Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s wife told a campaign aide during a vetting exercise last summer that she had previously found “sexually explicit texts with several women” on his phone.
Amy Gertner told the campaign’s then-political director Genevieve McDonald about her husband’s extramarital relationships “to make sure they didn’t pose a risk to her husband’s nascent campaign,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Gertner and Platner got married in November 2023.
The report is the latest in a long list of controversies that have plagued Platner’s campaign and bid to unseat incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). The progressive candidate has faced criticism for derogatory, since-deleted social media posts and a controversial tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol.
Platner has been the presumptive Democratic nominee in the race since Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME) dropped out in April. A recent University of New Hampshire poll has Platner up nine percentage points against Collins in a theoretical matchup.
Gertner said in a statement provided by the campaign that McDonald was a friend. A campaign official said aides decided the matter was ultimately private and was being handled in marriage counseling.
“I know who Graham is,” Gertner said. “I know the man I married and the husband he has been to me on the best and worst days of my life. That hasn’t changed, and it won’t.” The extramarital relationships have been confirmed by current and former campaign officials.
Democrats see the race as a key Senate contest in November after Platner’s populist, anti-establishment platform lifted him in the polls. The oyster farmer and former Marine sparred with Collins on Thursday about his serving in the Iraq War, and a since-deleted Reddit comment about the Armenian genocide surfaced Friday.
GRAHAM PLATNER QUESTIONED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN NOW-DELETED REDDIT COMMENTS: REPORT
Gernter confided in McDonald ahead of a Labor Day weekend campaign rally last year with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). In a statement, she said she was “deeply hurt” by McDonald and referenced an “invasion of our privacy.”
Gertner told McDonald about her knowledge of the texts just days after Platner announced his candidacy. The rally occurred as planned.