WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is standing by embattled Maine Democrat Graham Platner, even after a deluge of recent reports on the candidate’s racy text messages with other women while he was married.
“I met with Graham Platner today. We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate,” Schumer told reporters during a Tuesday new conference when asked about the candidate’s appearance in Washington, DC.
The Senate Democratic leader had initially backed Maine Gov. Janet Mills in the race to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins — but reversed course after Mills abandoned her campaign.
She reminded voters, however, that her name has yet to be removed from the ballot for the June 9 Maine Senate primary.
Platner met with Democrats on Capitol Hill following bombshell reports in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal about his suggestive texts with at least six women.
His wife, Amy Gertner, had approached a former Platner campaign aide about the incidents last year, which the aide, ex-political director Genevieve McDonald, confirmed to the Times.
