Dirty Trick Alert: The REAL Reason Why the (Latest) Graham Platner Scandal Broke Now — and Not in October

Exactly one month before Election Day 2025, National Review broke a major scandal about Jay Jones, Virginia’s Democratic nominee for attorney general: Jones, it seems, had fantasized about murdering his political enemies — along with their young children.

Jones’ blood-soaked fantasies weren’t anonymously posted on Reddit. There were no pseudonyms; no GOP detective work was necessary. Remarkably, Jones sent his texts directly to a Republican legislator named Carrie Coyner.

From National Review:

On August 8, 2022, a Republican state legislator received a disturbing string of early-morning text messages from a former colleague, Jay Jones, this year’s Democratic nominee for Virginia attorney general.

[…]

“If those guys die before me,” Jones wrote, referencing the Republican colleagues who were publicly honoring the deceased Johnson’s memory, “I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves” to “send them out awash in something.”

Jones then suggested that, presented with a hypothetical situation in which he had only two bullets and was faced with the choice of murdering then-Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert or two dictators, he’d shoot Gilbert “every time,” prompting pushback from his former colleague:

Jones: Three people, two bullets

Gilbert, hitler, and pol pot

Gilbert gets two bullets to the head

Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time

Coyner: Jay

Please stop

Jones: Lol

Ok, ok

Coyner: It really bothers me when you talk about hurting people or wishing death on them

It isn’t ok

No matter who they are

This meant that Coyner had been sitting on this scandal since August of 2022. She could’ve released Jones’ damning text messages whenever she wanted!

Yet she patiently waited until exactly one month before the 2025 election.

It was something we discussed at the time:

What caught my eye was the timing: The texts were provided by Republican House Delegate Carrie Coyner. (Well, National Review doesn’t say that explicitly. The article said: “In a series of text messages obtained by National Review…” but I assume that’s code for “Coyner gave us the story” because Jay Jones sure as hell didn’t.)

[…]

Additionally, National Review provides the blow-by-blow account of a private phone call between Coyner and Jones, where Jones (allegedly) doubled down on his murder fantasies. Once again, that info certainly didn’t come from the Jones campaign. I could be wrong, but I strongly suspect this was something the GOP and Coyner were coordinating together.

Which means, the GOP was sitting on this info for months or years, waiting for just the right time to drop it.

In political PR, timing is everything. What location is to real estate, timing is to PR. Pull the trigger too quickly, and it’ll be forgotten by Election Day; wait too long, and there’s not enough time to get the word out.

Because it’s so important, a scandal’s timing almost always unmasks who was behind it.

Which takes us to the state of Maine and its scandal-scarred senatorial candidate, Democrat Graham Platner. From a Nazi tattoo to Reddit posts about being a communist, it’s been a new scandal every week.

His latest is a sexting scandal, where Platner (allegedly) sent racy, sexually explicit messages to at least six women in 2025, using an app nicknamed the “Predator’s Paradise.” (Platner married his current wife, Amy Gertner, in 2024.)

On May 30, my PJ Media colleague Chris Queen covered the sexting story. One day later, PJ Media’s Matt Margolis proclaimed, “Graham Platner’s Senate Campaign Is Finished.”

I disagree. 

The sexting scandal wasn’t exposed by the Republican Party. It came from an ex-employee of Graham Platner’s own Senate campaign — a fact that Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, acknowledged to the Wall Street Journal.

From Fox News:

Gertner said in a statement to the Journal: "I confided deeply personal details about my marriage to someone I considered a friend. In the months since, I have had to watch as she spread malicious gossip to anyone who would take her call. I trusted this person with the most private chapter of our lives — the early days of our marriage before any campaign was on our mind — and I am deeply hurt by her betrayal and the invasion of our privacy."

She added that she and her husband: "Did the hard work that marriage requires. We went to counseling. We were honest with each other in ways that weren’t easy. And we 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. Our marriage today is stronger than ever before."

Gertner added, "I know who Graham is. I know the man I married and the husband he has been to me on the best and the worst days of my life. That hasn’t changed, and it won’t."

Politico revealed that Gertner’s close “friend” was actually Platner’s ex-political director, Genevieve McDonald:

While Gertner did not name the friend in question, Genevieve McDonald, a former senior campaign staffer who shared a screenshot of her texts with Gertner with The New York Times, responded by telling POLITICO that “the Platner campaign confirmed these events occurred.”

