SULLIVAN, Maine — Embattled Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner abruptly ended his fundraising trip to DC Tuesday and fled back home after The Post showed up in his hometown to start asking questions about his past — prompting his mother-in-law to declare allegations of him sexting other women while married “all bulls—.”
A Post reporter visited Platner’s stomping grounds on the coast of Maine — including his in-laws‘ home and a restaurant and inn run by the candidate’s mother — as the Senate hopeful was meeting with Democrats at their main campaign committee’s headquarters on Capitol Hill.
“It’s bulls—,” said Elaine Crabtree — mother of Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner — at her Hope, Maine, residence about the sexting allegations. “It’s not true. That’s all I have to say.”
“I think Amy is a wonderful, amazing person,” she added. “I think Graham is a wonderful, amazing person. They are trying so hard to bring about positive change. It’s too bad, the political system right now. It’s spending so much money on negative ads, it’s a shame. It should be used for other [things].”
Other relatives or family friends were hostile — with two men demanding multiple times that The Post leave the premises.
Inside Ironbound Restaurant and Inn in Hancock, Maine, where a “Graham Platner for US Senate” sticker hung in the bar, the candidate’s mom, Leslie Harlow, greeted regulars, several of whom also defended her son.
Katie Doble, 49, a regular who says she’s been pals with Platner for about five years, dismissed the sexting scandal.
“He’s a good person,” she said. “He’s very honest and trustworthy. He can be relaxing and working on his oyster farm. Instead he’s sacrificing to do this.”
“I think it’s too bad but the bar is quite low in the Senate,” said David, 34, another Platner supporter from Belfast, Maine.
“For me, anything violent probably would definitely make me sit out the election. … I do think we have a low bar right now,” he added while downing a bowl of clam chowder.
Harlow, a former Democratic National Committee delegate, declined to speak with The Post while she interacted with workers and customers.
Platner opted out of a planned event with progressive group VoteVets after he reportedly got word that his relatives were fielding questions about his past — including alleged sexual texts to at least six women that his wife revealed to a campaign aide in August 2025.
The candidate was also revealed to have an active account on the hookup messaging app Kik, separate from his exchanges with women outside his marriage.
A rep for VoteVets confirmed that Platner “needed to cancel after previously RSVPing” to the event before referring further questions to the Democrat’s campaign.
Plans for Platner to initially meet with Senate Democrats at a Capitol Hill restaurant Tuesday afternoon quickly leaked, so the meeting was moved to the more controlled environment of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) headquarters.
Among the lawmakers who huddled with Platner were Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), as well as DSCC Char Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
“All I can tell you is that the wealthiest people in this country have reserved close to $100 million in TV ads in a small state like Maine,” an agitated Sanders grumbled to reporters on the way in.
“So what are the billionaires worried about? Why are they spending so much money to defeat this guy? The answer is that he is going to stand up to the oligarchs.”
Ironically, part of Platner’s business in DC was to hobnob with the Democratic elite during fundraisers, including one held by former Biden White House chief of staff Ron Klain.
“I’m very optimistic we’re going to win Maine,” Gillibrand told reporters after the meeting.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) also met with Platner and reaffirmed his endorsement of him, before repeatedly stating to reporters who asked about the sexting scandal: “I met with Graham Platner today. We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.”
Platner has left open the question of whether he will back Schumer to remain the Senate Democratic leader should Maine voters send him to Washington Nov. 3. The Marine veteran is favored to win the June 9 primary after Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign this past April — though she was quick to remind potential voters turned off by the sexting controversy that she remains on the primary ballot.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) vowed to ensure that Platner was “going to have a very long day,” and its staffers greeted both him and the Democratic senators with a protest featuring men clad only in towels a la the profile picture on his Kik account.
