Graham Platner’s Maine Senate bid wobbly with news of sexting infidelity | Maine
Graham Platner met with Democratic leaders in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday; The embattled Maine Senate candidate is grappling with yet another revelation that threatens his campaign, which is central to his party’s hopes of regaining control of Congress.
Platner did not answer reporters’ questions and quickly got into a waiting car as he left the meeting at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) headquarters, which lasted more than an hour and a half. A DSCC spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Platner’s campaign has been both fascinating and tumultuous ahead of the June 9 primary. Politically unknown before 2025, the Maine oyster catcher and naval combat veteran’s outspoken progressive pitch to voters resonated on social media and sparked debate about how Democratic candidates should position themselves against authoritarianism.
Her public appeal, polling numbers and significant fundraising power have won her the support of senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ruben Gallego and other progressive stalwarts. Platner’s rise has thwarted Democratic Maine governor Janet Mills’ campaign to unseat Republican senator Susan Collins, who is running for a sixth term. Democrats need to pick up four seats to take control of the Senate, and Collins is the only Republican running for re-election representing the state Kamala Harris won two years ago.
But Platner’s personal behavior has raised questions about his character and his election chances in November.
According to the information shared by his wife in his campaign last year, Platner exchanged obscene messages with other women during his marriage. New York Times And Wall Street Magazine reported and the Guardian confirmed it.
Journalists learned of the texts from the campaign’s former political director, Genevieve McDonald; he also obtained these texts from Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, in the collaborative process of proactive opposition research. The Platner campaign released a statement in which Gertner said she was “deeply hurt” by McDonald’s action.
“I told someone I considered a friend some very personal details about my marriage,” he said. “I entrusted this person with the most special part of our lives; the first days of our marriage, without any campaign in mind.”
But the case was based on other findings from past indiscretions.
Platner’s Reddit posts from 2013 to 2021 (when he was between the ages of 24 and 37) resurfaced in October; in which Platner claimed to be a “communist,” labeled white, rural Americans “stupid” and “racist,” and called police officers “bastards.” In these posts, Platner used anti-LGBTQ+ slurs, questioned “why Black people don’t tip,” and said survivors and victims of sexual assault should “take some responsibility and not screw up so much.”
This was all before he told the hosts of Pod Save America that, as a sailor stationed in Croatia, he went out drinking one night and got a tattoo of a skull and crossbones in a design that resembled the Totenkopf, an emblem used by the Nazi Schutzstaffel. He has since had the tattoo covered up and said he only recently realized its meaning.
Platner made the mistake directly on camera and has since spoken out regularly about this behavior, describing himself as at fault and describing his comments as the product of post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from his harrowing military service in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I witnessed violence and horror on a scale for which I was not fully prepared, all in the service of something I now believe is pointless,” he said.
Mills told reporters Monday that despite his campaign being suspended, his name remains on the ballot.
After the controversies that plagued the early months of Platner’s campaign, some Democratic voters in Maine were worried about more scandals that could potentially end Platner’s Senate candidacy.
At a town hall in Sabattus in late April — before reports broke that he had sent sexually explicit messages to several women — voters directly asked the potential candidate if he had any controversies he needed to address.
“Is there anything you want to share with us?” Carolyn Greeley, 68, asked Platner during the event. He assured those gathered at the town’s American Legion that the opponents had nothing left to reveal.
“I’m just asking, is there anything they could find out about a woman in your past – maybe no didn’t mean no at the time?” Greeley pressed. “Is he going to come forward and say: ‘I was so drunk I didn’t know what I was doing?’”
Platner was determined. “No,” he said. “I’ve gone on dates, I’ve had girlfriends, I’ve had a life. I’ve had relationships that have ended. I’ve had relationships that haven’t ended.”
Greeley later told the Guardian he was “really scared”. [Platner]” and what opposition research may emerge.
