The Maine Senate is optimistic Graham PlatnerRunning for office has been embroiled in many controversies.
One repeated attack by his opponent, who is a Republican Susan Collinsand his associates maintain that Platner received a tattoo in 2007 resembling the Totenkopf, the “skull and bones” symbol adopted by Nazi soldiers during World War II. Platner insists he was unaware of the tattoo’s inflammatory meaning when he got it and later covered it up.
However, the debate raged over whether the tattoo was politically inappropriate, with the Democratic Representative Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts refused to approve Platner’s election.
“I’ve been clear about Graham Platner. I find that the tattoo and his comments about it disqualify me,” Auchincloss, who is Jewish, told CNN on May 25. “I hope the voters of Maine agree with me. I think it would be a mistake for the Democratic Party to think that Graham Platner’s brand of Democratic Party is the one that is successful across the country.”
At the time, Platner faced negative headlines for past reddit posts about military service and allegations of sexting his wife, Amy Gertnerhe revealed privately in his campaign.
Keep scrolling to find out more about the controversies between Platner’s campaign and his background.
Graham Platner Contributed to Sexting Scandal
I The Wall Street Journal it was reported in May 2026 that Platner had an account on the messaging app Kik that he allegedly used to exchange sexually graphic messages to women. According to the report, his wife, Gertner, received the suspicious messages in the late Spring of 2025 and reported them to her campaign staff in August out of fear that it might affect her Senate bid.
Photos taken from the account, obtained by The New York Postshowed Platner bare-chested and wearing only a towel to cover his lower body.
His wife, Gertner, told Us Weekly in a statement, “I spilled deeply personal information about my marriage to someone I considered a friend. In the months since, I’ve had to watch as he spread dangerous gossip to anyone who would call. I trusted this person in the most private chapter of our lives — the early days of our marriage before any campaign was on our minds — and I’m devastated by his betrayal and invasion of our privacy.”
“It’s no secret that Graham and I have struggled in our fertility journey. We’ve done the hard work that marriage requires. We went to counselling,” she continued. “We were faithful to each other in ways that were not easy, and we faced it, not in spite of the difficulties we went through, but because of the love we have and the life we have built for ourselves.
I know Graham. I know the man I married and the husband he was with me through the best and worst days of my life. That hasn’t changed, and it won’t.”
Graham Platner Talks About Offensive Tattoo
An oyster farmer who lives in Maine, he grew up in the coastal town of Sullivan. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2003 and served three combat tours in Iraq throughout his military career.
He told “The Takeout” podcast” in April 2026 that he came out of the war “in a place of unmanly violence.” Platner confirmed that he and other Marines got a skull-and-bones tattoo – known as a Totenkopf – while on leave in Croatia, not knowing it had a Nazi image. (He’s since had an offensive tattoo covered up.)
“Once I went and went out [I] he explained: “Many of those beliefs and thoughts and even just the language changed a lot over time.”
Graham Platner Faced Scrutiny for His Old Reddit Post
Many of Platner’s past Reddit posts have caused backlash, but none more so than a comment under a photo of a US soldier shot in Afghanistan in 2012.
“This video never gets old,” he reportedly wrote. “The dumb mother***** didn’t deserve to live. At least her stupidity and fat ass pulling is available for all future soldiers to witness and despise. The lack of respect on the part of the Taliban is the only reason this player came home, he was able to make every possible decision when it comes to small unit combat.”
Collins took issue with the controversy in a statement, insisting she was “outraged” as “the daughter of a World War II veteran who earned two Purple Hearts in the Battle of the Bulge.”
Platner responded to the Reddit controversy by telling Fox News“I served four tours in the infantry, any attempt to say that I disrespect veterans is slanderous and offensive.”
Graham Platner Has Called for an Investigation of President Donald Trump
Speaking to NBC News in April 2025, Platner vowed to block the Trump administration’s policies if he won the Maine Senate seat.
