The Call for Platner Is from Inside the Progressive House

From Jenny Racicot in the Politico article on her sexual assault allegation against now-former Senate candidate Graham Platner "One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was, the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him..." I believe Racicot and also that her sincere political convictions put her in a horrible position—weighing justice for the crime against her versus whatever horrible crimes could flow from a missing U.S. Senate vote. She spoke with the New York Times first, but she did not trust the New York Times with the story. She squared this circle working with Cheyenne Hunt and her organization Reckoning Action to force Platner from the campaign. Ousting Platner was no revenge of the establishment or some grand Trumpian project to stop a progressive. It was a progressive project—and to understand why, we need to look at the beginning.

Culturing an Oyster

Graham Platner was cultured, not natural. Michael Kruse's Politico December 2025 article on Platner's origin is a very enlightening read on how he was found, and grown. For our purpose, we will start the story with Daniel Moraff and Leanne Fan, a couple who met on the 2020 Sanders campaign and, apparently, roam the country identifying white male mesomorph veteran candidates to cultivate—like Dan Osborn in Nebraska and Nathan Sage in Iowa. Moraff and Fan were in Maine in 2025 when their first choice for the Senate race washed out for some reason that now likely pales in comparison to Platner's demise. So, since they made the trip, they rooted around Maine's political refrigerator, called a few people, and got to Platner through his mom at her restaurant.

Now, Platner has never been elected to anything and has no base at this point. His closet had never been pressure-tested by even a local campaigns, which often get uglier and more personal than any U.S. Senate race. But Moraff and Fan were excited as baseball scouts with a hot prospect, and they called Morris Katz a partner at the Fight Agency, who is known for working with U.S. Senator Fetterman, Osborn and newly elected Mayor Mamdani. Katz flew up to Maine, and he got excited by the prospect, while never considering whether Platner had serious trouble with the curveball.

There was no inspiring campaign kick-off event, ever, for his Senate run, because no one knew him, but rather a carefully curated announcement video spoon-fed to national media like the New York Times and Politico. Or as Emma Davis wrote in the Maine Morning Star commenting on his standout newcomer status "...his splashy campaign launch in The New York Times and team of progressive strategists . . . has set him apart." Seems like New York knew about Platner before Maine did. Then he did a Labor Day rally with Bernie Sanders and off Platner went.

Toxic Ecosystems

What sort of statewide Maine political campaign wants first word of its effort to appear in New York-based, social-media-connected outlets, instead of a storied Maine newspaper—or at least its public radio network? Why release a campaign launch video that is all national progressive clickbait porn, with nothing specific to Maine except the word "Maine"? Well, the campaign did raise $1 million in its first week. Seriously—watch that launch video—I did yesterday for the first time and the experience was clarifying.

This kick-off was aimed squarely at the social media progressive fundraising ecosystem, with a video built to thrive and replicate within it. First, this rolled out to complicit media outlets that ate up the angry anti-billionaire stories because anger makes clicks for their X posts. These stories with the video then became independent validation others could use for their social media posts. Then you have actors like the vendor Good Influence LLC whom Platner hired. These folks had a stable of influencers writing positive posts for Platner for a fee. Also in the mix are organizations like Gen Z for Change, which, along with other youth organizations like David Hogg's Leaders We Deserve, endorsed Platner. A progressive pop-up nonprofit, Gen Z for Change is part of this social media influence milieu—while not a vendor, it had its coalition of influencers writing away on many progressive concerns. Now this is a vast oversimplification of the progressive-politico complex, but it does lead into a key point for this essay. Who was the head of Gen Z for Change who also gave her personal endorsement of Graham Platner? Cheyenne Hunt—the aforementioned person who midwifed Platner's demise.

Why did Hunt personally endorse, having nothing to do with Maine? I do not know—she was not famous and had absolutely no connection to Maine. Her organization did endorse with other youth nonprofits. My suspicion is her personal name was included to pad out the early endorser list for a candidate with non-existent grassroots support. And it was a signal to others in the ecosystem that Platner was a fundraising project.

Midwife of Demise

Fast forward to spring 2026 and Cheyenne Hunt is taking on Eric Swalwell.

