The wife of Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner told his campaign that he exchanged sexually explicit text messages with several women early in their marriage, according to reports.
It is the latest in a string of controversies for Platner, 41, who is the Democrats’ hopeful to replace incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, 73, in the upcoming midterm elections.
Days after Platner announced his campaign for Senate in August 2025, Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, reportedly told a campaign staffer that she found explicit messages her husband sent to women in the spring of 2025, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported Saturday.
The campaign staffer, who stopped working for Platner’s campaign in October 2025, told The Times that Gertner flagged the messages during the vetting process and was concerned it could become a political liability.
Gertner, who married Platner in 2023, said in a statement that she was “deeply hurt” by the “invasion of our privacy,” and claimed she made the personal disclosure to someone she trusted and considered a friend.
“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,” Gertner said in the statement to both outlets.
“We did the hard work that marriage requires. We went to counseling. We were honest with each other in ways that weren’t easy. 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,” Gertner added.
Gertner went on to defend her husband in the statement to the WSJ. “I know who Graham is. I know the man I married and the husband he has been to me on the best and the worst days of my life. That hasn’t changed, and it won’t.”
The WSJ report also alleged that Platner still has an active account on Kik, a messaging app that has a reputation for being used to share explicit material. Platner’s campaign told the outlet that “the candidate had long deleted the app from his phone but hadn’t deactivated his account.”
The Independent has contacted the Platner campaign for comment.
Gertner shared a 5-minute video statement Saturday night, posted on Platner’s X account, where she said “no marriage is perfect” and blasted those “who are willing to spread gossip instead of talking about real issues.”
“This is very hard to do, but I just really wanted to make sure that everyone knows that Graham and I have a great marriage,” she said in the video. “Being married is hard. Being newly married is hard. Being newly married and going through infertility is hard. Being newly married, going through infertility, and a Senate campaign is, is hard.”
Gertner said it was “shameful behavior to spend time and energy and resources on negative ads and negative stories” about her husband “when all he’s trying to do is improve the lives of people who work for a living.”
Platner, a Marine Corps veteran and oyster farmer, gained national attention for promoting progressive ideology with a rough-around-the-edges approach.
But his campaign has also attracted adverse attention because of several controversies.
The candidate had to apologize for old social media posts where he insulted police officers, white rural voters and made offensive remarks about victims of sexual assault. “I did not recognize in them myself or the man that I am today,” he said of the comments.
He also covered up one of his tattoos after people claimed it was a symbol associated with Nazism. “I was appalled to learn it closely resembled a Nazi symbol,” Platner said at the time.
Platner has spoken openly about his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder after his deployment and said many of the comments he made online were while he was “struggling deeply.”
But the piling controversies, including the most recent about sending sexually explicit messages, have given opponents ammunition – potentially hurting the Democrats’ chances of unseating Collins and expanding their party in the Senate.
