Graham Platner’s political campaign is under the spotlight following recent revelations. His wife, Amy Gertner, publicly addressed reports regarding Platner’s past exchanges of sexually explicit text messages with several women. Platner is a contender for the Democratic nomination in Maine, aiming to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins in an essential race for the Democrats as they seek Senate control.
Amy Gertner posted a video on X over the weekend. In the video, she referred to the reports as “gossip” and acknowledged the challenges of marriage. She remarked, “I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip. No marriage is perfect, and I don’t want a perfect marriage, I want my marriage.”
The Wall Street Journal initially reported the texts, revealing Gertner informed the campaign in August about the messages she discovered on Platner’s phone earlier in their marriage. The campaign decided these texts were private matters handled by the couple, married since 2023.
Gertner stated in the video, “Our marriage counselor helps, my personal counselor helps, Graham’s personal counselor. Graham and I have a great marriage.”
This isn’t the first controversy for Platner, an oyster farmer and combat veteran. Concerns previously arose regarding a tattoo linked to a Nazi symbol, which he claimed to be unaware of until weeks into his campaign. Additionally, he faced backlash over Reddit posts where he was dismissive of military sexual assaults and used homophobic slurs.
Despite these incidents, Platner has advanced in the Democratic primary against Gov. Janet Mills, who eventually withdrew, positioning Platner as the presumptive nominee. The campaign has not yet commented on the recent developments surrounding the text messages.