The soon aptly named Hunt did not go looking for Swalwell; a friend, Annika Albrecht, asked her to make a video about the congressman—then the front-runner for California governor—who Albrecht said had harassed her after a 2019 college trip to DC. Hunt made the video, and with Albrecht and fellow creator Arielle Fodor carried the accumulating stories to reporters. On April 10, CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle published allegations from four women, ranging from harassment to rape. More than fifty former staffers signed a letter calling on him to go. He quit the governor's race on April 12 and resigned from Congress on April 13. Three days from publication to resignation.

Five weeks later, on May 21, Hunt stood outside the Capitol and launched Reckoning Action—a nonprofit built to make the Swalwell operation permanent. This new accountability engine was up and ready when the Platner story broke on June 4 with an oddly restrained New York Times story. Hunt renounced her old endorsement within a day, and by her account the accusers came to her. On July 2, NBC reported she was organizing "multiple women" with pro bono lawyers attached, public notice to the entire political ecosystem of what was coming. On July 6, Politico published Racicot's allegation. On July 8, Platner suspended his campaign. The woman who helped pad his endorsement list in September helped end his candidacy in July.

Read the feature piece on Hunt at the San Francisco Standard for the full picture—definitely worth the click. What you will see is a woman well-versed in the progressive-politico complex who has effectively used it to defeat the predatory men the complex had elevated. Swalwell's demise gave her the street cred and the contact information for reporters, producers and bookers. She also had a wealth of social media fellow travelers eager to fight. Racicot had a difficult decision to make, but Hunt was positioned to midwife Platner's demise.

Bad Oyster Harvest

The social media murmurs about Platner began after the underwhelming New York Times story. Then there was the July 2 NBC News piece that foreshadowed what was coming. By July 6, the Politico story broke, and accusations that Hunt was a political operative were fired off. Then, through a video posted on X, she offered to help Platner staff who would resign in solidarity with women find new work—a damned brilliant move. She also framed the problem of when Platner needed to withdraw to give Dems a chance to win the seat. Platner's team sought a negotiated exit with a guarantee of a progressive successor of their choosing (surely not to protect the consultants); the party refused, saying on Tuesday night that his campaign would have "no role" in the process or the pick, and chair Charlie Dingman accused his team of playing kingmaker.

Here is where I venture into conjecture for a moment. Why did Racicot not trust the Times but found trust in Hunt? Racicot's original concern had not changed. My sense is what Hunt catalyzed was a plan that Racicot had faith in to remove Platner but still end Collins' Senate career. Hunt clearly had the political skills and social media expertise to make this possible. Somehow, in some way, working with Mainers, progressives cleaned their own house in a ruthless fashion. Hunt handled the national pressure and the locals worked out a way to control the replacement process and find a winning candidate. I do not know the local components. Troy Jackson, former Maine Senate president and candidate for governor, seems a likely player—considering he filed FEC paperwork to run less than 24 hours after the Politico story broke and has earned his share of progressive endorsements. But who knows?

A Progressive Judith

Elevating a candidate with no regard to political experience or even a thorough vetting is reprehensible. Platner's early and seemingly endless social-media-sourced money ($3.2 million raised in his first six weeks) likely discouraged many challengers and crashed Janet Mills' effort when she could not compete. I am not saying that Moraff, Fan, Katz, and the balance of the progressive-politico complex are simply greedy hucksters finding sham candidates to separate progressives from their money as influencer MAGA does with its base. They could be earnest. Either way, progressives must be more skeptical and not give their hearts and wallets away so easily.

Getting Platner out of the race saved the race for progressives. Just as Dems have nudged the pinball machine to help far-right candidates win primaries, the GOP would have loved to have Platner as an opponent for Collins. The establishment is just happy with a vote—look at Fetterman and see how unchallenging a "progressive" candidate can be—so a Platner in office would not be a problem for the establishment. Racicot has sacrificed much, with a loss of privacy and assuredly an endless stream of threats for years to come, to protect the progressive values she professes. Hunt and Reckoning Action turned that sacrifice using the tools that made Platner to end him and now have an even sharper sword ready for the next such man running for office. My only hope is Hunt tweaks her mission a bit to press any over-hyped social-media-based candidate and reveal their flaws before such a candidate creates another Platner-level scandal.

I will leave with a quote from Cheyenne Hunt herself in a June 15 NPR story on social media and politics. Words from someone who understands the system:

My observation is that most of the money is going to the creators who are all speaking in the same echo chamber of folks whose support we already had, and it's not going to change hearts and minds.