Korea produce parts of our ships … the hulls and much of the infrastructure would have been created in South Korea,” Issa said. However, this strategy is now untenable, Issa said. “I don’t believe we can afford to transfer that part of our national defense to an ally that, quite frankly, is more aligned with China than it is with us,” he said. Issa said that Congress needs to take tough measures in response. “Export controls have to weigh the balance of and the reliability of South Korea as an ally. Additionally, we very much have to limit the transfer of technology for production of military items,” Issa told the Daily Signal.

Maine Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate Graham Platner has formally announced his withdrawal from the race following sexual assault allegations. On Friday afternoon, Platner posted the letter he wrote to the Maine Department of the Secretary of State on X.  “In submitting this letter today, I seek to further the movement we have built together and the future we believe in,” Platner wrote. “My name may have been on the ballot, but that ballot line belongs to the people of Maine. As such, please consider this notice as my official withdrawal from consideration for this office,” he continued. The Maine secretary of state’s office quickly confirmed it received the formal notice. “The Secretary of State’s Office today confirmed that a formal notice has been received from U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner. A public declaration is not an official withdrawal, and a candidate must formally withdraw in writing to the Elections office, including signature,” read the press release. pic.twitter.com/gQzOXBJHJz— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 10, 2026 Platner’s withdrawal from the race follows a sexual assault allegation from a woman he previously dated. Following the Politico story detailing the alleged 2021 incident, Platner suspended his campaign operations and the Maine Democratic Party called for him to exit the race.  Platner, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, won the Maine Democrat primary on June 9, securing over 70% of the vote. “On June 9, 156,084 Mainers voted for a new kind of politics. One that is representative of people down here in the real world—not billionaires, oligarchs, or the political establishment,” Platner continued.  “Mainers voted for Medicare for All; to ban billionaires from buying elections; and for an end to taxpayer-funded genocide and forever wars. They voted for time and dignity; for strong unions and jobs they can raise families on; for the hope of buying a home; for the chance to retire with grace. People are desperate for change. For this broken system to be righted. For the American experiment to be furthered. Over the past eleven months, thousands and thousands of Mainers poured their hearts, time, and talent into a movement to deliver that vision. I will be forever grateful to them,” the letter continued.  Now, Maine Democrats will replace Platner as the nominee with someone of their choice. Platner hopes to still have a say. Some candidates who have already thrown their hats in the race are cozying up to Platner, while others are keeping their distance.  pic.twitter.com/9itIt4Mw25— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026 Thursday night, the Maine Democratic Party executive director, Devon Murphy-Anderson, finally addressed that candidates can begin to collect signatures and fill out the nomination form. “We are fully committed to transparency, so we are making those candidate rules available to everyone, and you can read them at mainedems.org. We are continuing to race toward the release of our fair and inclusive process to select a new U.S. Senate nominee, and we are not leaving this office until that process is in the hands of you, the people,” she said.  According to the party, it will “hold a nominating convention to choose a new nominee.”

