Graham Platner, the Bernie Sanders-backed Democrat running for Senate in Maine, is dealing with another personal scandal that his own campaign is now confirming.
According to multiple reports, Platner exchanged sexually explicit text messages with women early in his marriage to wife Amy Gertner.
What makes this one different is how it surfaced. Gertner reportedly told campaign aides about it herself, during the campaign’s own opposition research into their candidate.
The campaign released a video of Gertner responding publicly on May 30.
A message from my wife Amy: pic.twitter.com/dbDqjssevp
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) May 30, 2026
Fox News Digital reported that Platner’s campaign confirmed the text exchanges to Politico after the Wall Street Journal first reported the story.
Breitbart laid out the campaign-vetting timeline and the campaign’s response:
Maine Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner’s wife admitted to his campaign that he had sent sexually explicit texts to women early in their marriage, according to multiple reports.
“People familiar with the matter” told the Wall Street Journal that Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, reportedly shared with an aide in August that she had found the sexually explicit messages “early in their marriage in the spring of 2025.”
Gertner’s admission to sending the messages came as “some aides were conducting opposition research on their own candidate.”
The aides’ opposition research on Platner came as “the campaign had been preparing for a major rally” with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), according to the outlet.
A campaign official explained that “Aides ultimately decided the texts were a private matter that was being handled by the couple in marriage counseling.”
Gertner explained in a statement that she had thought “She was confiding in an aide she considered a friend,” adding that she and her husband “did the hard work that marriage requires.”
The numbers reported are not small.
Breitbart noted that The New York Times was told Gertner said her husband exchanged sexual messages with as many as a dozen women, while a current campaign worker put the figure at up to six.
Gertner’s public statement reframes the story as a betrayal of her own privacy rather than a defense of the messages themselves.
Central Maine published the statement released by Platner’s campaign:
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.
It is no secret that Graham and I have struggled on our fertility journey. We 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.
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.
ADVERTISEMENTThat hasn’t changed, and it won’t.
Platner has already been through earlier controversies, and that is the part Maine voters should weigh.
Fox News Digital reported he has already faced scrutiny over a removed tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol, along with past Reddit comments minimizing sexual assault and making crude sexual remarks.
For a candidate trying to sell himself as the fresh progressive alternative, the pile is growing.
None of this is happening to a fringe candidate. Platner is the presumptive Democratic nominee after Governor Janet Mills dropped out of the race in April.
That is why Ro Khanna’s public support matters. He is still advertising a June 5 campaign stop with Platner even as this story lands.
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. I am proud of him for having a vision for a new deal for our time. Excited to campaign with him June 5!
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) May 30, 2026
And he has been leading.
Fox News Digital reported a University of New Hampshire poll showing Platner ahead of Republican Senator Susan Collins, 51 percent to 42 percent, among likely Maine voters.
The key point is that Platner’s own campaign is confirming the text exchanges. The exact number of women remains reported through unnamed sources and campaign accounts.
What the vetting timeline shows is a candidate whose own team went looking for trouble and found it before the voters did. The question for Maine Democrats is how much more is sitting in that file.
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