Throughout his campaign, Graham Platner said his candidacy wasn’t about himself — it was about building a grassroots movement that could outlast his U.S. Senate run.

At a town hall last November in Windham, Platner was asked point-blank about what would happen to the movement of thousands of passionate volunteers he’s amassed and motivated if he lost the election.

“This for me is an organizing project,” Platner said at the time. “Whether or not we win, the organizing needs to remain. And whatever movement we can build here needs to continue moving forward. And what my role looks like in that, I honestly don’t know.”

That role will no longer involve him appearing on the ballot. Platner announced Wednesday he plans to quit the race after a woman accused him of sexual assault, an allegation that he denies.

Now the movement that steamrolled the Democratic establishment and forced his main rival, Gov. Janet Mills, to suspend her campaign more than a month before the primary faces an existential threat.

Can Platner’s movement continue without him? Will the energy and devotion he engendered be transferred to another nominee? Or is it destined to fracture and fizzle out?

“I’m an optimist,” said Harry Nelson, a 72-year-old North Yarmouth resident who volunteered for Platner’s campaign. “There’s so much to be accomplished by defeating Susan Collins and trying to make some real legitimate change in Washington. …I do think that whoever’s going to pick up the mantle, people like me are going to get behind that person.”

Since launching his campaign last August, Platner says he has built an army of 15,000 volunteers. They staffed his more than 80 town hall events across the state. They braved the frigid cold to secure enough signatures to get him on the ballot in just a few days. They made phone calls and knocked on doors. And they lent their efforts to other campaigns, including efforts to oppose a statewide voter ID referendum last fall. The referendum was soundly rejected.

But that movement was fiercely loyal to and protective of the 41-year-old gravel-voiced combat veteran and oyster farmer from Sullivan, whose speeches included cutting critiques of existing power structures.

A New York Times/Press Herald/Siena poll conducted last month found 71% of Democrats were “very enthusiastic” to vote in the U.S. Senate race — a 19-point advantage over Republicans.

Neither Platner’s campaign manager Ben Chin nor Platner’s spokespeople returned messages seeking comment for this story.

But Chin said in a Facebook post Wednesday night that the movement faces the “ultimate test.” He encouraged supporters to get involved with the process for selecting a new candidate who shares Platner’s policy positins: Medicare for all, taxing billionaires and ending forever wars.

“Our number one priority is stewarding this movement, then taking care of our volunteers and staff, and then everyone and everything else,” Chin wrote.

CANDIDATES SAY THEY WILL TAKE PLATNER’S PLACE

Democratic candidates now vying to take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins this fall are already trying to claim the torch of Platner’s fiery brand of economic populism. They want to harness his movement of Mainers clamoring to confront a corporate system that they say siphons resources from the working class.

Progressive groups quickly fell in line behind former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, who campaigned extensively with the former nominee this spring. Like Platner, Jackson was also endorsed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and labor unions during his unsuccessful run for governor. And the Allagash Democrat comes firmly from the working class – a former logger from northern Maine who got his start in politics by challenging corporate landowners.

“There is a powerful movement of working class people in the state of Maine, and millions more across America who are ready to send a progressive fighter to the Senate,” Jackson, 58, said in a written statement announcing his Senate candidacy on Wednesday night. “I’ve been fighting for that movement my whole life — and I’m sure as hell not backing down now, when this fight is needed most.”

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, 51, also held a few campaign events with Platner. Both were endorsed by the Maine People’s Alliance, which has an established statewide grassroots network of activists.

In a Thursday press call, Bellows, a former Democratic nominee for Senate who lost to Collins by a 2-1 margin in 2014, made her case.

“I think I’m the best candidate to unite the party because I have a long track record in leading on progressive issues, whether it’s fighting for marriage equality, leading on legalization of marijuana (or) fighting for voting rights,” she said.

But it’s been Nirav Shah, the former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, who has made the most aggressive public outreach to Platner supporters thus far.

At a Thursday campaign launch in Freeport, Shah, 49, was introduced by two former field organizers for Platner’s campaign, who said Platner’s movement was bigger than one person.

Shah made a direct appeal to Platner supporters and volunteers at the top of his remarks. He said he shares many of the same policy views as Platner and an affinity for town halls to speak directly to voters.

