Senate candidate Graham Platner sent explicit texts to multiple women while married, wife says: report
Graham Platner, the Democratic challenger seeking to unseat Republican Senator Susan Collins in Maine, is navigating a fresh personal controversy even as polls show him ahead of the incumbent.
Platner married Amy Gertner in 2024. Months after the wedding, Gertner discovered that her husband had exchanged sexual text messages with several women. She brought the information to a campaign aide after Platner launched his Senate bid, during a routine review of possible political liabilities. The aide characterized the exchanges as a private matter between the couple and did not pursue further action. Gertner made the disclosure before a campaign rally last year that featured Senator Bernie Sanders.
In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, Gertner described feeling betrayed by the aide’s decision to share the details, saying she had confided deeply personal information to someone she considered a friend. She acknowledged the strain the revelations placed on her marriage, noting that she and Platner underwent counseling and engaged in difficult, honest conversations. “We did the hard work that marriage requires,” she wrote, “and we came through it… Our marriage today is stronger than ever before.” She affirmed that her view of her husband had not changed.
Platner’s public profile includes work as an oyster farmer and service as a veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. His campaign has also been shaped by earlier controversies: a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol, which he later had removed; a series of Reddit posts that minimized sexual assault, contained crude remarks about masturbation, and included a deleted comment suggesting a wounded soldier “didn’t deserve to live.”
Despite those issues, a recent University of New Hampshire poll of likely Maine voters shows Platner holding a 51% to 42% lead over Collins. He is widely regarded as the presumptive Democratic nominee after Governor Janet Mills withdrew from the race in April.
Support has come from outside Maine as well. Representative Ro Khanna of California praised Platner on social media, citing his opposition to war, genocide, and economic inequality, and expressed enthusiasm for campaigning with him on June 5.
Collins has warned that Platner’s positions are too extreme for Maine, saying she trusts voters will reach that conclusion. In a Fox News Digital interview, Platner countered that what is truly radical is Collins’ record of backing policies that benefit corporations and billionaires while supporting foreign conflicts he characterizes as illegal and insane.
The Senate race in Maine now blends personal revelations, past online conduct, and competing visions for the state’s future, with Platner maintaining a narrow advantage in early voter surveys.