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Please note that it was recorded before Graham Platner’s Friday announcement that he is officially withdrawing his candidacy for the United States Senate. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal.  For the last month or so, we’ve heard nothing but “Graham Platner, Graham Platner, Graham Platner.” He is a quote-unquote “oyster man from Maine” that was a four-tour combat veteran, who the Democratic Party, Mr. [Morris] Katz, a very obscure 27-year-old activist, recruited for the Democratic Party to run against Susan Collins for the senior senator slot in Maine.  And he’s very controversial, as we all remember. After he declared his candidacy, we learned that he had smeared and slandered fellow veterans. He was on social media sites that usually were used by pedophiles and molesters. He had been married recently, yet he was sexting with two or three other women. One of his former girlfriends said he’d used violence to twist her arm. I could go on.   He had the Totenkopf “Death Head” tattoo and Nazi symbol of the 3rd Panzer Division and the Einsatzgruppen at the death camps of Germany.  But a new development happened this week when another person came forward and said that not just that she had her arm twisted and had been physically assaulted, but she said she was raped.  And then everything started to change. And what caused this change? Because remember one thing: All of these terrible things I just reviewed about Graham Platner were known to the left-wing voters of Maine, and they factored that in in the primary vote. And so much was their zeal for a socialist candidate—and he is a socialist, whether he declares himself that or not—or their hatred of Donald Trump, or their desire to get a Senate seat so they can maybe impeach and convict Donald Trump, I don’t know, but they were fine with that.  But two recent developments occurred when the Democratic Party said you may be fine and you may have given him 70% of the primary vote, but we’re going to stop this. But even they were not bothered with all the things I reviewed and recited. So, what happened?  No. 1, the latest person is a Democrat, a liberal Democrat. They can’t smear her as they did the prior one, who was a conservative, as acting out of political motivations. So, that was a change. She got more credibility.  She was known for a long time. They had banked her and thought that she might be useful to end his candidacy if more things came out. So, when she went to Politico and gave her story, a left-wing organization and media outlet, the Democratic Party acted because of the second factor that changed everything.  He had been seven or eight points ahead in the polls, and then he started to descend with these revelations, and now he was either even or descending, and they were afraid he was going to lose that seat. So suddenly, they got religion, so to speak, and they demanded that he get off.  And he gave a taped 11-minute confessional, not about that he was culpable, but that he was going to suspend—suspend his campaign.  Notice what I said. I didn’t say end, quit. He didn’t say that. He’s got about five days from the time I’m talking to formally get his name off the ballot, according to election law in Maine. If he doesn’t, it stays on the ballot, even if the Democrats nominate another candidate and it won’t matter. He’s still on the ballot.  And I think that’s why he said he was going to suspend. In other words, he’s telling the Democratic apparat, you took me off, and I’m not going to go so easily. I’m going to put my finger in the wind in the next four or five days, six days, and see how people feel. They may feel I’m another Al Franken, where they “MeToo’d” Al Franken because of that grotesque picture where he put his hand on the breast of a sleeping woman, and then they found out that they were going to lose that seat, and they regretted it.  So, Graham Platner is basically saying, the people want me, and I think the socialist movement of your party wants me, and you overshot. And I’m not going to quit yet until I can feel where the momentum and the power is in the next few days.  There’s another factor to remember. He is a vindictive person. He suffers 100% disability. He’s on complete federal disability. I think that’ll be the first senator in U.S. Senate history to go to the White House with 100% disability from post-traumatic stress syndrome. In other words, he is deemed unstable enough to warrant a full medical pension.  He’s got a mean streak in him, and I don’t think he’s going to be going out like the usual Democratic, backroom coups operate. Remember, Joe Biden, when they thought in 2020 that Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders were going to have too far a Left-socialist brand, one of them might be the candidates. They said, out, out, out. Good old Joe Biden from Scranton, he’s going to be our waxen effigy. He has a moderate facade.  And they basically select him, even though he had lost the first two primary caucuses and votes.  And then, of course, they did the same thing to get rid of him. You live by the coup, you die by the coup. So, Joe Biden had a bad debate. His dementia was no longer possible to be disguised. They thought they were going to lose. He was behind in the polls. They got rid of him in a backroom coup.  They did it with Eric Swalwell. He was starting to ascend in the primary race for the gubernatorial Democratic nomination. They decided that there was a lot of stuff in his background that might hurt them. He might, in a general election, lose to Steve Hilton, so they got rid of him, and that’s what they do.  But this is a different case. He’s not predictable. He’s not one of them. And so, he does have cards to play.  