A woman said Monday that Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maine, entered her home without permission and raped her while he was heavily intoxicated nearly five years ago when they were in a casual dating relationship – an allegation Platner denies.

The alleged assault was first reported by Politico.

In an interview with CNN, Jenny Racicot, 41, said the attack occurred in the Maine town where she lived in 2021, two years after she and Platner began casually dating. The interview will be broadcast on The Lead with Jake Tapper.

Racicot said one night in November or December 2021, Platner showed up drunk at her house after she asked him not to come and then forcibly had sex with her despite her repeated demands that he stop – at one point knocking over a sewing cabinet, which inadvertently left a needle stuck in her leg. When she confronted him the next morning, he said he did not remember what had happened, Racicot said.