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Graham Platner\u2019s wife called the media reports that her husband had previously exchanged sexually explicit text messages with several women \u201cshameful” over the weekend, the latest controversy to hit the Maine Democrat\u2019s whirlwind Senate campaign.<\/p>\n
Platner, an oyster farmer and combat veteran, posted a video taken by his wife, Amy Gertner, who reportedly told his campaign of the text messages last year. In the five-minute video, Gertner avoided speaking directly about her husband’s reported texts, dubbing the broader coverage as \u201cgossip” and saying that \u201cbeing married is hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI find it really shameful that there\u2019s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip,\u201d she said in the informal, selfie-style video where she walked along a road. \u201cNo marriage is perfect, and I don’t want a perfect marriage. I want my marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Platner is seeking the Democratic nomination for one of the most closely watched Senate races as Democrats hope to defeat longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the party’s efforts to win control of the narrowly divided Senate. The Maine primary is June 9. <\/p>\n
Genevieve McDonald, a then-campaign staffer for Platner, told the The Associated Press that the candidate was \u201csexting multiple women while married” and that \u201cthe campaign tried to assess that as an election vulnerability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Platner told reporters Sunday that what McDonald had said wasn\u2019t true. Asked if he was confirming that the text messages didn\u2019t exist, Platner replied, \u201cI\u2019m confirming that what Genevieve McDonald said in The New York Times is not true.\u201d Platner didn’t provide any specifics. He was referring to a Times story that names McDonald Saturday, after The Wall Street Journal<\/a> first reported the story.<\/p>\n Gertner had told the campaign in August about the messages, which she had discovered on his phone last year, to make sure they weren’t a liability to the campaign, according to the Wall Street Journal. Platner’s campaign team reportedly decided that the texts were private and being handled by the couple, who were married in 2023. The two are in counseling, Gertner has said.<\/p>\n Platner told reporters that he and Gertner spoke with the campaign about their marriage, but reiterated that McDonald\u2019s claims were false.<\/p>\n Platner’s campaign on Sunday did not specifically confirm the text messages to the AP, but issued a statement from Gertner saying the disclosure of the conversations she had with a campaign aide was a betrayal that \u201cdeeply hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI trusted this person with the most private chapter of our lives \u2014 the early days of our marriage before any campaign was on our mind,” she wrote.<\/p>\n Platner, who has never held public office, has a gruff, less buttoned-up approach on the campaign trail, fashioned a platform around economic equality and has already had to navigate statements that surfaced from his past.<\/p>\n