Woman alleges Graham Platner raped her in 2021 while they were dating, which he denies

Woman alleges Graham Platner raped her in 2021 while they were dating, which he denies. By Allison Gordon, Jake Tapper. Updated Jul 6, 2026.

A woman said Monday that Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maine, entered her home without permission and raped her while he was heavily intoxicated nearly five years ago when they were in a casual dating relationship -- an allegation Platner denies.

The alleged assault was first reported by Politico.

In an interview with CNN, Jenny Racicot, 41, said the attack occurred in the Maine town where she lived in 2021, two years after she and Platner began casually dating.

Racicot said one night in November or December 2021, Platner showed up drunk at her house after she asked him not to come and then forcibly had sex with her despite her repeated demands that he stop -- at one point knocking over a sewing cabinet, which inadvertently left a needle stuck in her leg. When she confronted him the next morning, he said he did not remember what had happened, Racicot said.

Racicot said she did not report the incident to authorities at the time, and she broke off contact with him soon afterward. Asked if she now considered the incident a rape, Racicot said, "By definition yes, absolutely yes."

She said she did not have a political motive to come forward with her story. She said she is a registered Democratic voter who supports many of Platner's views.

Platner's campaign denied the allegations in a statement. "These allegations are very serious and Graham vigorously denies them," the campaign said.

Platner also posted a video on X to deny the allegations. He also said in the video that he would take time to "reflect" on how to proceed with his campaign.

"Regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting but mindful of the political reality it will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward," he said.

CNN spoke with two people who said Racicot had described the sexual assault to them, although she did not name Platner to either person at the time. One person told CNN that she simply referred to him as "the oysterman."

Racicot said she changed her mind about publicly airing the allegation after connecting with Cheyenne Hunt, a Democratic social media influencer and lawyer who has helped surface allegations of sexual assault against lawmakers and candidates, including former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell.

Hunt, who heads a women's rights advocacy group called Reckoning Action, told CNN that she is not being paid by any campaigns and is motivated only by a desire to hold predatory men to account. "We are doing this because we're committed to there being no predators in power," she said.

Platner's campaign alluded to Hunt's involvement to allege that Racicot's allegations were politically motivated. The campaign alleged that the claims were "coached and coordinated by out of state establishment operatives."

CNN spoke with two people close to Racicot who she previously told about the incident. One, a then-boyfriend who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said that Racicot opened up to him about the assault when she had trouble with intimacy after about ten months of dating in 2023. It was clear that something had happened to her, he explained, adding that she told him a previous partner "didn't take no for an answer" and had sex with her non-consensually.

"She didn't say the word rape," the then-boyfriend explained, rather describing the encounter to him as a sexual assault. "I think the only reason she didn't use the word rape is because I think she felt weird because she was kind of dating [him]. If all that went down on a first date, I bet she would have called it rape," he told CNN.

Correction: This story originally incorrectly described how Jenny Racicot shared details of her allegations with the New York Times. She spoke off the record with the Times about those claims.