Heartbreak and anger: With Platner out, unmoored Democrats in Maine confront conflicting emotions and a messy future.

ELLSWORTH, Maine — For so many Democrats across Maine, seemingly every hour since late Monday afternoon has carried waves of intense emotion.

Heartbreak, anger, regret, validation, confusion — all felt, sometimes several of them simultaneously, since the dramatic collapse of Senate hopeful Graham Platner.

That seismic development, set into motion this week by a Politico story Monday afternoon in which a former girlfriend accused Platner of rape, has reshaped Maine’s nationally watched Senate contest in the most direct way possible. Maine Democrats must now put forward a new nominee to challenge Republican Senator Susan Collins.

But the debacle could disrupt the race on a more fundamental level. In interviews with nearly a dozen Maine Democrats, from high-level officials to regular voters, it’s clear the emotions stirred by the Platner sagawill linger for some time, and will even define how quickly the party canmove forward.

Since launching his campaign last year, Platner, a first-time candidate, improbably built perhaps the most impressive grassroots campaign movement in modern Maine history. It weathered the successive scandals that piled up on him from the beginning, powering him past establishment-backed Governor Janet Mills and ultimately to secure 72 percent of the vote in the state primary in June.

Many enthusiastic Platner supporters are deeply disappointed — and some share his view, expressed in a defiant video he posted Wednesday night, that it was not a credible allegation of sexual assault but the entrenched political system responsible for his demise.

“I hate what the system did to him,” said William Brehm, a retired photographer, who spoke to the Globe near Platner’s former headquarters in Ellsworth. “I wish he would have stayed in the race even with zero support and let the chips fall where they might. He had the right message.”

Others are reckoning with their own embrace of the problematic candidate.

“It’s a painful time for those of us who supported Graham,” said Trisha Cesar, 63, of Newcastle. “I cried when the Politico article came out. I was frustrated and sad — sad that he did that to somebody, sad that he would deny it, sad that it came up yet again.”

“I’m very disappointed that Graham Platner turned out to be this person,” added Gabriel LaSalle, a 23-year-old Portland resident. “Like, should I have figured this out much sooner? I mean, what kind of guy gets a tattoo like that?” he said, referring to the tattoo of a Nazi symbol Platner had on his chest that became one of his early flash points.

The minority of Maine Democrats who did not get behind Platner in the primary, and perhaps were always skeptical of the self-styled populist hero, are sorting through the mix of emotions that comes with having seen the red flags in his background that only became obvious to others under the most dire of circumstances.

“I’m trying not to engage in a lot of the ‘I told you so’ — it kind of goes without saying,” said David Morse, the mayor of Westbrook, who endorsed Mills during the primary. “I want to look forward to what’s next.”

Most Maine Democrats agree that what’s next — picking a new candidate to take on Collins — is the obvious strategic imperative. That process is hard enough on paper, largely because it has never been required in a statewide race of this significance in living memory.

If Platner officially withdraws by Monday night, as expected, the Maine Democratic Party will have until July 27 to put forward a replacement. A number of candidates have declared their intent to run, while the party is planning for a convention of some 600 delegates to decide which will be the nominee.

But the profoundly disrupted political landscape left in Platner’s wake will make that process even harder. He and his allies have sniped back-and-forth with the state party, while different factions have sought to lay down markers for what, to them, would be the fairest method to pick a new candidate. The would-be successors, meanwhile, are all appealing to Platner’s supporters — while conspicuously trying to distance themselves from the man himself.

Taken together, few in Maine politics have ever seen anything like it.

Former two-term Maine governor John Baldacci, who was first elected to the Bangor City Council in 1978, said the moment is unprecedented.

“I have never seen Maine politics in a situation like this before,” he said in an interview. “And while I appreciate all the national attention on us, we have a lot of work to do.”

It’s not only Democrats’ heads that are spinning, it’s also Republicans’. The GOP would have been happy to face a damaged Platner in November, said Chuck Ellis, the chairman of the Cumberland County Republican Party. Among other controversies before the Politico story, Platner was facing scrutiny on his past relationships with women, detailed in a troubling New York Times report.

The situation, said Ellis, doesn’t just reflect poorly on Platner, it reflects poorly on Maine Democrats who embraced him. “If the world was just, it should hurt them in the election in November,” he said.

Even if Platner is replaced with a candidate carrying far less baggage, the debacle may well continue to haunt Democrats in the fall. But the deeper hurt of feeling burned by Platner, in one way or another, was top of mind for many Democrats this week. And there’s a sense of mourning for what was, despite the controversies, a special movement.

At one point, Platner’s campaign boasted a staggering 15,000 volunteers across the state — roughly 1 percent of the entire population of Maine. The walls of his primary night party were filled with homemade campaign signs.

Just over a week ago, Tig Filson welcomed more than 300 people to her backyard in Cumberland for a town hall to support Platner. Filson, 40, didn’t hesitate when she was asked to host: Since she had first met Platner at a coffee shop meet and greet back in February, she had found him inspiring. “He was just so laser-focused on sitting with people and answering hard questions,” she said. “There was a fearlessness that I just sort of loved and found really compelling.”

People left the gathering feeling inspired, Filson said. “The feedback that I got was that this guy can get the job done. He can beat Susan.”

Five days later, Filson was on a work call when she saw a push notification about the rape allegation. “My heart just sank,” she said.

Now, she’s left feeling angry and has come to view Platner’sdecision to run, given his past, as being fueled by arrogance and the expectation women would remain silent about sexual assault. One of the hardest moments, she said, was having to tell her 10-year-old daughter, who had just helped out at the Platner event, about the accusation.

Looking ahead, Filson said, she’s hoping for someone who can authentically carry the movement forward. “Are they able to carry forward the goals of this movement, but also make it their own?”

That’s one of the biggest questions hovering over the murky path forward. Several of the leading contenders ran in the gubernatorial primary and, while they fell short, have genuine followings, including former state Senate leader Troy Jackson, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, and former Maine COVID response leader Nirav Shah.

None commanded the grassroots pull Platner did. But by echoing his focus on the cost-of-living concerns of Mainers and their exasperation with the status quo, some Democrats believe they can come close.

Ryan Fecteau, the Democratic speaker of the Maine House, observed that many Platner supporters felt they were finally hearing from someone “who’s addressing the key issues they feel in their everyday lives.” But he also argued there’s increasing understanding that while Platner was an effective communicator, he doesn’t have a unique claim on his platform.

“I fully acknowledge the hurt and pain that people really felt like this was a once in a lifetime candidate,” Fecteau added. But the cost of sitting out or disengaging, he predicted, would be too high for most Democrats to bear, with control of the US Senate on the line.

“People are turning to us across the nation and saying, ‘Maine, please get this right,’” he said. “I think Maine people will dust off their jeans, look at the task at hand and get it done.”