Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona pulled his endorsement of Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner on Monday after a rape allegation surfaced, the second time the freshman Democrat has withdrawn support from a candidate accused of misconduct involving women. For a senator who has left the door open to a 2028 presidential run, the pattern is drawing sharp scrutiny from critics who say his judgment does not match his ambition.
Gallego posted on X that the accusations against Platner were "troubling and deeply serious" and rescinded his endorsement. Hours earlier, Politico had published an account from Jenny Racicot, a Maine Democrat who alleged Platner entered her home uninvited in late 2021 while intoxicated, ignored her repeated objections, and forced her to have sex. Platner denied the allegation as false.
But the warning signs were not new. A month earlier, on June 4, the New York Times published a detailed report on Platner's past relationships. Lyndsey Fifield, a former girlfriend, alleged Platner "repeatedly grabbed her hard enough to leave marks, pulled her from a cab by the wrist and, in one incident, twisted her arm behind her back and held her in a room." Fifield told the Times he never hit or punched her but said the incidents left her shaken and afraid.
Gallego did not pull his endorsement after that report. Neither did many other prominent Democrats. It took the rape allegation in Politico, and the political fallout that followed, before Gallego acted.
Fifield noticed. She responded directly to Gallego's post on X with a pointed question: "Mine weren't sufficiently troubling or serious for you, right?"
Gallego had previously pulled his support from former Rep. Eric Swalwell's California gubernatorial bid after separate allegations of sexual assault and misconduct surfaced against Swalwell. (Swalwell denied those allegations.) Fox News Digital reported that a review of public endorsement announcements and press reports identified Gallego as the only sitting member of Congress who had endorsed both Swalwell and Platner.
That distinction prompted George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, a Fox News contributor, to identify what he called a "bizarre pattern." Turley said Gallego "claimed complete ignorance of his friend Eric Swalwell's alleged abusive treatment of women and is now doing the same with Graham Platner."
Republican Arizona state Sen. Warren Peterson was more blunt: "Gallego's judgment is troubling. Another Gallego endorsement going down in flames."
A Gallego spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the senator "did the right thing and broke with those individuals when he learned they had betrayed values he proudly fights for." The defense frames Gallego as a leader who acts when facts emerge. Critics see a leader who endorses first and reads the fine print later, twice.
Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, a Democrat who has broken sharply with his own party over Platner, appeared on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" and did not hold back. Fetterman described Platner's alleged conduct in specific terms:
"What he did is he effectively broke in her home, he went in her home without her consent, then he came upstairs and assaulted her. She also described that created a dangerous situation for a possible pregnancy because of those circumstances, what he's done."
Fetterman declared Platner "a dead man walking politically" and called on Sen. Bernie Sanders to apologize for backing the Maine candidate. Sanders had supported Platner; as of the Fox News report, Sanders had not responded to Fetterman's demand.
Fetterman also took aim at the hosts of "Pod Save America," the influential Democratic podcast whose co-hosts had championed Platner's candidacy. He said the podcast's hosts "pushed that dirtbag, and they dismissed those things in The New York Times article, maybe they ought to apologize to the women that clearly they didn't believe or they dismissed."
That criticism was well-aimed. After the June 4 Times report, "Pod Save America" co-host Jon Lovett acknowledged the paper had reported Platner was "intimidating and even physically aggressive with past romantic partners." But Lovett framed the question as a political trade-off: Did Democrats want "a Democratic majority with Graham Platner in the Senate" or a Republican majority with incumbent Sen. Susan Collins?
His co-host Jon Favreau had earlier praised Platner as Democrats' "best and only chance" to beat Collins and called him "a good, decent man who's struggled and grown and is always trying to do better."
Gallego was not alone in retreating. Rep. Ro Khanna also withdrew his endorsement, calling the allegations "very serious and credible" and demanding Platner drop out. The Maine Democratic Party followed, officially calling on Platner to withdraw as the party's Senate nominee.
The pressure reached the top of the Senate Democratic leadership. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and DSCC Chairwoman Kirsten Gillibrand issued a joint statement demanding Platner withdraw "immediately" and allow Maine Democrats to choose a new candidate. The DSCC threatened to cut off all campaign funding if Platner remained on the ballot.
Platner denied the allegations but said his campaign would "reflect on the best path forward." He has not formally suspended his candidacy. Under Maine state law, Platner can be replaced on the ballot if he withdraws by July 13, with a replacement named by July 27.
That tight window has created its own scramble among Maine Democrats trying to salvage a competitive race against Collins.
The Platner endorsement is not the only headache for Gallego. His personal history has drawn renewed attention. Unsealed divorce records show Gallego filed for divorce from his then-wife Kate Gallego on December 15, 2016. His own motion to seal the case noted Kate Gallego had "not yet been served" but was "likely to give birth any day."
Conservative commentator Ryan Girdusky seized on the juxtaposition in a post on X: "Ruben Gallego is dropping Graham Platner like he's a pregnant wife."
Separately, Politico reported roughly a week before the Platner endorsement withdrawal that Gallego had used campaign money on family trips to Miami, Saint Barthélemy, Disneyland, Disney World, and Chicago, and to attend the 2023 Super Bowl in Arizona. Gallego insisted the Super Bowl tickets were a legitimate campaign fundraising expense. A Department of Justice probe into his campaign spending has also been referenced in connection with those reports.
Mike Fragoso, former chief counsel to Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, offered a pointed assessment of the Democratic establishment's belated abandonment of Platner:
"The allegations against Platner are awful but are also unsurprising to anyone who actually read the NYT catch-and-kill story. The victim strongly implied the allegations there. For Schumer's PAC, Senatorial, Gallego, the Pod Bros, et al. the only real difference now is polling."
That cuts to the core of the criticism. The June 4 Times report was not ambiguous. Fifield's allegations were detailed and specific. Racicot herself had spoken to the Times for that story. Yet Gallego, Sanders, the "Pod Save America" hosts, and much of the Democratic establishment kept their endorsements in place, until the political math changed.
Gallego has left the door open to a presidential run. But a candidate who twice endorsed men later accused of serious misconduct against women, and both times waited until the political pressure became unbearable before acting, faces an obvious line of attack in any future primary or general election.
Fetterman, who said he "refused" early on to look past the claims against Platner, drew the broader lesson plainly. He pointed to Democrats who had gone "back-to-back" endorsing both Swalwell and Platner and said: "Maybe stop getting in bed with absolute dirtbags."
The collapse of Platner's candidacy has reshaped the Maine Senate race and exposed fault lines within the Democratic Party over how seriously it takes allegations against its own. Gallego's spokesperson says the senator acted when the facts demanded it. His critics say the facts were there all along, and Gallego looked the other way until the cost of looking became too high.
Presidential ambitions require judgment. Endorsing one scandal-plagued candidate can be called bad luck. Endorsing two starts to look like a habit.
