Eight Democrats looking to replace Graham Platner as their party’s nominee in the Maine Senate race will square off in a televised debate Thursday night on News Center Maine.

The debate will feature former state Senate President Troy Jackson, former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former congressional aide Jordan Wood, former 2nd Congressional District candidate Paige Loud, Maine Beer Co. co-founder Dan Kleban, former Senate candidate David Costello and former state lawmaker Elizabeth Dickerson, News Center Maine said Tuesday.

It will start at 7 p.m. and is expected to last for 90 minutes.

It will be the first time the field will be able to make their case to a statewide audience since Platner withdrew as the Democratic nominee amid accusations that he sexually assaulted a Maine woman in 2021. Platner denied the accusations.

Platner’s withdrawal forced Maine Democrats to scramble to pull together an unprecedented process for choosing a new nominee to face Republican Susan Collins this fall.

Since there isn’t enough time to have another statewide vote on a Democratic nominee, the party plans to elect a new candidate during a statewide convention on Saturday, July 25, in Bangor. The nominee will be chosen by 601 delegates, consisting of the 101-member state committee and 500 delegates elected by county committees.

Thursday’s debate will take place only days before the party’s 16 county committees meet to elect their delegates.

Shah was the first candidate to call for debates when he announced his Senate campaign, but Jackson announced Tuesday that the debate would take place.

Jackson had initially said only candidates who earned at least 20% of the vote in their previous primaries were invited, which would have limited participation to Jackson, Shah, Bellows and Wood. Jackson had called for all candidates to be included.

Shah finished in first place in the first round of the Democratic gubernatorial primary, but lost in the runoff to Hannah Pingree. Jackson and Bellows finished third and fourth, respectively, each with about 21% of the vote in the first round.

Wood, meanwhile, finished third in the 2nd Congressional District race with nearly 29% of the vote.