Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, right, introduces Graham Platner during a May rally at Thompson’s Point in Portland. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)

In the aftermath of Graham Platner’s dramatic withdrawal from Maine’s U.S. Senate race, the candidates hoping to replace him have each made the same political calculation: To win, Platner’s baggage can’t become their own.

Platner, who announced his intention to drop out Wednesday evening and made it official on Friday, has left his party scrambling with fewer than four months before the general election. But his exit has also presented the party with an opportunity. Democrats, who hope to defeat five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins, have a new start. A half-dozen candidates are attempting to make it a fresh start, too.

Last month, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson was Platner’s closest political ally in Maine. The two campaigned together across the state, touting their populist, labor-rights-driven economic vision. Both wore proudly the endorsement of the other, and of independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, the anti-billionaire progressive from Vermont.

Then, on Monday, Platner’s ex-girlfriend Jenny Racicot publicly accused Platner of raping her in 2021.

Jackson denounced Platner, withdrew his support and quietly deleted posts on social media linking the two.

The Allagash native deleted at least four posts on X, Politico reported. Two remain archived online: One from March, in which Jackson quoted Platner saying Jackson “has been a voice for the working class” with a note saying “thank you, brother,” and one from February, in which Jackson advertised an event he planned to host with Platner in Aroostook County.

Other deleted posts are no longer available.

“Troy rescinded his endorsement and just wanted to make that clear,” Christine Kirby, a spokesperson for Jackson, told Politico Wednesday. Kirby did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Only three Platner-related posts remain on Jackson’s X account: his public denouncement of Platner on Monday, a reply to one of the deleted posts asking for donations, and an excerpt from an April op-ed in the Portland Press Herald.

When NBC News asked if he still wanted Platner’s endorsement, Jackson said he did not.

“I don’t want it, and it’s unfortunate, but I just don’t want it,” Jackson said.

As the candidate with the closest pre-scandal ties to Platner, Jackson has taken the hardest turn. But others in the race have done their part to separate themselves.

Nirav Shah, the pandemic-era Maine CDC director and runner-up in the gubernatorial race last month, denounced Platner within hours of news of Racicot’s allegations — and only afterward declared his intention to seek the seat.

The same went for Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who also entered the race Thursday. And for Maine Beer Co. co-owner Dan Kleban.

Andrea LaFlamme, who ran as a write-in against Platner, Gov. Janet Mills and David Costello in the Senate primary, said that although, as a victim of sexual assault, she had “a lot of feelings about the public reaction” to the accusations against Platner, she wanted to focus on “the path forward and the needs of Maine.”

Jordan Wood, the former congressional staffer and third-place finisher in the 2nd District Democratic primary, has only mentioned Platner in passing amid declaring his renewed Senate candidacy. Paige Loud, the fourth-place finisher in the congressional race, has railed repeatedly against Platner in the days since the news broke, calling his drop-out video insulting to Maine women.

Even those who have decided not to run have made it a point to avoid Platner. In a Press Herald op-ed Wednesday, actor Patrick Dempsey said he did not plan to run for Senate; he did not mention Platner once. Heather Cox Richardson, the famous historian based in the Midcoast, also did not mention Platner in her video declining to run.

Only state Rep. Valli Geiger has touted her relationship with Platner in announcing her run for Senate.

But most of the candidates who have distanced themselves haven’t yet gone so far as to delete posts about Platner.

Shah and Bellows waited to endorse Platner until Mills stopped campaigning in late April, but their endorsement posts remained online as of Thursday afternoon. Loud’s, too. Costello and Kleban never publicly supported him, anyway.

“Susan Collins doesn’t know what’s coming,” Bellows said in the caption of her Platner endorsement video back in May.

For now, at least, while Democrats decide their replacement nominee in a 600-person convention, that part is true. Collins very well may not know what is coming.