Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a Democrat who has left the door open to a 2028 presidential run, rescinded his endorsement of Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner on Monday after a rape allegation surfaced, marking the second time in a matter of months that Gallego has been forced to abandon a candidate he backed who faced accusations of misconduct against women.
The pattern has drawn sharp criticism from figures on both sides of the aisle and raised pointed questions about the judgment of a senator positioning himself for higher office.
Gallego announced his withdrawal of support via a post on X, calling the accusations against Platner "troubling and deeply serious." But for at least one woman, that language landed as an insult. Lyndsey Fifield, Platner's former girlfriend who had publicly accused him of abusive behavior in a New York Times report published June 4, fired back on the same platform.
"Mine weren't sufficiently troubling or serious for you, right?"
Her response cuts to the core of the problem. Gallego didn't pull his endorsement after the Times story. He pulled it only after a second, more explosive allegation emerged, one that made continued support politically untenable.
The Fox News Digital report lays out two distinct sets of allegations against Platner, the Democratic nominee challenging Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine.
The first came in the June 4 New York Times report, which examined Platner's past relationships. Fifield alleged that Platner repeatedly grabbed her hard enough to leave marks, pulled her from a cab by the wrist, and in one incident twisted her arm behind her back and held her in a room while they were dating several years ago. Fifield told the Times that Platner never hit or punched her, but said the incidents left her shaken and afraid. Platner denied being violent and called the allegations false.
Gallego kept his endorsement in place.
Then came Monday's Politico report. Jenny Racicot, a Maine Democrat who dated Platner on and off from 2019 to 2021, alleged that Platner entered her home uninvited in late 2021 after she told him not to come over, was intoxicated, ignored her repeated objections, and forced her to have sex. Politico reviewed text messages and emails with Racicot's therapist and spoke with people she said she confided in after the alleged assault. Platner again denied the allegation as false.
Only then did Gallego act.
What makes Gallego's situation distinct is that this is not a one-off misjudgment. Just months before withdrawing support from Platner, Gallego pulled his endorsement of former Rep. Eric Swalwell amid separate allegations of sexual assault and misconduct during Swalwell's disastrous California gubernatorial bid. Swalwell denied those allegations.
A Fox News Digital review of public endorsement announcements and press reports found that Gallego was the only sitting member of Congress clearly identified as having endorsed both Swalwell and Platner. That is a distinction no ambitious politician wants.
Gallego's spokesperson offered a defense: "Senator Gallego did the right thing and broke with those individuals when he learned they had betrayed values he proudly fights for."
Critics aren't buying it.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, a Fox News Media contributor, identified what he called a "bizarre pattern."
"There is a bizarre pattern of Gallego, who claimed complete ignorance of his friend Eric Swalwell's alleged abusive treatment of women and is now doing the same with Graham Platner."
Arizona Republican state Sen. Warren Peterson was blunter: "Gallego's judgment is troubling. Another Gallego endorsement going down in flames."
Perhaps the most forceful criticism came from within Gallego's own party. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who has made a habit of bucking Democratic leadership, appeared on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" and described the latest allegations against Platner in stark terms.
"What he did is he effectively broke in her home, he went in her home without her consent, then he came upstairs and assaulted her. She also described that created a dangerous situation for a possible pregnancy because of those circumstances, what he's done."
Fetterman declared Platner "a dead man walking politically" and turned his fire on the Democratic figures who had propped up Platner's candidacy even after the Times report.
"Even those 'Pod Save America' people who pushed that dirtbag, and they dismissed those things in The New York Times article, maybe they ought to apologize to the women that clearly they didn't believe or they dismissed."
Fetterman didn't stop there. He drew a direct line to the broader endorsement pattern.
"I know Democrats that have back-to-back endorsed and gone all in on Swalwell and were on the Platner train as well too. So, maybe stop getting in bed with absolute dirtbags, someone like Platner."
He also called on Sen. Bernie Sanders to apologize for backing Platner.
Fetterman's shot at the hosts of "Pod Save America" was well-aimed. After the June 4 Times report, co-host Jon Lovett acknowledged that the paper had reported allegations that Platner was "intimidating and even physically aggressive with past romantic partners." But Lovett argued that Democrats had to weigh whether they preferred "a Democratic majority with Graham Platner in the Senate" or a Republican majority with incumbent Collins.
Co-host Jon Favreau had previously praised Platner as Democrats' "best and only chance" to beat Collins and as a "good, decent man who's struggled and grown and is always trying to do better."
That framing, treat the allegations as a political inconvenience to be managed rather than a disqualifying moral failure, is precisely what Fetterman and others are now calling out. The calculus was always about seats, not about the women making the accusations.
Mike Fragoso, former chief counsel to Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, made the point plainly this week.
"The allegations against Platner are awful but are also unsurprising to anyone who actually read the NYT catch-and-kill story. The victim strongly implied the allegations there."
Fragoso added a second observation that may sting more: "For Schumer's PAC, Senatorial, Gallego, the Pod Bros, et al. the only real difference now is polling."
The endorsement controversy arrives at a particularly bad time for Gallego, who already faces separate scrutiny over his personal conduct and use of campaign funds.
Gallego filed for divorce from Kate Gallego on December 15, 2016. His own motion to seal the case noted that Kate Gallego had "not yet been served" but was "likely to give birth any day." Conservative commentator Ryan Girdusky referenced that history on X, writing: "Ruben Gallego is dropping Graham Platner like he's a pregnant wife."
A Politico report published roughly a week ago revealed that Gallego used campaign money on family trips to Miami, Saint Barthélemy, Disneyland, Disney World, and Chicago. He also used campaign funds to attend the 2023 Super Bowl in Arizona. Gallego insisted the tickets were a legitimate campaign fundraising expense. A separate Fox News report referenced a DOJ probe into allegations of Gallego spending campaign funds on a luxury lifestyle.
None of this is the profile of a man preparing to run for president with clean hands.
Platner won his primary, his election night event was held June 9 at the Blue Hill YMCA in Blue Hill, Maine. But Democratic operatives now face a tight window under Maine election law to replace him if he withdraws from the race against Collins.
Fetterman's assessment that Platner is politically finished may prove correct. But the fallout extends well beyond one Senate race in New England. It reaches every Democrat who looked at the June 4 Times report, saw the allegations from Fifield and others, and decided the seat mattered more than the accusers.
Gallego's spokesperson says the senator "did the right thing." The timeline says he did it late, and only after the political cost of staying became higher than the cost of leaving.
If that's the kind of judgment Gallego brings to an endorsement, voters may want to think twice before handing him anything bigger.
