Former MSNBC host Joy Reid.

Popular progressive pundits are ramping up pressure on party leaders to ensure that any replacement for former Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner is not supportive of Israel or aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), warning that a strongly pro-Israel nominee could deepen divisions within the Democratic coalition.

Voices calling for an anti-Israel replacement include former cable news host Joy Reid, Majority Report host Emma Vigeland, DropSite founder Ryan Grim, and The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur.

“The people of Maine said we want a progressive. They did not say we want an AIPAC moderate,” Reid said on a Wednesday episode of The Joy Reid Show. “If the DNC shoves an AIPAC candidate down your throat, you have my permission to not vote for them,” she continued, adding that “sometimes you need to lose in order to learn.”

Reid — a former MS Now host who has rebranded from an establishment liberal pundit to an anti-Israel polemicist since her firing from the cable outlet — has previously pushed conspiracies that AIPAC schemed to undermine insurgent progressive campaigns. She said that if Democrats install “another AIPAC sell out moderate” instead of someone who shares Platner’s ideology, Maine voters “have my permission to stay our a— home.”

Vigeland posted a video urging Democrats to replace Platner with a nominee who won’t support American “complicity” in what she called a “genocide” in Gaza, arguing Platner’s Israel views were central to his appeal and that establishment figures want to “foreclose” left-wing debate on the issue.

Grim, whose outlet DropSite has drawn criticism for an editorial bias favoring Hamas — referring to the group that killed roughly 1,200 people on Oct. 7 as a “resistance” movement, and employing a contributor who has justified a synagogue attack and said Israelis should be “wiped off the planet” — questioned why Troy Jackson, the progressive Maine lawmaker who launched his candidacy Wednesday, left “the Gaza genocide” out of his announcement.

“Troy Jackson put out a statement announcing that he is running for office on a platform of Medicare for all, taking on corporate power, standing up for working people. Conspicuously absent was the Gaza genocide, right? Or an anti-war message,” Grim said.

Uygur, meanwhile, alleged without evidence that pro-Israel donors were working to sink Platner. “Guess who the biggest donors to the Maine Democratic Party are? Israel First and corporate donors. They have been gunning for Graham Platner from day one,” he wrote on X. Uygur and co-host Ana Kasparian have increasingly centered their show on Israel since Oct. 7, at times accusing Israel of unrelated conspiracies.

The pressure campaign follows Platner’s exit from the race Wednesday night after a former partner accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2021 — an allegation he has denied as “troubling, serious, and false.” Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were among those who had called on him to withdraw. Even before he dropped out, activists were already lobbying against potential successors seen as friendlier to Israel. Troy Jackson, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former COVID response director Nirav Shah have emerged as the leading contenders.

Progressives argue that replacing Platner with an AIPAC-aligned Democrat would sideline the positions that energized his supporters, including a more critical posture toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and opposition to unconditional military aid. Pro-Israel Democrats counter that support for Israel remains mainstream within the party and warn that nominating a candidate seen as hostile to the U.S.-Israel alliance could cost Democrats moderate and independent voters against incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

The fight is the latest sign of how the Gaza war has become a defining fault line in Democratic primaries, pitting elected officials who back Israel’s right to defend itself against increasingly vocal progressive activists demanding a policy shift.

Maine Democrats have said they will move quickly to set up a “fair” and “transparent” process to pick a new nominee before a July 27 deadline. No process or replacement has been finalized, but several top contenders are seen as ideologically aligned with Platner on Israel.