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US Senator Cory Booker said Sunday he has “concerns” about Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign following revelations that Platner sent sexually explicit text messages to other women while married.

“That guy has questions to answer – and that’s what campaigns are for,” Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, told ABC host Jonathan Karl on This Week.

The remarks from Booker, one of the party’s most visible national figures, added a new dimension of pressure on Platner as he moves toward a June 9 primary. Platner is the presumptive nominee for the right to challenge Republican US Senator Susan Collins in November’s general election.

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that Amy Gertner, Platner’s wife, found sexually explicit messages on her husband’s phone in spring 2025. Gertner shared the messages with Genevieve McDonald, who was the campaign’s political director at the time.

McDonald told the New York Times that “The United States Senate is not a training ground for redemption. It is a place for proven leaders with moral clarity and integrity.”

McDonald resigned from the Platner campaign in October 2025 after reports surfaced of controversial Reddit posts Platner made between 2009 and 2021 and of a Nazi symbol tattoo.

Gertner, who married Platner in 2023, said in a statement that the couple entered marriage counseling after she discovered the texts. She criticized the leak from the former staffer.

“I confided deeply personal details about my marriage to someone I considered a friend,” Gertner said. “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.”

On ABC, Booker pivoted from the Platner revelations to the broader midterm stakes. He emphasized the importance of Democrats winning majorities in both chambers of Congress as the halfway point of President Donald Trump’s second term approaches.

“So much is riding on Democrats taking control” of the House and Senate, Booker said. He cited rising prices, including gasoline costs tied to the unresolved US military engagement in Iran. “If we do not get the votes necessary to take care of the House and the Senate, we will continue to have an out-of-control president.”

Maine Governor Janet Mills, another Democrat who had sought the Senate nomination, dropped out of the race in April, leaving Platner as the last major Democratic contender. The winner of the June 9 primary will face Collins, who is seeking a sixth term.