Graham Platner no longer scheduled to speak at Maine Labor Day rally

Organizers said the planned speech was drawing negative media attention, and he will instead lead a veterans march after the rally.

PORTLAND, Maine — Former Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner is no longer set to speak at a Labor Day rally when he makes his first major public appearance since ending his campaign against Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.

Platner, who won the nomination in June but dropped out in July after Politico reported that a former girlfriend said he sexually assaulted her, had been scheduled to speak Monday at the rally in Ellsworth, near his hometown of Sullivan. He has denied the allegations.

Platner was expected to speak about labor history and the importance of unions in the U.S. Event organizers were urged not to let him speak by the former girlfriend and another woman who has accused him of domestic abuse.

Organizers said Wednesday that the planned speech was drawing negative media attention, and he will instead lead a veterans march after the rally.

“Graham is not speaking,” said Carol Leonard of Hancock County Activists, a progressive group organizing the rally. “The media frenzy got just too insane, and we became concerned about safety.”