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For the second time this year, Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego is rescinding an endorsement he made in the wake of sexual assault allegations.
In April, Gallego sprinted in the opposite direction of California Rep. Eric Swalwell, who had been running for California governor. Gallego and Swalwell had been close friends — even running a fundraising PAC together — but Gallego dropped his support for Swalwell’s campaign after multiple women accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct.
On Monday, that chain of events essentially repeated itself. This time, Gallego yanked his endorsement of progressive Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine. Gallego’s announcement, which he made on X, came mere hours after Politico reported that one of Platner’s ex-partners said that he drunkenly raped her several years ago.
Platner has denied the allegation but has also said he will take time to evaluate the direction of his campaign. The deadline for him to drop out and be replaced on the ballot is July 13.
“The allegations against Graham Platner are troubling and deeply serious,” Gallego wrote on X. “I am rescinding my endorsement.”
A spokesperson for Gallego didn’t immediately respond to questions from Phoenix New Times about his initial endorsement of Platner and whether Gallego’s vetting process should have been more thorough. Gallego had been the second Democratic senator to endorse Platner, after Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Politico reported that Platner allegedly forced a woman he dated in 2021 to have sex with him despite her objections while they were casually seeing each other. The woman, 41-year-old Jenny Racicot, told the outlet that the Maine oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran showed up uninvited and intoxicated to her rural Maine home one night and forced himself on her despite her repeatedly telling him to stop.
The two were seeing each other on and off again, but Racicot cut off contact with Platner afterward and told him the encounter wasn’t consensual. Platner denied the allegations to Politico, calling them “categorically untrue,” but has said he’ll take time to “reflect” after the accusation was made public. The New York Times previously reported that several of Platner’s ex-partners had troubling experiences dating him.
Gallego had previously stood by Platner despite other troubling and deeply serious allegations. In March, when Gallego officially endorsed the Maine oyster farmer in his primary race against Maine Gov. Janet Mills, Platner already had a problematic history.
Specifically, news outlets had revealed that Platner had a tattoo that resembled the skull and crossbones symbol used by the Schutzstaffel, which was the Nazi police force that killed millions of Jews during World War II. Platner denied he knew the significance of the tattoo, which he got while in the military more than a decade ago. He has since had it covered up.
Reporters have also unearthed sexist and homophobic Reddit comments made by the former Marine, including comments that contained homophobic slurs and dismissed military sexual assaults. A week before Gallego endorsed him, Platner retweeted a post by neo-Nazi influencer Stew Peters, though Platner later claimed he did not know who Peters was.
At the time, Gallego justified his endorsement by calling Platner “the only Democrat that can win Maine.”
Gallego has also faced his own accusations of sexual misconduct, though they’ve been much more thinly sourced than those against Swalwell and Platner. In the wake of the Swalwell allegations, far-right Rep. Anna Paulina Luna claimed that an unnamed victim had come forward with unspecified sexual allegations against the Arizona senator. Late last month, the Senate Ethics Committee dismissed that complaint.
That same day, the Department of Justice opened a probe into Gallego for “suspected campaign finance violations.” In late June, Politico reported that Gallego had spent wads of campaign cash on luxury hotel stays and travel, nominally for campaign events. He’s defended that spending as being within the rules and related to campaign fundraising.
