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It has been one week since Politico published a story alleging that Maine Democrat Graham Platner raped a former girlfriend. He denies the allegation, but it forced him to end his campaign for the U.S. Senate. Now, the state Democratic Party is scrambling to replace Platner on the ballot. But as NPR's senior political correspondent Tamara Keith reports, voters in Maine are still reeling.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Joseph Berube gave up on politics in 1972 after Democrat George McGovern lost the race for president in a landslide.
JOSEPH BERUBE: And at that point, literally, that's when I bailed out of politics - literally - 'cause I was so devastated that he only won Massachusetts.
KEITH: Berube is an independent voter who lives in Northport, Maine. And much to his surprise, Graham Platner sparked something in him he could hardly believe.
BERUBE: Because I am so apolitical, so...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: He really is.
BERUBE: I am. I want nothing to do with it. I was actually considering giving money to his campaign.
KEITH: Charlotte Agell is on the opposite end of the spectrum. A registered Democrat and picture book author in Brunswick, she is very politically engaged - has been for decades. She met Platner early on in his campaign.
CHARLOTTE AGELL: One of our neighbors said, hey, would you like to come to my backyard and meet Graham Platner? I'd sort of heard of him. When I went to that backyard event, I just, by happenstance, walked in with him.
KEITH: By the time it was over, she had signed up to volunteer for his campaign.
CHARLOTTE AGELL: I felt a kinship with everything that was coming out of his mouth, basically - very smart, good at identifying the problem.
KEITH: Core to Platner's economic populist message was that this system has been failing regular people while the rich and powerful get more rich and more powerful. He had faced controversies throughout his campaign - the sexist Reddit posts, the tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol, the sexting outside of his marriage. He easily won the nomination anyway. But then came the rape allegation. Berube says he was devastated by what came next.
BERUBE: I agree with women's rights, and women should not be abused, but to have one person come up and stand up and say he abused me, and then that's it. It's just not really fair to him, I think, first of all. So (ph) look into it maybe. And I just think they didn't want him.
KEITH: Berube says Democrats chopped the legs out from under someone who had brought people back into politics.
BERUBE: He was bringing in people like me, and that's what's going to do this. And you know what? We're in the middle of a war to save this country. And we have the other side that's fighting with the gloves off, and we're putting the gloves on. We're in trouble.
KEITH: Charlotte Agell has been processing it all a little differently.
CHARLOTTE AGELL: A human instinct would be, OK, now I'm so crestfallen that I'm just going to stay on the floor, but there's no time to stay on the floor.
KEITH: The Maine Democratic Party has just two weeks to select a replacement nominee to take on longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins, who has repeatedly proven to be an electoral juggernaut. Agell admits to being a chronic optimist but says this was never about one man.
CHARLOTTE AGELL: You know, we're not a cult. We're just a movement that wants to take back this country for the middle- and the working-class.
KEITH: Agell wants to believe this massive disruption won't sap the momentum she felt for change.
CHARLOTTE AGELL: 'Cause it's really been like a rocket ship. We've all been on it. And that's why, you know, when these very serious things have been alleged and, you know, rightly, he has dropped out of the race, we're kind of still flying at 90 million miles an hour, wondering, like, who can take the controls. And we're going to figure that out.
KEITH: It's a big question. And while the Democratic primary saw a record turnout, including a lot of independent voters, Platner's replacement will be chosen by a convention of 601 Democratic delegates picked by county parties. State Senator Chip Curry says the state party is doing the best they can with a tight timeline.
CHIP CURRY: It's a winnable race, and we've got some great people. They just - we got to get there.
KEITH: There are more than half a dozen announced candidates, and for Democrats, the stakes couldn't be higher. Before the recent meltdown, Maine was seen as a top pickup opportunity in their effort to retake the U.S. Senate. Tamara Keith, NPR News, Brunswick, Maine.
(SOUNDBITE OF ALEX VAUGHN SONG, "SO BE IT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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