No, Patrick Dempsey Is Not Replacing Graham Platner on Maine’s Senate Ballot Following Sexual Assault Allegations, but He Wrote an Op-Ed to Explain Why
“So no, I’m not running for office,” he wrote in an op-ed. “But I am asking something of the people who do. Lead with humility. Tell the truth. Put people before party.”
Democrat Graham Platner won the June 2026 primary for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Sen. Susan Collins, then faced sexual assault allegations he denies. Maine Democrats began weighing a new nominee ahead of a late-July convention, and party figures floated high-profile replacements. Patrick Dempsey, a former People’s Sexiest Man Alive, was one of the names.
The reason his name kept coming up: he grew up in Maine, in the Lewiston-Auburn area, and never left it behind. The Grey’s Anatomy actor founded the Dempsey Center for cancer supportive care in his home state, and he still keeps a property in Kennebunkport.
He never filed. On July 8, 2026, he published a first-person op-ed in the Portland Press Herald titled “Why I’m not running for US Senate” to end the speculation himself.
He wrote that people had been asking him the question for days, and that he took it seriously. “As I reflected on all of this, I kept coming back to one question: Do I truly want to serve in Congress? After a lot of thought, I realized the answer is no. Not because public service isn’t honorable, it absolutely is. But because I believe I can contribute more effectively through the life I’ve already built.”
He pointed to what he sees weighing on people in Maine: housing costs, heating and electric bills, groceries, healthcare, education, and the financial burden of a cancer diagnosis. “I want someone who leads with empathy. Someone who listens before speaking, who has the courage to work with people they disagree with.” Most of all, he wrote, he wants integrity.
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