The wife of Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner said she was “deeply hurt” after details of her husband’s extramarital sexting became public Saturday, accusing a former campaign official and confidante of betraying her trust.
The statement from Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, came after both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that shortly after Platner announced his Senate campaign last year, Gertner flagged to campaign staff sexual text messages her husband had with other women.
“I know who Graham is,” Gertner said in a statement delivered through Platner’s campaign. “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.”
Genevieve McDonald, the former political director for Platner’s campaign, confirmed to CNN on Saturday that Gertner disclosed to her last year that Platner had been sexting multiple women and that the campaign evaluated the matter as a potential political liability.
According to both The Times and The Journal, Gertner told Platner’s campaign last August about text messages she had found in spring 2025 between her husband and other women early in their marriage. The publications reported that she flagged the messages as Platner’s campaign internally vetted the candidate.
CNN has not independently confirmed the existence of the text messages. CNN did verify that an account on the messaging app Kik appears to belong to Platner. The account, under the username “phustle0331,” features a profile photo showing Platner shirtless in a bathroom with a towel on his waist and uses a handle similar to ones on his since-deleted Reddit account and a now-deleted Instagram account.
According to The Times, Gertner reported her husband’s messages to other women to his campaign’s then-political director, McDonald — whom Gertner appeared to refer in Saturday’s statement.
“I confided deeply personal details about my marriage to someone I considered a friend,” Gertner’s statement said.
“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 said.
Platner, a Marine Corps veteran with no prior political experience, has become a lightning rod since announcing his upstart campaign to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
He received fierce blowback early in his campaign after it was revealed that he had a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol on his chest. Platner said he got the tattoo when he was in his 20s and in the military and did not realize its significance until recently. He has since said he has covered the tattoo.
But reporting by CNN’s KFile later undercut his claim of ignorance over the tattoo’s symbolism. In a social media thread from 2019, Platner discussed the emblem — a skull-and-crossbones “Totenkopf” — while noting that many US service members had adopted the imagery.
CNN and other outlets have also reported on other statements Platner made before he was a Senate candidate. He once called himself a “communist” and dismissed police as “bastards.” He disavowed those comments during a previous interview with CNN.
