Graham Platner, a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate from Maine, has been tied to explicit messaging on the Kik app, a topless selfie linked to an account created in 2016, a contested number of sexual contacts while married, a long history of crude Reddit posts, and a Nazi-linked tattoo he says he did not understand.

Graham Platner, an oyster farmer and former Marine running for U.S. Senate in Maine with endorsements from Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, has new controversies dogging his campaign. Reports say he posted a topless mirror selfie on Kik and carried on sexually explicit conversations with multiple women outside his marriage. Those revelations arrive as questions about a Nazi-linked tattoo he has had since 2007 resurface.

Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, discovered the explicit messages in late spring 2025 and alerted campaign staff in August, worried about the political fallout. The couple married in 2024, and the disclosure put immediate pressure on a campaign already navigating tough optics. How a newly married candidate handles personal mistakes matters to voters.

The scale of the messaging is disputed. Gertner reportedly told a former campaign director that Platner had been sexting with 12 women, while a campaign representative put the number at six and said the communications stopped before the campaign launched. That gap matters: voters deserve clarity on whether this was a limited lapse or a broader pattern of conduct.

The Kik profile itself includes a mirror selfie showing Platner bare-chested and wearing a towel, with visible tattoos, tied to an account reportedly created in 2016 under the username “phustle0331.” Platner has said he deleted the app from his phone but did not delete the account. Saying you removed an app while an account remains is a meaningful distinction for any public figure.

The app’s user base and safety record are relevant to the controversy. Kik has been reported to have about 15 million monthly active users, with nearly 60 percent between ages 13 and 24. Advocacy groups have labeled the platform a “predator’s paradise,” and the app has been at the center of high-profile child safety scandals. A Senate candidate keeping a live profile on such a platform raises clear judgment questions.

These incidents do not stand alone. Platner’s Reddit history stretches back more than a decade and includes crude, sexually charged posts. In an April 2012 post he wrote: “You don’t have much experience with Latin American hookers, do you?” That line is part of a pattern of posts that read less like harmless banter and more like a worldview that normalizes prostitution and infidelity.

“I have many good buddies who lied and cheated with women, and yet were straight shooting hard men when it came to their work.”

Other posts advised service members to “spend your leave banging hookers in Thailand” and detailed personal acts in indecent settings while serving in the Marines. These are not anonymous teenage slips; they come from someone who later ran for statewide office and won high-profile endorsements. If those endorsers were unaware, voters deserve to know why.

Overlaying the online behavior is the tattoo controversy. Platner has a totenkopf skull and crossbones tattoo, imagery linked to Nazi SS units and the atrocity of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered. He says he got the tattoo while on leave in Croatia in 2007 and did not realize its meaning. That defense strains credibility when paired with the other behavior now under scrutiny.

“Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago, and he should have had it covered up because he knows d*** well what it means.”

That criticism comes from a former campaign director who managed Platner’s operation, which adds weight to the claim. When someone who ran your campaign says you “know d*** well” what a Nazi symbol means and chose not to conceal it, voters have reason to question the explanation. The combination of tattoo, sexting allegations, and offensive online posts compounds the problem.

“Graham and I have a great marriage, being married is hard, being newly married is hard, being newly married and going through infertility is hard.”

Amy Gertner has publicly defended her marriage, saying the couple sought counseling and “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.” She also called some coverage “gossip” and described the attention as “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.” Her loyalty is personal, but the candidate’s conduct remains a public matter.

Multiple newsrooms have independently reported elements of this story, and the campaign has not fully resolved key questions. Has Platner withdrawn or will he continue? Have his endorsers reassessed their support? And who is accurately describing the scope of the sexting: six women or a dozen? Those answers matter to Maine voters.

At a minimum, this episode underscores how personal conduct, online histories, and poor judgment can collide in a modern political race. The campaign’s next moves and the responses from political allies will shape whether voters see this as disqualifying or a private failing to be forgiven. Public officials should expect scrutiny, and voters should expect straight answers as the situation unfolds.