Platner’s Wife Told Campaign Aide About Explicit Messages Found on His Account

Graham Platner’s wife, Gertner, found sexually explicit messages he had sent to several women in the spring of 2025 and told a campaign aide about them in late August, days after he launched his Democratic Senate bid in Maine. The aide who received the warning was Genevieve McDonald, the campaign’s former political director. McDonald told CNN that Gertner confided in her about the messages.

CNN verified a Kik account registered under the handle phustle0331 in 2016 that appears to belong to Platner. The profile shows him shirtless in a mirror selfie. The campaign said Platner deleted the Kik app but never closed the account.

CNN could not independently confirm the texts themselves. Gertner said she shared “deeply personal details about my marriage” with someone she trusted and was “deeply hurt by her betrayal and the invasion of our privacy,” according to a statement to CBS News. ” Staffers were conducting opposition research on their own candidate at the time of the disclosure.

Aides treated the messages as a private matter the couple was addressing in counseling, the Wall Street Journal reported. A Labor Day rally headlined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders proceeded without disruption.

Platner has faced prior scrutiny over a Nazi-linked tattoo he covered up and over old internet posts about public masturbation, CBS News reported. His primary rival, Gov. Janet Mills, left the race in April.