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SULLIVAN, Maine — Alleged sleazeball Senate hopeful Graham Platner’s dirty laundry is the talk of his tiny Maine town just days ahead of a nail-biter primary — with some saying the Democrat’s unsavory behavior is not fit for office.
Platner — who is running to unseat Maine’s longtime Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins — was exposed by the Wall Street Journal for sexting women on a lurid hookup app while he was married and then by the New York Times for being a drunken woman-hater who once locked an ex-girlfriend in a bedroom.
And locals in Sullivan, population 1,200, are downright disgusted.
“No one like that should run for office. That’s stupid,” a resident named Esther told The Post on Wednesday, while her 85-year-old husband agreed.
Retiree Barbara Watkins, 89, called Platner’s multitude of scandals “horrible.”
“He should drop out and go away,” she said.
Platner, who married his wife in 2023, sexted with at least six women on the app, Kik — his profile picture featuring a shirtless bathroom selfie under the username Phustle0331.
His lurid behavior was flagged by his wife, Amy Gertner, to campaign aides as they conducted opposition research on their candidate in August.
But the 41-year-old’s wife took to social media to defend her husband, explaining they’d move through their marital problems and were happy.
Some of Platner’s hometowners weren’t so convinced, however, including women who sympathized with his wife.
“I don’t think it’s right for him to do that,” said 50-year-old Susan Harmon. “Obviously, he thinks it’s alright, but I feel bad for his wife.”
And 87-year-old Navy vet Colby A. Young called Platner “an idiot.”
“He speaks like one and talks like one,” Young said.
The sexting situation was just the latest scandal to dog Platner in the nine months since he entered the public eye — he was exposed for posting vile comments online about the likes of rape victims, cops and minorities, and claimed he had no idea that he had a Nazi “death’s head” tattoo on his chest for nearly two decades.
He then spent the ensuing months promising voters there were no more skeletons in his past — saying so as recently as April at a Maine town hall and then promising Democrats the same thing this week.
The latest polling still places Platner, who’s been endorsed by Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, ahead of the pack, and beating Collins by a more than 7-point lead.
A Platner win would upset Sullivan’s longstanding conservative record — the tiny town voted red in the 2024 and 2020 elections, voting Collins in for another term six years ago over her Democratic opponent by nearly 20 points.
And some of his followers are still keen to support him — even if they don’t like how he’s acted in the past.
“As a married woman, I’m not really thrilled about it, but if that’s as far as it went and their able to work through it together in their own relationship, I think that’s the most important thing,” 55-year-old Nicole Esther said.
“It’s really none of my business either way.”
English (US)