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The wife of Democratic senate candidate Graham Platner released a 5-minute video Saturday after news outlets reported that she had alerted his campaign last year about sexually explicit texts he had sent to several women.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Amy Gertner told a campaign aide about the texts to make sure they didn’t pose a risk to her husband’s campaign.
She made the disclosure in confidence, according to the New York Times.
In her video, Gertner said she wanted people to know she and her husband have a great marriage.
“No marriage is perfect and I don’t want a perfect marriage. I want to be married to Graham,” said Gertner, noting that the couple has been in therapy together and separately and that they “work on their mental health every day.”
“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 real issues that Graham is running on, like health care, and education, and child care,” she said, who married Platner in 2023.
“People in Maine want affordable gas. They want to be able to see their doctor when they are sick. They want to be able to send their kids to a nice school, a nice daycare facility and raise families the way that they want to,” she said.
The disclosure, which occurred in late August, came when aides were conducting opposition research.
A campaign official told the Wall Street Journal that after being told about the texts, they decided the texts were a private matter for the couple to address in marriage counseling.
Platner, the presumptive Democrat nominee who will face Susan Collins in the November election, has weathered several controversies since launching his campaign, including reports about a chest tattoo resembling a Nazi SS symbol.
