Maine Democrats are racing to reunify a fractured party after Graham Platner‘s abrupt withdrawal from the Senate race, with eight candidates competing to inherit the progressive coalition he built while navigating an unusually compressed nominating process that will determine who takes on Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) this fall.

What would normally unfold over several months has instead become a frantic two-week sprint. Democrats will gather on July 25 in Bangor to select a replacement nominee just two days before Maine’s deadline to certify a candidate for the general election. The compressed timeline leaves the eventual winner only a matter of months to mount a statewide campaign against one of the Senate’s most entrenched incumbents.