Topline
Progressive leaders in Congress are standing by Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, dismissing concerns about the Democratic Senate hopeful’s campaign after multiple outlets reported he sent sexually explicit texts to women behind his wife’s back in the past.
Key Facts
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., one of Platner’s earliest supporters in the Democratic primary race, told the Associated Press that voters couldn’t afford groceries, gas prices and health care, insisting “I think it might be a good idea if we focused on the important issues facing the working families of Maine and this country.”
“My understanding is that his wife is standing by her husband, and I wish their marriage the very best,” Sanders also told reporters on Monday.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who endorsed Platner in March, also brushed off concerns when asked about the situation by reporters on Capitol Hill on Monday, again repeating that she was more concerned about gas prices.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., defended Platner as a candidate who “has lived not your typical political experience,” NBC News reported, adding the oyster farmer is “winning the polls, he’s willing to accept that he has grown as a person, and I think we should accept that.”
Gallego also referenced gas prices as Democrats prepare to hammer Republicans over cost of living concerns, insisting voters are “not going to care about text messages and everything else like that that happened years ago.”
Contra
Gov. Janet Mills, the Democratic governor of Maine, suspended her campaign for the Democratic nomination for the Senate in April. However, shortly after the news of Platner’s explicit messages broke, Mills reminded Mainers she was still on the ballot. “People have the impression that I ‘withdrew’ or ‘dropped out,’” Mills told the Portland Press Herald on Sunday. “But I simply suspended active campaigning. I am still on the ballot.” The winner of Maine’s Democratic primary on June 9 will likely face incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who has held the seat since 1997.
Key Background
Platner, a 41-year-old oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran, never held elected office before announcing his Senate bid in 2025. Platner’s lack of experience did not stop him from becoming a frontrunner in the race and coming out ahead of Mills—a popular governor who easily won reelection in 2022 but is 78 years old, and would be 84 at the end of a six-year term in the Senate. Platner’s campaign has weathered multiple controversies in less than a year, including the discovery of controversial posts on Reddit and a Nazi-linked tattoo. Platner has apologized for the posts and had the tattoo, which he says he got while on shore leave while in the military, covered up in October. Platner says he was drunk when he got the tattoo and was unaware of its Nazi connotations.
Crucial Quote
“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 the real issues that Graham is running on,” Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, said in a video statement published on his campaign’s social media feeds this weekend. Gertner said she and her husband had been working on issues in their marriage in couples’ counseling, and that they “love each other deeply.”
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