WASHINGTON — Embattled Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner put forward his wife to answer for him after he was outed as having a profile on a creepy hookup app, Kik — as the Dem candidate himself stays silent.
Amy Gertner, who married Platner in 2023, said that she was “deeply hurt” about the campaign’s former political director, whom she tipped off about the sexting, confirming the messages to the press.
The video drew widespread criticism from observers who said it appeared that Platner was letting his wife take the heat for him.
“It looks and sounds like a hostage video,” one X user posted. “Blink twice if you need rescuing, Amy.”
The randy oyster farmer is believed to have had sexting affairs with up to a dozen women, according to reports.
“It makes me really angry, disappointed, and I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip, instead of talking about real issues that Graham is running on, like healthcare and education and childcare,” Gertner groused in a video addressing the scandal.
In the raw video Gertner cut after the scandal exploded, she acknowledged that between her and Graham, they had three counselors help them with their marriage and said her oyster farmer is “probably a genius.”
Notably, Graham himself hasn’t publicly addressed the scandal other than to post the message from his wife.
“I admire the f— out of him. So when there are news articles about our marriage, it’s just extra sh—y,” Gertner went on. “Can I say that online? I hope I can.”
On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal broke an explosive story about Platner’s extramarital sexting. It revealed that he had an active Kik account, a private messaging service that has a reputation for being used for hookups.
His profile image showed him shirtless with a towel around his waist.
Gertner acknowledged the difficulties she faced over the past three years of marriage with Platner, particularly due to an infertility battle.
“Being married is hard; being newly married is hard; being newly married and going through infertility is hard,” Gertner said. “Being newly married going through infertility and a Senate campaign is hard. I don’t even know if I have the right words to describe what we’ve been going through.”
She also decried the betrayal she felt over a former campaign aide exposing Platner’s dark secrets to the world.
“I confided deeply personal details about my marriage to someone I considered a friend,” she lamented. “In the months since, I have had to watch as she spread malicious gossip to anyone who would take her call.”
“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 added.
“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.“
Last year, it emerged that Platner was featured on the “Are we Dating the Same Guy” Facebook page. One woman on the forum claimed that he used to bully her on the bus as a kid.
The oyster farmer has faced a steady string of scandals during his breakthrough campaign for Senate. Last year, revelations emerged that he had a tattoo on his chest that resembled a Totenkopf or “death’s head” symbol used by the Nazi SS. Platner claims to have gotten that tattoo in Croatia while inebriated in 2007 and denied knowing its Nazi links.
He inked over it with a “Celtic knot with some imagery around dogs.”
Revelations about his since-scrubbed Reddit account postings have also haunted him.
This includes posts and comments about graffiti of men’s genitalia he had seen during his world travels, defending soldiers urinating on dead Taliban soldiers, arguing that white Americans “actually are” racist and stupid, and calling war “the most enjoyable experience.”
Earlier this month, he was in hot water for mocking a Purple Heart soldier who captured wild helmet footage of himself moving into the open to steer Taliban fire away from his fellow soldiers.
“This video never gets old. Dumb mother—er didn’t deserve to live. At least his stupidity and fat ass wheezing are available for all future infantrymen to witness and hold in contempt,” Platner posted on Reddit, years after the footage went viral.
Platner is now the presumptive Democratic nominee in Maine’s Senate race, ahead of the June 9 primary.
The Marine veteran has a 7.8 percentage point polling edge over Collins, according to the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of polls. Notably, Collins dramatically overperformed the RCP aggregate in the race against Democrat Sara Gideon in 2020.
Maine’s Senate seat is widely seen as one of the Democrats’ top pickup opportunities in the 2026 election cycle.
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