MeToo part deux is coming to U.S. politics

#MeToo protesters march in support of survivors of sexual assault in Hollywood, California, in November 2017, the year the movement kicked off globally. | REUTERS

Aug 31, 2026

In the weeks after Graham Platner was forced to halt his Senate campaign in Maine, his career in tatters after a rape allegation, the Democratic Party has been trying to move on and forget about the oysterman’s problematic candidacy.

But if the activists who helped engineer Platner’s ouster have it their way, he won’t be allowed to fade into obscurity. Instead, he’s likely to be held up as both a cautionary tale and a harbinger.

At least this is the sense one gets from talking to Cheyenne Hunt, chief executive of the upstart nonprofit Reckoning Action. The Democratic strategist and influencer is arguably the person most responsible for the downfall of Platner as well as Eric Swalwell, a former San Francisco Bay Area congressman who ended his bid for California governor in April after being accused of sexual misconduct. (Both Platner and Swalwell deny the allegations against them.)

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