Maine Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson has deleted multiple social media posts supporting his ill-fated predecessor, Graham Platner.
Mr. Platner faced a growing tide of calls to drop out of the race after multiple ex-girlfriends accused the oyster farmer of sexual abuse. He has denied the allegations.
Only a select few posts naming Mr. Platner remain on Mr. Jackson’s social media, including two posts in which he urged Mr. Platner to withdraw from the race.
Before Mr. Platner exited, high-profile U.S. lawmakers and state officials backed his campaign. One of those was Mr. Jackson, the former Maine Senate president.
Mr. Jackson’s removal of those Platner-backing posts was confirmed by Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
When he endorsed Mr. Platner in February, Mr. Jackson was knee-deep in a Democratic race for governor, which he ultimately lost.
“It’s time to upset the status quo. I’m proud to endorse my friend, @grahamformaine,” he posted.
“Graham Platner is exactly the sort of Democrat that Susan Collins and the Republican Party don’t know how to handle,” reads another since-deleted post, this one from May. “It’s why I endorsed him back in February, and it’s why I support him now.”
Mr. Jackson, who secured the Senate nomination on Monday, now faces five-term Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins in the November general election.
A spokesperson for Mr. Jackson’s campaign told the New York Post, which first reported the deleted posts, that “the campaign removed older posts that no longer reflected Troy’s position.”
The Republican National Committee is having none of it.
“Troy Jackson is trying to erase his past and is shape-shifting like a political chameleon in order to gain power,” RNC press secretary Natalie Baldassarre told the Post. “Troy Jackson is a devout socialist who stood hand in hand with Nazi rapist Graham Platner until the bitter end, and no amount of deleted posts is going to change his past.”
Sen. Bernard Sanders, who also endorsed Mr. Platner and urged him to drop out, shared no regret over his former support.
When asked Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” about whether he regretted not acting sooner in response to earlier warning signs, the Vermont independent said, “No, I don’t think so.
“When we heard the serious allegations made against him, I wanted to get on the phone. I wanted to talk to him. I did. I asked, along with virtually all his supporters, that he should get out of the race, and he did.”