“My message to you this afternoon is clear: You have an important place in this campaign, and we welcome your voices,” Shah said. “This campaign represents the values that we all care about. Building a state and a country where everyone can get ahead, not just the privileged few. Respecting our neighbors, engaging in civic dialogue and most importantly, holding Donald Trump accountable.”

All three candidates ran in the Democratic primary for governor. Shah led after the first round tally with nearly 27% of the vote, but he lost the nomination to former Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree in the ranked-choice runoff. Jackson finished third with just over 21% of the vote, and Bellows finished fourth with just under 21%.

Platner played a key role in the outcome of that race, publicly backing Jackson, Bellows and Pingree — and pointedly snubbing Shah, who was widely perceived to be the narrow front-runner. Enough voters followed Platner’s lead to tilt the race in Pingree’s favor.

FORMER PLATNER SUPPORTERS REMAIN GALVANIZED

Liv Drewniak, an 18-year-old organizer for Platner who is now supporting Shah, said in an interview that many Platner supporters in her circle are still shocked by this week’s events. But she doesn’t expect people to give up the fight.

“There was such a sense of community built around that campaign, not necessarily around one person in particular, that I think it’ll be really easy for that energy and that magnetism that drew everyone together to shift” to another candidate, she said.

Drewniak, of Woolwich, said former Platner supporters may be backing other candidates in the pop-up primary, but she expects everyone to come together once a new nominee is chosen.

“It’s gonna be hectic for the next couple of weeks,” she added, “but I think no matter who turns out to be our candidate for the Senate, I think people very easily rally behind supporting one person who will stand up to Susan Collins.”

The nominee who replaces Platner will likely face a healthy dose of attack ads from Collins and Collins-aligned groups. But progressives are “all energized” and still confident about winning in November, added Melissa Berky, a member of the Indivisible Bangor steering committee.

“The energy, the anger and the passion needs an outlet,” Berky said Friday.

Erin Evans, a 55-year-old former neighborhood organizer for the Platner campaign who endorsed Shah, said she’s confident that the movement will survive because it grew organically.

“It’s not falling apart because it’s not top-down,” Evans said in an interview. “It really is a mile wide and a million feet deep. And so we’re just carrying it.”

Evans said all of the organizing tools, including online forums and personal networks, are still intact, and that fellow organizers are eager to move forward with the ultimate goal of unseating Collins.

“We are committed to making the U.S. Senate blue,” the Portland resident said. “Graham Platner is a great speaker and an awesome guy, and what’s happened is heartbreaking to everybody. But it’s not about him. It’s about Maine.”

COULD A FRACTURED PARTY THREATEN THE MOVEMENT?

State Rep. Valli Geiger, a Rockland Democrat and Platner ally who is throwing her hat in the ring as a potential replacement nominee at Platner’s urging, said he shifted policy discussions in the state to the left by harping on and winning broad support for a progressive platform.

Before moving forward, though, some fences may need mending.

It took Platner more than two days to announce he’s leaving the race following the report from Politico in which a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2021. He still hasn’t formally filed the paperwork to withdraw.

Between Monday and Wednesday, his campaign engaged in a public war of words with the Maine Democratic Party. Party leaders accused his team of trying to influence the process for finding a replacement candidate.

Chin, Platner’s campaign manager, accused local party leaders of allowing national Democrats to shape the process and outcome at the exclusion of Platner’s supporters — an accusation the party denied.

Spencer Toth, Platner’s former field organizer, took on a similar role for the state party last month. But he resigned Wednesday in protest over what he said was the party’s decision to keep the campaign at arm’s length.

And Platner announced his exit in a grievance-filled, 11-minute video released on social media in which he blamed the political and corporate media establishments for using “false accusations” of sexual assault to force him out of the race.

Meanwhile, discussions in some pro-Platner forums remain defiant, with many people advocating for Platner to stay in the race. Some say they plan to write in his name this fall.

With emotions still so raw, the movement is teetering tenuously upon a precipice.

“Some movements are very much tied to a particular moment and a particular person who can kind of knit different constituencies together as part of this coalition,” said Matthew Dallek, a political science professor at George Washington University. “Other times, though, once people are mobilized around a set of ideas, it’s kind of hard to put the genie back in the bottle.”

Maine will soon find out into which category Platner’s movement will fall.

Staff Writer Billy Kobin contributed to this story.