Maine Democratic Senate hopeful Graham Platner remains the front-runner after Governor Janet Mills suspended her campaign, even as reports say Amy Gertner told campaign aides her husband sent sexually explicit messages to multiple women early in their marriage
When Graham Platner walked into a campaign event in Portland, Maine last week, he and his wife, Amy Gertner, stood together and answered questions that refused to fade. The mood was sharp—because the story wasn’t about policy. It was about their marriage.
Platner. a combat veteran and oyster farmer. dismissed recent reporting as gossip and pushed back on claims that his wife had told campaign staff about sexually explicit messages he allegedly sent to multiple women early in their marriage. He also acknowledged that the couple had shared “things in Amy and I’s marriage” that they had worked through over the years.
The allegations have become a new test for Platner’s bid to win the Democratic nomination for Maine’s 2026 Senate election and ultimately take on incumbent Republican Susan Collins, who has held the seat for nearly three decades.
Plentiful support from prominent Democrats has kept Platner near the top of his party’s field. Governor Janet Mills suspended her campaign in April. leaving Platner vying for the nomination in a contest where he remains described as the front-runner. Key figures including Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna have continued to support him. But within the Democratic coalition. some party members have also raised doubts as the controversy has widened after reporting from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
The reporting says that last year Gertner told campaign aides that Platner had exchanged sexually explicit messages with up to a dozen women early in their marriage. Genevieve McDonald. one of the aides in question. said she could confirm the details of what had been reported. telling Newsweek on Sunday. “I can confirm the details of what has been reported.”.
Platner and Gertner have both dismissed the reports as “gossip.” In a statement. Gertner said she was “deeply hurt” after learning McDonald had shared details of her conversations and Platner’s text messages with news outlets. “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,” her statement said.
The campaign later offered its own account to media outlets. “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. I’ve learned throughout this campaign… that people don’t care about gossip or headlines, they care that you’re fighting for their hospitals, their paycheck, their kids.”.
Gertner’s defense has not stayed inside campaign talking points. In a separate statement shared with the Portland Press Herald. she described the Times and Journal reports as “malicious gossip. ” and said she regretted sharing private details of her marriage with a campaign aide. “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 continued.
On Saturday. Gertner also posted a video to the campaign’s X page. saying she found it “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.” In the video. she said. “Graham and I have a great marriage. ” and added: “Being married is hard. Being newly married is hard. Being newly married and going through infertility is hard. Being newly married. going through infertility and a Senate campaign is hard.” She said. “Our marriage counselor helps. ” and added that her personal counselor helps. and that Graham’s personal counselor helps.
Platner’s own remarks at the Portland event offered a similar framing: he criticized establishment media for focusing on personal headlines rather than the race’s economic and policy agenda. Telling a reporter from NEWS CENTER Maine. he said. “It’s no surprise to me that the establishment media outlets are just going to run gossip instead of wanting to talk about the things that actually matter in this race. which are the material realities that Mainers are working with.” He added. “These people are going to try to make this race about anything but what it’s supposed to be about. which is policy.”.
He also said McDonald’s comments to The Times were “not true,” while acknowledging that the couple had shared with the campaign “things in Amy and I’s marriage that we’ve gone through over the years.”
The marriage at the center of the story began in a short window of time before politics entered their lives. Platner and Gertner married in the fall of 2023. They live in Sullivan, Maine, where they run the Waukeag Neck Oyster Company—an operation Platner took over in 2019 after his military career.
Before politics took a stronger role in their shared schedule, Gertner previously worked as an elementary- and middle-school art teacher. She met Platner through friends. and the couple matched on the dating app Bumble. according to an interview with The New Yorker published in September. She has also been working on his campaign since it launched in August of last year. according to filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Those filings show 16 disbursements listed as “payroll,” totaling $29,042.14.
In an interview with The New York Times in May, Platner said he considered his family working class and said he and his wife together earn around $60,000 a year. He also said they can get by thanks in part to his veterans’ benefits.
Even as they contest the reporting, the controversy arrives at a moment when the campaign’s message has been resonating. Platner’s pitch has focused on affordability concerns of everyday Americans alongside a noninterventionist foreign policy. Recent polling has reflected that traction: he has held double-digit leads over party rivals in some polling. A May 21-25 University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll found Platner leading Collins 51 percent to 42 percent among likely general-election voters.
Prediction markets have shifted downward for him since the reports, though polling still shows him ahead of Collins. Some senior Democrats have also raised questions about his candidacy days out from the June 9 primary.
On Sunday. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said in an interview with ABC News that Platner had “questions to answer” and cited concerns about the number of controversies surrounding the candidate since he launched his campaign last year. Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego defended Platner in remarks quoted by NBC. saying: “At the end of the day. this man has had 60 more town halls than Susan Collins has. He’s winning the polls. he’s willing to accept that he has grown as a person. and I think we should accept that.”.
Through it all. Platner’s campaign argues that voters are focused on day-to-day pressure—hospitals. paychecks. and kids—while Gertner insists the most private parts of their early marriage shouldn’t be treated like public entertainment. For now. her statements and his remain the clearest answers available: the story is contested. personal. and still shaping how the race is being discussed even as the primary approaches.
Graham Platner Amy Gertner Maine Senate 2026 Susan Collins Janet Mills Bernie Sanders Ro Khanna Cory Booker Ruben Gallego Waukeag Neck Oyster Company campaign controversy sexting allegations