U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner has revealed that his wife recently suffered a miscarriage.
The announcement this week comes after Platner and Amy Gertner traveled to Norway earlier this year for in vitro fertilization treatment. The couple shared their experience with infertility with the Midcoast Villager in January ahead of the trip. A single round of IVF costs about $5,500 in Norway, compared with $25,000 at a Boston facility, the nearest to their Sullivan home.
“There are no words that fully capture the pain of this loss. While it is difficult to talk about, we felt it was important to be open, because so many families have experienced the same, Platner and Gertner said in a statement.
As many as 1 in 5 pregnancies end in a miscarriage.
“At this time we ask for grace as we grieve, and space as we figure out what comes next,” they said.
The Sullivan oyster farmer is vying to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins during the November midterm election. Platner has been buoyed by recent polling that gives him a strong lead over his most prominent contender in the Democratic primary, Gov. Janet Mills.
Old Town native David Costello also is vying for the Democratic nomination.
The insurgent candidate who stormed onto the political scene last year came under fire last fall over unearthed inflammatory internet posts and revelations that he had a chest tattoo depicting a skull superimposed over crossbones, resembling the Totenkopf symbol adopted by the Nazi SS during World War II.
Platner denied knowing that his tattoo was a Nazi symbol. He got the tattoo in 2007 while deployed abroad with the U.S. Marines. While on leave, Platner and other Marines went to Croatia, where they got “very inebriated” and decided to get tattoos. He said that they all picked “terrifying” designs off the wall.
He has since gotten it covered.
Platner has tried to distance himself from his past internet posts, including numerous deleted posts in which Platner asked why Black people “don’t tip” and suggesting that women concerned about rape not drink around certain people, among others.
Mills, who hit Platner hard over his internet posts in a series of campaign ads, has said that Republicans would make “mincemeat” of Platner if he emerges as the party’s standard-bearer for the November election.
It will be an uphill battle for Democrats to unseat Collins, who officially announced her historic bid for a sixth term in February. She has handily beaten back challengers, including in 2020 when she defied polls and expectations to secure a fifth term in the Senate. But Collins, who has been ranked the country’s most bipartisan senator, has seen her popularity slump since Republican President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House.
Republicans are largely aligned with Collins, who commanded 67% support among likely primary voters, according to the University of New Hampshire’s February Pine Tree State Poll.
The Senate race is shaping up to be an expensive one, with the Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC, pledging to spend at least $42 million to help Collins defend her seat. If Collins is successful in winning a sixth term, she would be Maine’s longest-serving U.S. senator. Another PAC, Pine Tree Results, is spending $2 million to launch a series of broadsides against Platner ahead of the Democratic primary.
