Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
There have been moments when Graham Platner’s first-time Maine Senate campaign has felt undeniable and moments when it has felt untenable. The oyster farmer and military veteran has outlasted the state’s governor, a veteran Democratic-primary competitor, all while navigating a series of persistent scandals that would’ve likely hobbled the average candidate — and now, Platner’s Teflon-like reputation is being tested yet again.
On Saturday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Amy Gertner, Platner’s wife, disclosed to his campaign that she had discovered sexually explicit text messages to other women on her husband’s phone in 2025, citing sources familiar. According to the outlet, Gertner flagged the messages to a campaign aide as staff was conducting an internal vetting of Platner ahead of a scheduled Labor Day weekend rally with Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, but the texts were later deemed a personal matter that the couple was addressing in private, a campaign official told the Journal.
A subsequent New York Times report provided additional details, revealing that the aide in question was Genevieve McDonald, a former member of the Maine House of Representatives who previously served as the Platner campaign’s political director. McDonald publicly split from the campaign in October following the resurfacing of Platner’s past offensive Reddit posts. McDonald told the Times that Gertner said her husband had been texting as many as 12 women while a campaign official put the figure as closer to six, adding that the communication stopped prior to the start of the campaign.
In a statement, Gertner, who has been married to Platner since 2023, indicated that she felt betrayed by McDonald, saying she “confided deeply personal details about my marriage to someone I considered a friend.”
“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 said, per CNN.
Gertner also addressed the coverage of the topic in a direct-to-camera video statement shared by the Platner campaign, saying that she finds 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, like health care and education and child care.”
“Being married is hard. Being newly married is hard,” she said. “Being newly married and going through infertility is hard. Being newly married, going through infertility and a Senate campaign is hard. I don’t even know if I have the right words to describe what we’ve been going through, but our marriage counselor helps, my personal counselor helps, Graham’s personal counselor helps and we work on our mental health every day.”
She continued, “No marriage is perfect, and I don’t want a perfect marriage. I want my marriage and I want to be married to Graham.”
The Platner campaign has largely painted the controversy as gossip coming from a disgruntled former staffer. Morris Katz, a strategist working with the Platner campaign, was blunt on social media, saying it was “no one’s fucking business” what happened in Platner and Gertner’s marriage prior to their time in the public eye. Katz also appeared to take a shot at McDonald. “There should be no place in our politics for incompetent, opportunistic operatives who violate privacy, betray trust, and prioritize vengeance over decency,” he wrote.
Platner briefly addressed the topic to a Maine NBC affiliate, saying it was “journalistic malpractice” for the Journal and the Times to run the story “without any evidence besides the gossip from the former staffer.” After many online took Platner’s comments as a denial of the story, the candidate later issued a fuller statement through his campaign. “Amy and I went through something hard—because of me. We did the work, and I’m grateful for her every hour of every day,” he said.
Platner launched his populist campaign last year, raising millions in fundraising and racking up numerous prominent endorsements in his pursuit to take on five-term Republican senator Susan Collins. But in that time, he’s faced a variety of scandals including controversial Reddit comments where he downplayed sexual assault and made racial remarks as well as a now-covered-up tattoo that resembled a totenkopf, a Nazi symbol. But the controversies did not appear to leave a mark with Platner expected to cruise to the Democratic nomination following the exit of Governor Janet Mills from the race in April.
Sign Up for the Intelligencer Newsletter
Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.
Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice