Platner's wife calls news coverage of Senate hopeful's sexually explicit
texts with women 'shameful'
[June 01, 2026]
By JESSE BEDAYN and KIMBERLEE KRUESI
Graham Platner’s wife called the media reports that her husband had
previously exchanged sexually explicit text messages with several women
“shameful" over the weekend, the latest controversy to hit the Maine
Democrat’s whirlwind Senate campaign.
Platner, an oyster farmer and combat veteran, posted a video taken by
his wife, Amy Gertner, who reportedly told his campaign of the text
messages last year. In the five-minute video, Gertner avoided speaking
directly about her husband's reported texts, dubbing the broader
coverage as “gossip" and saying that “being married is hard.”
“I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and
people who are willing to spread gossip,” she said in the informal,
selfie-style video where she walked along a road. “No marriage is
perfect, and I don't want a perfect marriage. I want my marriage.”
Platner is seeking the Democratic nomination for one of the most closely
watched Senate races as Democrats hope to defeat longtime Republican
Sen. Susan Collins in the party's efforts to win control of the narrowly
divided Senate. The Maine primary is June 9.
Genevieve McDonald, a then-campaign staffer for Platner, told the The
Associated Press that the candidate was “sexting multiple women while
married" and that “the campaign tried to assess that as an election
vulnerability.”
Platner told reporters Sunday that what McDonald had said wasn’t true.
Asked if he was confirming that the text messages didn’t exist, Platner
replied, “I’m confirming that what Genevieve McDonald said in The New
York Times is not true.” Platner didn't provide any specifics. He was
referring to a Times story that names McDonald Saturday, after The Wall
Street Journal first reported the story.
Gertner had told the campaign in August about the messages, which she
had discovered on his phone last year, to make sure they weren't a
liability to the campaign, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Platner's campaign team reportedly decided that the texts were private
and being handled by the couple, who were married in 2023. The two are
in counseling, Gertner has said.
Platner told reporters that he and Gertner spoke with the campaign about
their marriage, but reiterated that McDonald’s claims were false.
Platner's campaign on Sunday did not specifically confirm the text
messages to the AP, but issued a statement from Gertner saying the
disclosure of the conversations she had with a campaign aide was a
betrayal that “deeply hurt.”
“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," she
wrote.
It's not Platner's first controversy
Platner, who has never held public office, has a gruff, less buttoned-up
approach on the campaign trail, fashioned a platform around economic
equality and has already had to navigate statements that surfaced from
his past.
The candidate had a tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol, which he said he
didn't realize until he was several weeks into the campaign. There's
also been much attention on his former Reddit posts, which were
dismissive of military sexual assaults and used homophobic slurs, for
which he has apologized.
Platner's campaign weathered those earlier revelations in what had been
considered one of the most competitive Democratic primaries before Gov.
Janet Mills dropped out of the race in late April due to a lack of
campaign funds. Mills, a two-term governor, had been seen as one of the
Democrats' top 2026 recruits when she entered the Senate race before her
campaign fizzled out.
Platner has still pulled support from big-name Democrats, including
Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Ruben Gallego as well as U.S.
House Rep. Ro Khanna. The latter is scheduled to rally with Platner on
Friday, and so far, it appears he hasn't lost any endorsements with this
latest texting revelation.
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Graham Platner, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks at an
event hosted by Sen. Bernie Sanders in Orono, Maine, Sunday, May 24,
2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Two Democratic senators on Sunday declined to directly address the
topic when pressed by reporters. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy told
CBS' “Face the Nation” that Platner had served his country and
community, but “also made mistakes and he has admitted that.”
On CNN’s “State of the Union," New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim sidestepped,
too. “With any campaign in the country, the character and the
transparency about the different candidates is going to come out,”
said Kim, “and the voters are going to decide what they ultimately
think."
Barreling forward Sunday, Platner posted a video on X from an event
“happening now” where he entered a room to a standing ovation from
ecstatic supporters.
Questions over whether additional controversial information about
Platner could still surface have added to some Democrats' anxiety
over his chances in a general election against Collins, who has
represented Maine in the Senate since 1997.
In October, after the revelation that he once had a Totenkopf tattoo
on his chest and promptly had it covered, the AP asked him if other
scandals were on the horizon.
Platner said he was expecting his opponents were “going to keep
dragging things up.”
“They’re going to keep making things up,” he said. “I fully expect
people to just lie about me at this point.”
Voters are familiar with the couple's struggles, including with
infertility and traveling out of the country to afford IVF
treatment, which they've discussed on the campaign trail.
In late April, Platner shared that Gertner had suffered a
miscarriage, and he’s discussed his own mental health struggles and
the role of his family and therapist in helping.
Former aide explains why she went public
McDonald initially worked on Platner’s campaign as his political
director and resigned a few months later when his now-deleted Reddit
posts began surfacing, saying she couldn’t stand behind him as a
candidate. She later declined a severance offer from the campaign in
exchange for signing a non-disclosure agreement.
On Saturday, McDonald wrote on Facebook that Platner’s campaign had
“demanded” she retract her statements she had made to The Wall
Street Journal or his team would accuse her of violating the
couple's trust. McDonald wasn’t named in the newspaper's article,
but after that exchange, she said she made the choice to be publicly
named in a New York Times story.
“His consultants greatly overestimate how much I do not aspire to be
them,” she wrote on Facebook.
After resigning from Platner’s campaign, McDonald moved to help
Democrat Jordan Wood’s congressional campaign in Maine’s second
district. McDonald submitted her resignation from Wood’s campaign
Saturday morning, according to Wood’s campaign.
Wood endorsed Platner after Mills dropped out.
___
Bedayn reported from Austin, Texas and Kruesi reported from
Providence, Rhode Island.
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