Episode
How will Democrats fight Trump after dumping their candidate Graham Platner in Maine?
- Podcast
- Americast
- Published
- Jul 8, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1774
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0nxmb0m
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Summary
Top Democrats are urgently searching for a new senate candidate in Maine. Graham Platner, the former marine and oyster farmer, lost his party’s support after serious allegations of rape and sexual assault, which he denies. Winning Maine is pivotal to the Democrats’ chances of gaining back control of the Senate in this November’s midterm elections. Now the party is scrambling for alternative candidates, with questions around they type of candidate the party should choose, and how the Democrats will choose to fight Trump. Before these allegations emerged, Graham Platner was heralded as a non establishment candidate with a ‘chequered’ past who ordinary voters could relate to. In this episode, Anthony and Sumi also discuss the wider consequences for the Democrats as they choose candidates in other states going into this November’s midterms and the presidential election in 2028. HOSTS: • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent • Sumi Somaskanda, Chief Anchor, BBC News GET IN TOUCH: • Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB • Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 • Email [email protected] • Or use #Americast This episode was made by George Dabby and Alix Pickles. The technical producer was Dafydd Evans. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app. You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers. US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155 Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts fami…