Graham Platner's Sexting Scandal Shakes Maine's Most Watched Senate Race

Graham Platner, the fiery Democratic populist challenging incumbent Republican Susan Collins in one of the most consequential Senate races of 2026, is facing fresh scrutiny after revelations that his own wife alerted his campaign last summer to sexual text messages he had sent to multiple other women. Platner's wife, Amy Gertner, disclosed the messages to a senior campaign aide just days before a high-profile Labor Day rally featuring Senator Bernie Sanders — a moment when the campaign's momentum was accelerating and the stakes of any scandal were highest.

Accounts of the episode differ in key details. Former campaign political director Genevieve McDonald, who left the campaign in October, says Gertner told her Platner had exchanged sexual messages with as many as a dozen women. A current campaign official put the number closer to six. McDonald shared what she described as a screenshot of a text thread beginning in the early hours of August 27, 2025, in which Gertner described the messages as 'sexting.' Gertner, now on the campaign payroll, pushed back hard — not denying the substance but framing McDonald's disclosure as a betrayal of personal confidence. She said the couple worked through the issue in marriage counseling and that their marriage is now stronger than ever.

The revelation lands on top of an already combustible backstory. Platner, a combat veteran with multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has publicly acknowledged struggling for years with PTSD, depression, and alcohol. He deleted his Reddit comment history before launching his campaign, but the posts resurfaced anyway — including a 2013 comment suggesting women who fear rape shouldn't drink so heavily, and a dismissive response to a cartoon about sexual assault in the military. At a town hall in Sabattus, Maine, in April, a supporter asked him point-blank whether any more damaging revelations were coming. 'In my past, there is not some big, dark secret,' he told the crowd.

Despite the battering, Platner's political rise has been startling. Governor Janet Mills, his primary opponent, ran ads featuring women reacting with disgust to his online remarks — and it didn't move her numbers. She dropped out in late April, leaving Platner as the presumptive Democratic nominee. A University of New Hampshire poll released last week shows him leading Collins by nine points overall — and by a striking 20 points among women, the very demographic his past comments most threatened to alienate. Republicans are betting they can still reverse that trend, and they're now armed with a new line of attack.