Maine is less than one week away from primary Election Day as Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner seems poised to pick up his party’s nomination despite several mounting scandals connected to his name.Platner, an oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran, has faced multiple controversies since announcing his populist campaign for Maine’s U.S. Senate seat last August. The leftist oyster farmer is backed by progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) who have stuck with him and his candidacy throughout each controversy as Platner seeks to take on incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in the November general election.
Here’s what to know about the scandals that have come Platner’s way ahead of Maine’s June 9 primary and his response to each:
Over the weekend, news broke that Platner had sent sexually explicit text messages to multiple women while he was married to his wife, Amy Gertner. Gertner had warned Platner’s then-political director last summer that her husband had sent the messages to make sure the campaign was aware of them. When the news came out this week, Gertner defended Platner and their marriage.
“We did the hard work that marriage requires. We went to counseling. We were honest with each other in ways that weren’t easy,” Gernter said in a statement given to the Wall Street Journal. “And we came through it, not in spite of how much we’ve been through, but because of how much we love each other and the life we’ve built. Our marriage today is stronger than ever before.”
