Graham Platner, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine, is facing allegations that he exchanged sexually explicit text messages with multiple women while married, according to a bombshell report from the Wall Street Journal.
Platner, an oyster farmer and combat veteran, married Amy Gertner in November 2023. According to the report, which cited concerns raised by Platner’s wife shortly after he announced his campaign, Gertner discovered sexually explicit messages on her husband’s phone in the spring of 2025, early in their marriage.
In late August 2025, shortly after Platner launched his Senate campaign, she informed a senior campaign aide about the messages during an internal vetting process. The aide was Genevieve McDonald, who was serving as Platner’s campaign manager at the time.
McDonald ultimately resigned from the campaign back in October following the emergence of a number of deleted Reddit posts made by Platner, in which he joked about sexual assault and expressed support for extremist ideologies.
Platner has been billed as a “rising star” on the progressive left
McDonald told reporters that Gertner indicated her husband had been exchanging sexual messages with as many as a dozen women, while a campaign official cited in reports referred to communications with up to six women. The campaign did confirm to Politico that Platner sent sexually explicit messages to multiple women while married, but did not confirm the exact number.
The campaign evaluated the matter as a potential political liability ahead of a major Labor Day rally with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Aides ultimately concluded it was a private issue the couple was addressing through marriage counseling and proceeded with the campaign without public disclosure at the time.
In a statement released through the campaign, Gertner confirmed the reports but criticized McDonald for speaking with the media. “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,” she said.
“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,” she continued. “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. That hasn’t changed, and it won’t.”
McDonald confirmed aspects of the reporting to multiple outlets, stating that the campaign had acknowledged the events. Reports also noted that Platner maintains an account on the messaging app Kik, created in 2016 with the user ID phustle0331, which was used to send the messages.
The campaign stated he had deleted the app from his phone but not deactivated the account
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