He can say, I’m going to keep my name on the ballot no matter what, even if I suspend my campaign, and then you try to get a write-in candidate and see how that works for you. I will split the Democratic vote, and this will boomerang on you. So, he has a lot of cards to play.  But finally, what is the Platner problem? How did a nepo baby, who was quite affluent —his father is a well-known Maine lawyer, his mother owns a restaurant—his father, helped him and gave him property, or through a friend, for his oyster farm to perform. He only makes $5,000 a year. His only client is his mother’s upscale restaurant. He is not a working-class person.  But Mr. Katz and all these young 20-something operatives know that this agenda, this socialist agenda that they love—open borders, no difference between citizenship and residency, Green New Deal, anti-Israel, there’s elements of antisemitism, DEI, DEI, DEI, confiscate property, tax unrealized profits and net worth—I could go on. Nobody wants it.  So, they have to disguise it like they did in 2020 with Joe Biden. But the problem is they don’t have any working-class white people that look authentic, so they do silly things.  Pete Buttigieg grows a beard, wears a Caterpillar hat, wears a puff working vest, and suddenly he’s supposed to be working class until he opens his mouth and he comes off as a sanctimonious, self-righteous elite?  Or they’re looking around for James Talarico as sort of the working-class Christian, or the Christian everyman who’s down to earth, and we find out he’s got all sorts of bizarre ideas about transgenderism and gay this and sexuality and the Bible, and he’s a far-left kook.  And now we see Graham Platner. He looked authentic. He was putting out videos with his oyster garb on. They thought, well, this is a working man, a vet. We’re going to get the middle class, and we can still fool them and get our socialist agenda.  And then he turned out to be a complete nut.  What would be the easiest thing to do?  The easiest thing to do would be to go back and call up Bill Clinton—not the latest Bill Clinton, but the earlier Bill Clinton—and say how did you win in ’92 and ’96?  And he would tell them that he moderated on the issues, and he really appealed as an authentic person from the working class. And if they did that, they wouldn’t have to disguise an unacceptable socialist agenda through pseudo working-class people like Graham Platner. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

The 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, concluded successfully, with messages of unity, support for Ukraine, increased spending by European NATO allies, and big agreements on coproduction of military systems, especially precision guided munitions. Ahead of the meeting, President Donald Trump was adamant that Europe needed to increase defense spending and take more responsibility for its own defense. On the first day of the summit, President Trump met with Ukrainian President Zelensky and announced that the U.S. will grant Ukraine a license to co-produce Patriot air defense systems. If this license is granted, it will be hugely effective in protecting Ukrainian cities and military assets while Russian missiles and drones continue to target sites throughout the country. In addition to Patriot Missiles for Ukraine, Lockheed Martin and German defense contractor Rheinmetall signed an agreement at the NATO summit to coproduce the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) in Germany; this will be the first time ATACMS have been produced outside of the United States. NATO members have also agreed to make a shared fleet of military transportation aircraft with the Airbus A400M aiding the alliance with strategic airlift aircraft fit to move heavy weapons systems able to deliver to unpaved airstrips where other aircraft cannot operate. This is especially important for NATO planning, as the U.S. will likely need to commit more of its own strategic airlift assets to Asia because of the need to deter China. President Trump singled out Spain for his harshest criticism, saying, “I don’t want anything to do with Spain.” Last year at the NATO summit in The Hague, Spain was the only NATO ally to refuse the new 5% defense spending construct, and Spain has lagged behind in defense spending for decades. Perhaps the most surprising change to come out of this summit was that President Trump said that it may be time to lift the ban on Turkey’s purchase of F-35s. This ban was previously imposed on Turkey after its 2017 purchase of the Russian S-400 Long-Range Air Defense System. The ban may be reevaluated by Congress under section 1245 of the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which states that the purchase cannot be made if Turkey still possesses the S-400 Long-Range Air Defense System. The increase in defense spending from various European allies is breaking the cycle of European dependence on the U.S.. Allied investments jumped more than 20% last year alone, with allies spending $120 billion more than in 2025. The U.S. can expect allies to continue their increased defense spending in response to President Trump’s request, the clear and present challenge posed by Russia, and their now demonstrated willingness to contribute more to the alliance. The NATO summit in Ankara was a success, providing a foundation for continued deterrence against Russia while allowing the U.S. to posture shift towards defending the Indo-Pacific. The U.S. is fortunate to have allies in Europe willing to take more responsibility for European security and clearly capable of doing so. All in all, the NATO summit demonstrated that President Trump’s approach to build up stronger allies coupled with increasing America’s own military power here at home is working. NATO is on a sustained path of rejuvenation, and this new path vindicates the administration’s policy of peace through strength.