Democrats consider the Maine race crucial to regain the Senate. Platner’s latest controversy, one strategist said, will be “very material.”
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Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign is once again on the defense after revelations that the candidate’s wife, Amy Gertner, had told a senior campaign aide last fall that he had sent sexually explicit texts to several women after they married in 2023.
The news comes a week ahead of the Democratic primary in Maine, where the party is seeking in November’s general election to flip the seat currently held by longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Platner is heavily favored to win the primary race, after Maine Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign. Her name will still appear on the ballot.
In a video posted by Platner’s campaign on Saturday night, Gertner said she was “really angry” and “disappointed” that her disclosure to the senior campaign aide had been made public. Gertner said she supports her husband.
Platner’s campaign has already weathered controversy after Reddit posts the candidate made years ago resurfaced. In the posts, Platner said women could avoid being raped by not drinking alcohol, referred to rural white voters as stupid, and minimized concerns about the military’s response to reports of sexual assaults amongst its members. Platner, a combat Marine veteran, disavowed the posts and said he was suffering from PTSD when he made them.
The latest controversy could complicate Democrats’ chances at flipping the seat in November — which they would likely need if they want to regain control of the Senate — if Platner wins the party’s nomination next week.
Here’s what to know.
The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Gertner made the revelation about the sexually explicit texts in a conversation with Genevieve McDonald, then the campaign’s political director, ahead of a Labor Day rally in 2025. According to the Times, Platner’s campaign said he communicated with up to six women.
In a message to The Washington Post, McDonald confirmed those statements, saying Platner “was sexting multiple women while married and that the campaign tried to assess that as an election vulnerability when his wife brought it to the campaign’s attention herself.” The texts were reportedly early in Gertner and Platner’s marriage.
Per the Times, Gertner confided to McDonald — a former state legislator — after McDonald asked her whether there was any information she would like to share during the campaign’s internal vetting process.
McDonald left Platner’s campaign in October as the candidate weathered the controversies over his old Reddit posts and a tattoo that a prominent Jewish civil rights group said resembled a Nazi symbol.
In the video shared Saturday night, Gertner said she found it “really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip instead of talking about real issues that Graham is running on.”
Gertner recorded the direct-to-camera video while walking down a Maine road. She described her marriage to Platner as “great” but noted that they have faced several difficulties, including infertility and the Senate campaign. The two, she said, have attended marriage counseling as well as personal counseling.
Additionally, in a statement, Gertner said she confided “deeply personal details about my marriage to someone I considered a friend.” She accused McDonald of spreading “malicious gossip” about Platner.
In the video, Gertner said that “no marriage is perfect, and I don’t want a perfect marriage.”
“I want my marriage, and I want to be married to Graham,” she said. “I knew the man that I married is wonderful and dynamic, and probably a genius.”
Several recent polls have shown Platner with an edge over Collins in November. However, Collins trailed her Democratic opponent in most polls in 2020 and still won, leading Democrats in the state to mistrust polls.
Maine is key to Democrats’ plan to flip the Senate, given it is the only state that voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 where a Republican senator is seeking reelection in November.
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Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist, told The Post that Platner’s texting controversy could set Democrats back as they seek to flip the Senate.
“We have a real shot at winning the Senate now, given recent polling, and this is not helpful,” Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg said that, across the country, Democrats’ odds are looking good despite a map that forces them to flip seats in several red states in order to regain power. Former Rep. Mary Peltola is polling well in the Alaska Senate race, polls have shown that former Sen. Sherrod Brown is statistically tied in Ohio, and, in Texas, Democrats are hopeful that James Talarico could flip the seat in the race against Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“I’m sort of shocked at how strong the polling is for us right now,” Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg said that while Platner remains a popular candidate in Maine, despite the multiple controversies, Collins and Republicans will be armed with millions in campaign funds in the general election, which they will likely use to attack Platner. Republicans, Rosenberg argued, “cannot win this election on the issues, so what they’re going to do is they’re going to go scorched earth against our candidates and their character.”
“There’s a difference between what Democratic primary audiences are willing to accept and what the general electorate of Maine are going to accept,” Rosenberg said. “Graham Platner is asking the people of Maine to overlook a lot of things here, and I think this is going to be very material in the race.”
A campaign adviser, speaking under the condition of anonymity, told The Post that the campaign believes the controversy will not impact Platner’s odds in November. They noted that Saturday was the campaign’s best digital fundraising day, even as news of the texting broke. Platner’s dropping out, the adviser said, is not on the campaign’s radar.
While some Senate Democrats raised questions about Platner on Sunday, they remained focused on their wish for their party to take back the chamber in November.
“I have concerns. That guy has questions to answer. And that’s what campaigns are for,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) told ABC “This Week.”
Sen. Andy Kim (D-New Jersey) said that while he has not met or talked to Platner, “the character and the transparency about the different candidates is going to come out,” and that “the voters will decide what it is that they ultimately think in terms of their ability to trust those candidates or not.”
“From my standpoint, I will work with whoever the people of Maine elect, but I hope that they elect somebody that is going to stand up to this president, work with me to be able to fight back against all these dangers,” Kim said.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) defended Platner, telling CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the race is going to be a “pretty clear contrast in Maine between somebody who has spent his life protecting us versus somebody who seems to be protecting Donald Trump’s corruption.”
Platner’s campaign has already weathered several controversies on the road to the June primary.
In the fall, a trove of deleted comments he posted on Reddit became public, including comments in which Platner downplayed sexual assault concerns in the military more than 10 years ago as well as more recent ones describing himself as a socialist and communist, and another in which he ridiculed White Mainers as racist and stupid. Platner has said he was disillusioned, extremely isolated and suffering from untreated PTSD when he made the comments on Reddit, and is not a socialist or communist.
Later, in October, Platner altered a tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol following public outcry over the particular skull-and-bones design. The Anti-Defamation League said the tattoo looks like a Nazi Totenkopf, a symbol of Hitler’s Schutzstaffel (SS).
McDonald, who resigned from Platner’s campaign soon after news about the tattoo surfaced, on social media described the tattoo as “antisemitic” and said the candidate should’ve altered it long before running for office. Platner has repeatedly said that he was not aware the tattoo looked similar to Nazi imagery in the almost two decades he had it.
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