Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate looking to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, exchanged sexual texts with several women after marrying his wife two years ago, according to a report.
Platner’s campaign confirmed the text exchanges to Politico following a report from the Wall Street Journal that claimed his wife, Amy Gertner, told a campaign aide about the texts after he launched his senate bid as they began looking into potential political liabilities.
Gertner discovered the messages months after the couple married in 2024, the WSJ reported.
She made the private revelation before Platner held a campaign rally last year supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., but the aide decided the texts were a private matter for the couple, the campaign said, according to the newspaper.
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Gertner said in a statement to the Journal: "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."
She added that she and her husband: "Did the hard work that marriage requires. We went to counseling. We were honest with each other in ways that weren’t easy. And we came through it, not in spite of how much we’ve been through, but because of how much we love each other and the life we’ve built. Our marriage today is stronger than ever before."
Gertner added, "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. That hasn’t changed, and it won’t."
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Platner, an oyster farmer and veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, has also faced a number of controversies before this, including a since-removed tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol, and past controversial comments on Reddit minimizing sexual assault and making crude remarks about masturbation and a deleted post where he claimed a wounded soldier "didn’t deserve to live."
Despite all this, a recent poll from the University of New Hampshire showed Platner holding a 51% to 42% lead among likely Maine voters.
Platner is considered the presumptive Democratic nominee after Maine Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the race in April.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Platner’s campaign for comment.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., reiterated his support for Platner on Saturday.
"I am proud of @grahamformaine for having the character to stand up against the war in Iran, against genocide, and against an unfair & lopsided economy," he wrote on X. "I am proud of him for having a vision for a new deal for our time. Excited to campaign with him June 5!"
Collins has called Platner too extreme for Maine.
"I believe that will be the conclusion of Maine voters," she previously told Fox News Digital. "But, obviously, I don't take anything for granted."
Platner, in a Fox News Digital interview a week later, argued, "What's radical is somebody like Susan Collins, who, for decades now, has made sure that we pass policies that are going to help corporations and billionaires to the detriment of working people, supporting over and over and over again, illegal and insane foreign wars."
