TIME TO SEE GRAHAM PLATNER’S SEXTS. To no one’s surprise and some Democratic strategists’ dismay, Graham Platner ran away with the Democratic nomination for senator from Maine. Now, barring some unforeseen development, the whole Platner drama that nobody knew about not that long ago — the Nazi tattoo, the Reddit posts, the sexting — will be part of the Maine Senate race until the general election on Nov. 3.
Of those, the sexting part is most urgent, because we know the least about it of anything else. Now, with Platner, the official Democratic candidate for Senate, it’s time to know more.
At the moment, we don’t know much more than was reported in the initial stories published May 30. On that day, first the Wall Street Journal and then the New York Times reported that shortly after Platner announced his candidacy on Aug. 19, 2025, his wife Amy Gertner “informed the campaign about a potential political problem she had previously discovered on [Platner’s] phone: sexually explicit texts with several women, according to people familiar with the matter.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Platner’s campaign aides “decided the texts were a private matter that was being handled by the couple in marriage counseling.” And that was the end of that, as far as the campaign was concerned.
The New York Times, quoting different sources, reported that Platner campaign officials and those close to the campaign said Platner had been texting “up to six” or “as many as a dozen” women. The official told the paper that the texting stopped “before the campaign launched.” Gertner vouched for her marriage — “No marriage is perfect, and I don’t want a perfect marriage,” she said — and the campaign sought to move on.
By the way, the Wall Street Journal also reported that Platner has an account on Kik, a private messaging app often used by men seeking to meet teenage girls. For his profile, Platner posted a “mirror selfie of him shirtless with a towel wrapped around his waist,” the outlet said. Platner’s Kik user ID was “phustle0331,” the paper reported, which was similar to the ID “P-Hustle” that Platner had used to make a lot of offensive Reddit posts.
Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times stories were published 11 days ago. In the time since, there have been no meaningful additions to our knowledge about the sexting matter.
So what don’t we know? Start with the number of women who received Platner’s sexts. Maybe it was six, or maybe it was a dozen. But we don’t know which, nor do we know if that range is accurate.
And what were their ages? We don’t know. And then, what did Platner say in the texts? That’s pretty important, and we know nothing. Did he send any photos, for example, images like his Kik profile photo? We don’t know.
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And finally, what are the women’s stories? It’s fine that Platner and Gertner have resolved their problems through marriage counseling, but what about the other side of Platner’s communications? Did the women want to receive sexually explicit texts from Graham Platner? Did they consent to receiving them? Did they respond? We know nothing.
In a matter like this, the details are everything. And right now, all we know is the most basic structure of the Platner sexting story. Maine’s voters will need to learn more before Election Day.