While actor Patrick Dempsey saved a lot of lives on “Grey’s Anatomy,” he won’t be the McDreamy candidate to rescue Democrats in Maine if Graham Platner drops out.
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Dempsey, who played neurosurgeon Dr. Derek Shepherd on the long-running ABC medical drama, said Wednesday that he will not be throwing his hat into the ring for the Senate race after his name was one of many floated as a potential replacement for Platner, the embattled Democratic nominee.
“I kept coming back to one question: Do I truly want to serve in Congress? After a lot of thought, I realized the answer is no,” Dempsey, a Maine native, wrote in an op-ed published by the Portland Press Herald.
“Not because public service isn’t honorable — it absolutely is. But because I believe I can contribute more effectively through the life I’ve already built,” he added.
Dempsey’s announcement comes as Platner weighs dropping out of the race after a new allegation of sexual assault against him, which he denies, spurred even his most loyal supporters in Congress to pull their endorsements.
Before the new allegation, a survey conducted by Tavern Research, a Democratic polling firm, showed Dempsey’s name as a possible contender in the race.
Former state Senate President Troy Jackson and Nirav Shah, a former director of Maine’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, were also named in the poll. Both Jackson and Shah lost bids in the state’s Democratic gubernatorial primary this year.
Jackson filed paperwork Tuesday to explore replacing Platner.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who also ran in the Democratic primary for governor, said Tuesday that she would “seriously consider entering this race” if Platner drops out.
Shah, state Rep. Valli Geiger and state House Speaker Ryan Fecteau are among those who have signaled interest in the Senate seat but have not confirmed a potential campaign.
Dempsey wrote that in the past several days he’s been asked whether he would run for the Senate, and that he did consider the possibility.
“It’s flattering, and I don’t take it lightly. I love my home state of Maine,” Dempsey wrote. “I care deeply about the people who live there and, like so many Americans, I’m concerned about the direction our country is heading.”
The actor said he believes his work through the Dempsey Center, a nonprofit that supports and provides care to cancer patients in honor of his mother, who died in 2014 after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1997, is how he can make an impact in the state.
“The Dempsey Center has shown me what’s possible when people put aside differences and focus on helping one another,” Dempsey wrote. “No one asks who you voted for before offering support. That’s the America I know. That’s what I want to see in the leader we send to the Senate.”
If Platner were to drop out before Monday, the state Democratic Party committee would have until July 27 to replace him.
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