Genevieve McDonald is a known entity with a very lengthy paper trail. She’s been active in Maine’s Democratic Party for quite a while, serving multiple terms in Maine’s House of Representatives, and then transitioned to consulting work, helping local Democrats win Maine elections as an employee of Preti Strategies. She’s a big fish in a small pond:

Instead, she would’ve done what Carrie Coyner did to Jay Jones — and waited until 30 days before the election.

So why did she release it now?

Be on the lookout for a Democratic dirty trick: If Graham Platner wins Maine’s June 9 primary (which he will) — but withdraws from the race by 5:00 p.m. on July 13 — the Democratic Party can choose his replacement.

The DNC establishment covets Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)’s seat. Realistically, the Dems cannot recapture the Senate if her seat stays in Republican hands. But after an avalanche of (very) ugly Platner scandals, the Democratic Party is getting cold feet.

And if their feet start to freeze, they have options.

From Fox News: “Platner Controversies Fuel Speculation About Little-Known Maine Ballot Replacement Provision”

As controversy surrounding Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner continues to mount, attention is turning to a little-known provision of Maine law that could allow Democrats to replace him on the general election ballot after the primary.

The question has taken on new significance because Maine election law provides a mechanism for replacing a nominee who withdraws after winning a primary.

Under Maine law, a candidate who wins the June 9 primary and subsequently withdraws by 5 p.m. on July 13 may be replaced by a nominee selected by party officials. Any replacement candidate must be chosen no later than 5 p.m. on July 27. The timeline would give Democrats just 14 days to settle on a replacement candidate and prepare for the general election campaign.

The DNC establishment has a limited window to dump the scandal-tarred Platner and swap him with someone “safer.” But time is of the essence.

At stake is nothing less than control of the U.S. Senate.

Which means, between now and July 13, the Dems are highly incentivized to publicize ALL the Platner scandals they’re aware of, because one of two things will happen:

Amy Gertner’s claim — that mean ol’ Genevieve McDonald was “spread[ing] malicious gossip to anyone who would take her call” — doesn’t pass the smell test: Between social media, conservative media, and Susan Collins’ campaign media, if McDonald really, truly wanted to destroy Platner, she wouldn’t have had to wait for someone to take her call. That’s absurd!

She had a ton of options:

Matt Margolis is an excellent writer. Of all my PJ Media colleagues, I probably trade more texts — and spitball more writing ideas — with Margolis than anyone else. But very respectfully, this latest scandal DOES NOT mean that the Graham Platner campaign is “finished.”

All it means is that the Democrats are hedging their bets.

If Platner takes on too much water, the DNC establishment will aggressively push him out and appoint someone new. But if his scandals are survivable, publicizing ‘em in May/June ensures it’ll be old news by November.

What looks like political suicide is actually smart, Machiavellian PR.

The Democrats are hair-trigger sensitive to Platner’s electability (or lack thereof); they don’t give a damn about his Nazi tattoo, his claim that the police are all “bastards,” or his speculating why black people “don’t tip.” And believe me, they couldn’t care less about his sexting scandal!

Either he can deliver Maine’s seat to the Dems — or he can’t.

Right now, Platner isn’t battling Republicans; he’s in an existential fight with his own party. We’re staring down the barrel of a Democrat versus Democrat civil war.

But if Platner is still standing on July 14, the Democrats won’t just rally behind him — they’ll spend tens of millions of dollars to help him get elected — and even promote him as the modern model of manliness. They’ll be “all in” on Platner, Totenkopf tattoo and all.

Because, as much as the Dems claim to hate Nazis, racism, and “toxic masculinity,” they hate Donald Trump and the Republican Party even more. As long as Graham Platner still has a snowball’s chance of winning Maine’s Senate seat, his campaign will continue — complete with Democratic support.

Sorry, boys and girls: He’s not anywhere close to “finished.” 

Unless the Democratic establishment is sitting on something juicier — and far uglier — than sexting, Nazis, communism, and racism, the most likely outcome is that Graham Platner wins the Dems’ nomination and stays on the ballot… and Maine’s Senate race will go down to the wire.

Prediction: Maine’s Democrats will copy Virginia’s Democrats. 

In October 2025, when it was too late to swap Jay Jones with someone saner (and slightly less murderous), Virginia’s Dems held their nose and voted him into office anyway. What worked in Virginia will be copied in Maine.

Which means, if Platner makes it to July 14, he won’t be going anywhere — except, perhaps, to Washington.

One Last Thing: 2026 is a critical year for America First. It began with Mayor Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism” and will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the fate of the America First movement teeters in the balance.

Never before have the political battle lines been so clearly defined. Win or lose, 2026 will transform our country.

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