Who Is Graham Platner's Wife, Amy Gertner? What We Know About Marriage

Reports that Senate hopeful Graham Platner sent sexually explicit messages to multiple women early in his marriage have raised questions about the future of his campaign and brought renewed attention to his wife, Amy Gertner, who has publicly defended him.

Platner is vying for the Democratic nomination in Maine's 2026 Senate election and trying to oust the incumbent Republican Susan Collins, who has held the seat for nearly three decades.

The combat veteran and oyster farmer remains the front-runner for the Democratic nomination-after Governor Janet Mills suspended her campaign in April-and has retained the support of key Democratic figures, including Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna.

But others within the party have raised concerns about the candidate, following reporting from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal that Gertner last year told campaign aides her husband had sent sexually explicit messages to multiple women early in their marriage.

Genevieve McDonald, one of the aides in question, told Newsweek on Sunday: “I can confirm the details of what has been reported.”

Platner and his wife have dismissed the reports as “gossip,” but in a statement from the campaign, Gertner said she was “deeply hurt” after learning McDonald had shared details of their conversations and of Platner’s text messages with news outlets.

“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,” the statement continued.

Newsweek has contacted the campaign via email for further comment.

Who Is Graham Platner's Wife?

Platner married his wife in fall 2023. The pair live in Sullivan, Maine, where they run the Waukeag Neck Oyster Company, which Platner took over in 2019 following his military career.

Gertner previously worked as an elementary- and middle-school art teacher, and met Platner through friends before the couple matched on the dating app Bumble, according to an interview with The New Yorker published in September.

Gertner has also been working on her husband's campaign since it launched in August of last year, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Records show 16 disbursements listed as “payroll” and together totaling $29,042.14.

In an interview with The New York Times in May, Platner said he considered his family working class, that he and his wife together earn around $60,000 a year, and that they can get by thanks in part to his veterans’ benefits.

Platner's Sexting and Gertner's Response

The New York Times, citing Platner's former campaign director and current staffers, reported that Gertner told the campaign last year her husband had exchanged sexual messages with up to a dozen women early in their marriage.

The paper said a current campaign official indicated the messages stopped before Platner launched his campaign and that the couple worked through the issue in counseling, while The Wall Street Journal reported that aides ultimately decided the matter was private.

In an interview following a campaign event in Portland, Maine last week, Platner and his wife appeared together and addressed the reports.

“It's no surprise to me that the establishment media outlets are just going to run gossip instead of wanting to talk about the things that actually matter in this race, which are the material realities that Mainers are working with,” Platner told a reporter from NEWS CENTER Maine. “These people are going to try to make this race about anything but what it's supposed to be about, which is policy.”

Platner said that McDonald’s comments to the Times were “not true,” but acknowledged that the couple had shared with the campaign “things in Amy and I’s marriage that we’ve gone through over the years.”

Platner's campaign later released a statement to media outlets, which read: “Amy and I went through something hard-because of me. We did the work, and I’m grateful for her every hour of every day. I’ve learned throughout this campaign… that people don’t care about gossip or headlines, they care that you’re fighting for their hospitals, their paycheck, their kids.”

In a separate statement, shared with the Portland Press Herald, Gertner called the Times and Journal reports “malicious gossip,” and expressed regret for sharing private details of her marriage with a campaign aide.

"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 continued.

And in a video posted to the campaign’s X page on Saturday, Gertner said she found it “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.”

"Graham and I have a great marriage," she said. "Being married is hard. Being newly married is hard. Being newly married and going through infertility is hard. Being newly married, going through infertility and a Senate campaign is hard."

“Our marriage counselor helps,” she continued. “My personal counselor helps. Graham’s personal counselor helps.”

What the Reports Mean for the Race

Platner’s campaign has focused on the affordability concerns of everyday Americans, alongside a noninterventionist foreign policy-a pitch that has resonated with Mainers and helped make him the front-runner for the Democratic nomination.

Platner has held double-digit leads over his party rivals in some recent polling, and a May 21-25 University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll found Platner leading Collins 51 percent to 42 percent among likely general-election voters.

His odds on prediction markets have slipped since the reports, though polling still shows him ahead of Collins. Some senior Democrats have raised questions about his candidacy days out from the June 9 primary.

In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said Platner had “questions to answer” and expressed concerns about the number of controversies that have surrounded the candidate since he launched his campaign last year.

Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, however, defended Platner in remarks quoted by NBC, saying: “At the end of the day, this man has had 60 more town halls than Susan Collins has. He’s winning the polls, he’s willing to accept that he has grown as a person, and I think we should accept that.”

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This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 8:18 AM.