Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign was thrown into turmoil on Saturday after his wife provided campaign officials with sexually explicit text messages to multiple women, the Wall Street Journal reported. The revelations emerged only days after Platner announced his candidacy for the US Senate seat in Maine.
According to reports from the WSJ, Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, alerted members of his campaign about messages she described as sexually explicit discovered on Platner’s phone during their opposition investigation.
According to the WSJ, Gertner told a campaign assistant about the texts to ensure they didn’t endanger her husband’s candidacy.
What did Graham Platner allegedly do?
Genevieve McDonald, a former state legislator who served as the political director for the Platner campaign before departing in October, stated that Gertner contacted her a few days before a significant Labor Day rally with Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, and expressed concern that her husband’s actions might turn into a political liability.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Platner’s wife shared evidence she believed campaign officials should review, including sexually explicit text messages “with as many as a dozen women.”
The New York Times reported that Platner’s wife shared screenshots of alleged sexually explicit messages with McDonald, describing the exchanges as “sexting.” McDonald said Gertner shared screenshots of text messages and reached out to campaign staff in August 2025.
While details about the messages remain limited, reports indicate that the material became a subject of concern within the campaign.
However, according to reports, aides determined that the texts were a personal issue that the couple was handling in marriage counseling.
Read more: JD Vance booed at Air Force Academy graduation. His response sparks row; ‘you can’t…’
Platner’s campaign smeared with controversies
This is only the most recent problem with Platner’s candidacy, following the revelation of purported posts he made on Reddit. Platner allegedly made offensive remarks about sex workers and minimized sexual assault in these posts.
He has since asked Mainers not to condemn him for “the worst thing I said on the internet, on my worst day 14 years ago” after seeking therapy and apologizing for some provocative posts on Reddit.
Platner, however, has been candid about his years-long struggles with alcoholism, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder related to his many combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In an interview with the NYT, he said, “I was just a wreck of a human being.”
Platner has also acknowledged hiding a Nazi-themed tattoo of a “Totenkopf” or a skull and crossbones. Platner apparently made the tattoo in Croatia during his military days in 2007. He said that he did not know about the Nazi connection of the symbol back then.
He also said in 2013 that women who are frightened of being raped shouldn’t become so inebriated that they “wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.” He has now issued an apology for this statement.
Gertner issued a statement after the release of the WSJ report
Following the publication of the WSJ article detailing Gertner’s claims and discussions, Gertner issued a statement implying that McDonald had disclosed the information behind her back.
“I confided deeply personal details about my marriage to someone I considered a friend. In the months since, I have had to watch as she spread malicious gossip to anyone who would take her call. 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 – and I am deeply hurt by her betrayal and the invasion of our privacy,” Gertner stated.
According to the town clerk of Sullivan, Maine, Gertner and Platner were married in November 2023 while he sought marriage counseling to address his transgressions.
She further openly detailed the problems she faced in her marriage. She said, “We did the hard work that marriage requires. We went to counseling.”
Platner’s wife added, “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 the worst days of my life.”
