Mayor Zohran Mamdani tells Maine’s Graham Platner to drop out of Senate race after rape claim

Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared Graham Platner should drop his bid for a Maine US Senate seat after a bombshell rape accusation against the scandal-scarred candidate.

Read more Exclusive | Accused rapist Graham Platner spotted at Maine home as he holds Dem party hostage

“I believe that it’s time for him to drop out of the race,” said Mamdani — who shares a key progressive strategist, Morris Katz — with Platner.

“I think the focus of today should be to respond to the gravity of what so many of us have read and I think the only appropriate response is for the campaign to come to an end,” he told reporters Tuesday in City Hall.

The mayor joined a slew of other prominent Democrats, including New York senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who rescinded their endorsements and urged Platner to drop out after his ex-girlfriend told Politico he raped her.

The oyster farmer had gained momentum in the Maine race by running an unapologetically leftist campaign, much like Mamdani did in last year’s mayoral race.

But while Mamdani dodged lasting scandal, Platner’s run was dogged by a spate of unsettling revelations – from the Nazi-linked tattoo on his chest to being exposed for sexting women while married.

Read more Argentina stuns Egypt with three late goals in epic World Cup comeback

Here’s the latest on the bombshell sexual harassment allegations against lefty Senate candidate Graham Platner:

• Here’s who could replace alleged rapist Graham Platner in Maine Senate race
• Accused rapist Graham Platner lists demands to Dems as he weighs dropping out of Maine Senate race
• Bernie Sanders finally weighs in on acolyte Graham Platner after rape allegations
• Mayor Zohran Mamdani tells Graham Platner to drop out of Senate race after rape claim

The rape accusation appeared likely to finally sink Platner’s campaign, which Mamdani’s wunderkind adviser – Katz – had joined as part of a wider effort to elevate similar far-left Democratic candidates.

Katz himself got wrapped in Platner’s controversies after he reportedly tried to browbeat one of the candidate’s former campaign staffers into denying the sexting accusations.

Mamdani ignored a question shouted by a Post reporter at the end of his press conference Tuesday about whether Katz was still advising him.

His exhortation that Platner leave the race comes as his own power within the Democratic Party is on the upswing after a slate of his preferred progressives won nominations in New York’s primary.

Read more Crucial beams inside buckling NYC building ‘bending like cigarettes’: worker