The wife of Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner warned his own campaign last summer that he had traded sexually explicit messages with several women, a disclosure that stayed buried until this weekend.
She found the messages in the spring of 2025 and told a campaign aide about them in late August, only days after Platner launched his bid, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Staffers were running opposition research on their own candidate at the time.
Rather than treat the texts as a liability, aides waved them off as a private affair the couple was working through in counseling, WSJ reported. A Labor Day rally headlined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders went forward without disruption. (RELATED: Nazi Tattoo Guy Graham Platner Bird-Dogged Over Public Masturbation Social Media Posts)
The aide who received the warning has now been identified. Genevieve McDonald, the campaign’s former political director, told CNN that Gertner confided in her about the sexting. CNN verified a Kik account that appears to belong to Platner but said it could not independently confirm the texts.
The wife of the Maine’s Democratic Senate candidate disclosed the texts between Platner and other women to his campaign. https://t.co/WmTAV5ihTe
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 30, 2026
Gertner is furious that the matter became public. She said she had shared “deeply personal details about my marriage” with someone she trusted, adding she was “deeply hurt by her betrayal and the invasion of our privacy,” in a statement to CBS News.
She also stood by her husband. “We did the hard work that marriage requires. We went to counseling,” Gertner said in a statement to the WSJ, calling the relationship “stronger than ever before.”
The Kik profile, registered under the handle phustle0331, dates to 2016 and shows Platner shirtless in a mirror selfie, according to the WSJ. His campaign said he deleted the app but never closed the account.
Platner already carries a heavy load of controversy. He covered up a Nazi-linked tattoo and drew fire over old internet posts, CBS News reported. His primary rival, Gov. Janet Mills, quit the race in April.
Platner has blamed his past views on military culture. “We have a crude sense of humor in the infantry,” he told CBS News in April.