“I want to shut down the White House,” Platner said. “I want, in the next two years, to pull every single person in the White House, every single person in all of these agencies who have been behaving in an illegal and unconstitutional manner. They need to be dragged in front of the Senate committees over and over again.”
He accused the administration of “killing” with “dropp[ing] a number of boats bombed in the Caribbean last fall” as part of “Operation Southern Spear” against drug traffickers in late 2025.
Campaign signs for the 2026 Maine Senate race.
Sophie Park/Getty Images“We are arresting people who are involved in putting ICE on our streets, killing American citizens, terrorizing communities,” Platner emphasized.
He also accused the Trump administration of “corruption at the highest level” and said the president had committed “crimes” that could not be avoided.
As for whether he would support impeachment, Platner told NBC News, “I will say this, though: If we don’t have the votes in the Senate to impeach, I don’t think we should waste our time on it.”
A spokesman for the Republican National Committee responded tellingly Us Weekly“It’s no surprise that the first thing on his agenda would be to attack our government, block the progress this President has made, and weaken our justice system. He is a dangerous, power-hungry individual who would directly endanger Mainers just to pursue his socialist dreams.”
On April 7, 2026, Rep John Larsonof Connecticut’s first district, presented 13 articles of impeachment against Trump in the House of Representatives.
While impeachment documents are unlikely to pass the House Judiciary Committee, Larson said Trump “passed all the requirements for impeachment” by threatening on April 7 that “all civilization” in Iran would end unless the Strait of Hormuz was opened. (Trump then agreed to a temporary ceasefire with Iran through Pakistan’s intervention and said he was negotiating an end-of-war framework by May 2026.)
Calls to impeach him came from outside Washington DC as well. Hollywood icons Robert De Niro again Meryl Streep both have publicly called for legal action against Trump if Democrats win the 2026 midterm elections, while a core group of former presidents’ supporters — including Candace Owens, Alex Jones again Tucker Carlson – they also criticized his behavior recently. (Trump called the trio “stupid people” during a Truth Social shootout on April 9.
Graham Platner Wants to Make Fundamental Changes to the Supreme Court
Platner told NBC News in April 2026 that there is a “compelling case” to pursue impeachment against conservative-leaning Supreme Court justices, Clarence Thomas again Samuel Alito. (Impeachment requires a majority vote in the House and two-thirds support in the Senate.)
“[There] are the specific reasons for removal,” he said.
A Maine politician won’t reject support efforts to “fill the court,” or change the number of Supreme Court justices to achieve a balance of opinions.
“[I’m] “We are definitely open to doing more, including adding more seats to the court,” said Platner.
Graham Platner Paused His IVF Campaign With His Wife
Platner announced in January 2026 that he would suspend his campaign to accompany his wife, Gertner, to in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment in Norway. (Platner tied the knot with Gertner, a school teacher and paid campaign consultant, in 2024.)
“The cost of this [treatment] in the United States the money is astronomical, $25,000 for the first attempt,” he explained in the campaign video.
Platner and Gertner explained that they wanted treatment in Norway because one cycle of IVF treatment costs only $5,500 there.
“Graham has a great sperm,” Gertner said in the video. “Infertility was part of my body.”
The senator noted that her experience with Gertner on the cost of IVF inspired her to “build strength to be able to get things that working people in this country need, like a health care system that provides assisted reproduction.”
Graham Platner Sees Himself as Successor to Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders
Vermont Bernie Sandersa progressive stalwart in the Senate, has officially endorsed Platner’s Maine campaign in August 2025 and has appeared at rallies with him.
“If you listen to how we talk about planning, if you look at our political theory about wealth inequality, our political theory about how the system is designed to benefit the very rich at the expense of working people — I feel like I’m falling into the legacy of Senator Sanders,” Platner told NBC News. “I really want to see this policy continue until now, that’s why I’m doing this.”
