Graham Platner’s character is in question. Come November, when the country marks one decade since Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, will it matter?

Over the weekend, stories in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times exposed Maine Senate candidate Platner’s marital infidelity. His wife, Amy Gertner, said in a video message posted by Platner that “Graham and I have a great marriage,” though she noted it wasn’t “perfect” and that the pair have attended counseling since tying the knot in 2023. “I think it’s shameful behavior to spend time and energy and resources on negative ads and negative stories on Graham,” she explained, “when all he’s trying to do is improve the lives of people who work for a living.”

Media outlets reported that Gertner found sexually explicit messages from Platner to “several” women on his phone early in their marriage. This was disclosed to his campaign last year to help prepare for potential attacks, and then leaked this weekend as he prepares to head into a general election against incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins. CNN then discovered Platner’s Kik profile of Platner, which included a shirtless bathroom selfie as his profile picture.

Platner, a combat veteran who served three tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, may be a first-time candidate, but he’s already endured plenty of personally embarrassing media cycles. None of them mattered in the primary. Janet Mills, the sitting governor, was seen as a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination, but Platner surged so far ahead of her that she dropped out of the race — despite having support from prominent national Democrats.

All this, despite Platner copping to a Reddit history from the early 2010s that included him labeling white, rural people racist and stupid, calling himself a “communist”, and referring to all cops as “bastards”.

Platner apologized, explaining to local news: “When I got out of the Army in 2012, I struggled for a number of years with my place in society, with undiagnosed PTSD. I didn’t really start getting treatment until 2017. So it was a hard road for a bit.” The Nazi tattoo on his chest? Again, Platner apologized, covered it up immediately in a campaign video, and explained that the whole thing happened accidentally one boozy night while on leave from the Marines in Croatia. “I am not a secret Nazi,” he insisted.

Not only did he survive these scandals, but his primary opponent failed to make inroads at all. Instead, Platner kept drawing crowds around the state, scaring Republicans and shocking Democrats. After the latest round of exposure, he once again continued his campaign without a hitch, canvassing and hosting a rally on Sunday, even standing side-by-side with Gertner for interviews on the scandal.

Maine voters now face two key questions. Firstly, is Graham Platner of good character? Secondly, does it even matter?

When Trump wrapped up the Republican nomination in 2016, voters faced a binary choice between the erstwhile host of The Celebrity Apprentice and the former secretary of state. While it’s true that some of Trump’s diehard fans insist he’s a wonderful person, the mogul managed to convince many voters wary of establishment politicians like Hillary Clinton that he was simply the lesser of two evils. The country was less than a decade removed from the Great Recession, still mired in Afghanistan, and watching Isis take over more of Iraq. The Access Hollywood tape couldn’t sink Trump, nor could any of his various personal and professional scandals.

With trust in government at record lows, Americans no longer demand candidates with cartoonishly perfect personal lives. They’re willing to vote for people who promise to throw a wrench into the gears of the system, as Platner does, or people who just seem like a better option than career politicians. For many voters, a candidate entering politics from outside the system actually makes them more trustworthy at this point.

Maine is one of four Senate seats Democrats need to recapture the Senate. Collins is a tough but vulnerable incumbent and the race is likely to be very close. In that sense, Platner’s past could be a deciding factor if the margin is small and just a few voters are moved enough to side with Collins or stay home.

But it won’t end Platner’s campaign, and it’s unlikely that any further revelations will either. Too many people have decided that politicians are universally untrustworthy and made peace with seeing them more as pieces on a game board who can be expected to move in a certain direction.

So cynical have we become that should Platner’s enemies linger too much on his personal life at the expense of talking about gas prices and healthcare, it risks frustrating voters. When Trump observed how “incredible” it was that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not “lose any voters”, he stumbled on a new reality. With trust gone, character is now a luxury.

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Emily Jashinsky is UnHerd‘s Washington correspondent.

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