India, July 7 -- A year ago, Graham Platner was a harbourmaster in a Maine fishing town and chaired the local planning board on the side. Today, he is a Democratic Senate nominee in a race the party sees as central to retaking control of the chamber - and the man several of senior figures are now publicly demanding step aside, after a woman accused him of sexual assault.

Platner, 41, lives in Sullivan, a small coastal town in Maine, where he farms oysters. He served multiple tours in the Marine Corps in West Asia and has said he returned from war angry and lost. That time, he told MS NOW, was "a pretty dark period", though he spent time reading and rebuilding his life.

Politics, he said, was never the plan. Local organisers approached h...