By Arlette Saenz, Jeff Zeleny, Arit John

Portland, Maine (CNN) — Graham Platner is poised to speak with members of his campaign staff during a conference call Wednesday evening, people familiar with the matter told CNN, the end of a daylong series of conversations that is expected to pave the way for his withdrawal from the consequential Senate race in Maine.

As Democrats waited for him to make an announcement 48 hours after a woman accused him of rape, an allegation he denies, a small team of strategists behind his candidacy spent the day trying to navigate an exit from the race without entirely squandering the movement he built during his campaign against GOP Sen. Susan Collins.

“We’ve said from the very beginning that this campaign was never about Graham but about a movement of working people united to take back power,” Ben Chin, the campaign manager for Platner, said in a message to supporters on Wednesday.

Platner is expected to announce his decision through a recorded video, which could come later Wednesday. He did not speak during an early-afternoon call with campaign staff, but aides told people on the line that they should expect to hear from him Wednesday night.

Support for Maine’s Democratic nominee in the Senate race collapsed this week after a woman he previously dated alleged that he raped her in 2021, which he has denied.

After CNN and Politico reported the allegation, which Platner called “troubling, serious and false,” the nominee said he would “reflect on the best path forward” for his Senate bid.

In the message to supporters, the Platner campaign sought to gather input for the next steps the Maine Democratic Party should take to find a new Senate nominee. The message underscored the rising tensions and divisions between the Platner campaign and state party officials.

“We firmly believe that the supporters and volunteers who built this movement deserve to have a real role in any nomination process,” Chin wrote. “If the Maine Democratic Party hopes to harness our movement, and avoid disillusioning the hundreds of thousands of supporters who came into the fray because of our movement’s policies, it must consult the feedback and proposals of the people who built and sustained this.”

Following Chin’s text, Devon Murphy-Anderson, executive director of Maine’s Democratic Party, criticized some of the Platner campaign’s recent moves while also appealing to his supporters.

“While we may be frustrated with Graham Platner’s continued efforts to manipulate this process, we are so thankful for his supporters and all of their efforts to defeat Susan Collins — they are a vital part of our Party and deserve to participate in an open process to select Platner’s replacement,” she wrote on social media.

Morris Katz, a top campaign strategist for Platner, traveled to Maine to meet with the embattled candidate on Wednesday. Katz also did not address members of the campaign staff during a brief afternoon call, a participant said.

Katz, who also is a key adviser to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, has told associates he does not believe Platner can remain in the race, given the allegations against him.

“This could – and should – end today,” a person close to the campaign told CNN. “We’ll see if it does.”

Questions and concerns over who would replace Platner

A question looming over the Maine political embroglio is whether Platner and his progressive supporters will play a role in choosing the next Democratic nominee, should he leave the race by the July 13 deadline. Under Maine law, the party has until July 27 to name a replacement.

The Maine Democratic Party pointedly said Tuesday night the Platner campaign should “have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the US Senate, nor in determining what this process looks like.”

Party officials met with lawyers last night to work through what a potential nominating process would look like if the nominee steps aside, but as of Wednesday morning, officials have yet to communicate what that plan will entail, with one Democratic strategist in Maine saying it may not be publicized until Platner officially drops out of the race.

Some voters have expressed anxiety about the process for replacing him.

“We have a very short window here to pull ourselves together and find somebody, and I’m just praying to the universe, to the stars that we can pull it together,” said Nancy, a voter from Kennebunkport, who voted for Gov. Janet Mills in the Democratic primary.

“I don’t think it will be difficult to find somebody who’s qualified and could do a good job,” said Liz Griffin, a Portland voter who backed Platner in the Democratic primary. “I think finding the right person that will really motivate people … I think that’s going to be tough.”

Meanwhile, progressive groups, wary of seeing Platner replaced by a centrist Democrat, have called on the state’s Democratic Party to release details about the plan to pick a new nominee before the nominee drops out.

Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which endorsed Platner but has since called on the nominee to drop out, sharply criticized the state party over its Tuesday rebuke of Platner.

Green said in an interview with CBS News on Wednesday that Platner would have exited the race already if not for the “incompetence and arrogance” of the state party. He urged party officials to share their plan for replacing Platner immediately.

“It is reasonable for Graham Platner, as his last act, even though nobody wants him around anymore, to say, ‘I’m willing to leave, just assure the public they will have a voice,’” Green said. “That has not happened yet. The Maine Democratic Party needs to get their act together.”

Some on the left have aligned behind former state Senate President Troy Jackson, who had the backing of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during his failed gubernatorial bid last month. Our Revolution, a progressive group aligned with Sanders, endorsed Jackson on Tuesday, warning this is not “the Democratic establishment’s opening to handpick a replacement.”

“We have days, not weeks, to make sure a real progressive is on this ballot,” Joseph Geevarghese, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “If we do not organize now, we risk watching the Democratic establishment hand Maine a corporate placeholder while the party that just got outvoted decides it knows better.”

Some Democratic voters in the state have expressed anxiety about how a July scramble to find a replacement could impact Democrats’ ability to win in November. The race in Maine, where incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins is running for her sixth term in office, is key to Democrats’ hopes of winning the Senate majority.

“It’s getting late in the game,” said Frederic Fahey, a Democratic voter in Portland who supported Platner in the primary. “They’d have to find a good candidate who could come up to speed really fast and then move forward. I think even under the best circumstances that would be very difficult.”

Ian MacRae, an unenrolled voter in the state, said it was a “tough call” on whether Platner should drop out, adding the moment reminded him of President Joe Biden bowing out of the presidential race in the summer of 2024 and the Democratic Party rallying around former Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee.

“I don’t know who the replacement’s going to be, and we went through this with Harris,” MacRae said. “You were told who your candidate was going to be, and I’m not sure how that’s going to play out here, which is a similar scenario.”

This article has been updated with new reporting.

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