{"id":8405,"date":"2026-07-17T07:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T02:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=8405"},"modified":"2026-07-17T07:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T02:30:19","slug":"crowded-field-to-replace-platner-in-maine-struggle-to-standout-in-first-senate-debate-4-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=8405","title":{"rendered":"Crowded field to replace Platner in Maine struggle to standout in first Senate debate: 4 takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/AP26197848094895-e1784249711902.jpg?w=900\" \/><br \/>A slew of Maine Democrats vying to\u00a0replace\u00a0Graham Platner as the party\u2019s Senate nominee struggled to stand out\u00a0on the debate stage Thursday night, with just days before the deadline to pick a new candidate.\u00a0\u00a0 The&#160;crowded field&#160;is&#160;jockeying&#160;to replace Platner&#160;to take on&#160;long-time&#160;Republican Sen. Susan Collins (R)&#160;after&#160;the progressive\u2019s&#160;exit&#160;from the race earlier this month amid sexual assault&#160;and&#160;misconduct allegations,&#160;which he has&#8230;<br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A slew of Maine Democrats vying to\u00a0replace\u00a0Graham Platner as the party\u2019s Senate nominee struggled to stand out\u00a0on the debate stage Thursday night, with just days before the deadline to pick a new candidate.\u00a0\u00a0 The&#160;crowded field&#160;is&#160;jockeying&#160;to replace Platner&#160;to take on&#160;long-time&#160;Republican Sen. Susan Collins (R)&#160;after&#160;the progressive\u2019s&#160;exit&#160;from the race earlier this month amid sexual assault&#160;and&#160;misconduct allegations,&#160;which he has&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/AP26197848094895-e1784249711902.jpg?w=900","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}