Graham Platner, a Senate candidate from Maine, was found to have sent explicit texts to other women during his marriage, as revealed by information his wife provided to his campaign last year, according to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Platner, who is an oyster farmer and a former US marine, is expected to be the Democratic nominee for the US Senate in Maine after his main opponent, Janet Mills, paused her campaign last month. He’s aiming to take on five-term Republican senator Susan Collins in a race that has gained significant attention from progressive circles but is also facing scrutiny over resurfaced racist, sexist, and homophobic social media posts – along with a tattoo of a Totenkopf symbol often associated with Nazi ideology.
Following the start of his campaign last August at a Labor Day rally alongside Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, Platner’s team reportedly initiated research on their own candidate to find any potentially damaging information that might surface during his Senate run. At that time, his wife, Amy Gertner, informed the campaign’s then political director, Genevieve Mc Donald, that she had discovered explicit messages her husband had sent other women on his phone in the spring of 2025. They had started marriage counseling together and ultimately decided that those messages were personal matters.
In a statement from Platner’s campaign, Gertner expressed feeling “deeply hurt” upon learning that Mc Donald had shared details about Platner’s text messages with journalists.
“I confided deeply personal details about my marriage to someone I considered a friend,” she said. “I trusted this person with the most private chapter of our lives – the early days of our marriage before any campaign was on our mind.”
“We did the hard work that marriage requires. We went to counseling. We were honest with each other in ways that weren’t easy,” she added. “And we came through it, not in spite of how much we’ve been through, but because of how much we love each other and the life we’ve built. Our marriage today is stronger than ever before.”
“I know who Graham is. I know the man I married and the husband he has been to me on the best and worst days of my life. That hasn’t changed, and it won’t,” Gertner said.
“The United States Senate is not a training ground for redemption. It is a place for proven leaders with moral clarity and integrity,” Mc Donald told the New York Times. Mc Donald was one of three campaign officials who resigned after revelations about Platner’s tattoo and controversial social media activity surfaced in October.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Platner maintains an active account on Kik-a private messaging app sometimes used for sexting-under username phustle0331. The profile includes a mirror selfie showing a shirtless man wrapped in a towel displaying tattoos resembling those found on Platner’s arms.
Platner mentioned to the New Yorker last year that he first met Gertner-an art teacher-through mutual friends before they connected via Bumble, which is a dating app.
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