Amy Gertner, the wife of Maine Senate candidate Graham Plattner, has previously claimed that her husband exchanged sexually explicit text messages with other women during their marriage, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported. Plant, an oyster farmer and former U.S. Marine, became Maine’s presumptive Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate after his primary rival, Janet Mills, suspended her campaign last month.
Plattner has already faced more controversies, including over past racist, sexist and homophobic online posts, as well as controversy that is now being swept under the rug tattoo one of skullconsidered a Nazi symbol. He is running for the seat of five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Learn more | Graham Platner accused of sending sexually explicit text messages to woman; wife weighs in
Plattner’s team began conducting opposition research on him to unveil new information during his Senate bid after launching his campaign last August ahead of a Labor Day rally with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. At the time, Gertner and Genevieve McDonald, the campaign’s political director at the time, revealed she discovered sexually explicit messages he sent to other women on his phone in the spring of 2025. The two subsequently began marriage counseling, and campaign aides considered the information a private matter.
Who is Amy Gertner?
Here are five things you need to know about Amy Gertner:
- Gertner will serve as an elementary and middle school art teacher until 2024.
- Gertner married Plattner in 2024, and the two are business partners who jointly own and operate Waukeag Neck Oyster Company in Sullivan, Maine.
- Platner and Gertner shared their fertility journey in 2026, traveling to Norway to seek IVF treatment due to the high cost in the United States. After the Wall Street Journal report on the sexually explicit texts came to light, Gertner said in a statement released by Platner’s campaign, “It’s no secret that Graham and I struggled with our fertility journey. We did the hard work that marriage requires. We went to counseling. We were honest with each other in ways that are not easy. We got through it, not because of how much we had been through, but because of how much we loved each other and the life we had built. Our marriage is stronger today than ever.”
- the couple announced heartbreaking miscarriage After undergoing IVF treatment in Norway in April. They said in a joint statement that they had been “overwhelmed beyond words” by the support they had received after speaking out about infertility and asked for “grace” and “space” as they mourn their loss.
- In her latest statement after the Journal report was published, Gertner added that she “revealed deeply personal details about my marriage to someone I considered a friend” and was “deeply hurt by her betrayal and invasion of our privacy.” “I know who Graham is. I know the man I married and the husband he was to me on the best and worst days of my life. That has not changed and will not change,” she added.
