Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner has a new problem, and this one is harder to delete.
New original reporting by The Wall Street Journal published Friday has tied Platner to an active profile on Kik, a messaging platform with a long and well-documented history of child exploitation, and that law enforcement officials and online safety advocates have repeatedly flagged as a danger to minors.
The account, listed under the username "phustle0331," featured a mirror selfie of a towel-clad man. It was linked to other online handles associated with Platner, and remained active as recently as this week.
When pressed, Platner's campaign confirmed to the WSJ the account belonged to him. The explanation:
"The candidate had long deleted the app from his phone but hadn't deactivated his account."
The account was reportedly created on June 26, 2016. By that point, Kik had already earned a national reputation as a platform used by predators to anonymously target minors and had drawn repeated condemnation from child safety organizations.
Kik's design has always centered on anonymity. No real name. No phone number. Just a username and a stranger on the other end. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation has called it a "Predator's Paradise," describing its core function plainly:
"It's designed to be connecting people with strangers."
Roughly 70 percent of users were between ages 13 and 24 before age restrictions were introduced. Federal prosecutors have noted that Kik "commonly comes up" across child exploitation cases nationwide. Court documents described the app as "frequently used by individuals who trade child pornography because it is free, simple to set up, easily accessible, potentially anonymous."
And when offenders were convicted, their profiles stayed up and accessible long after sentencing.
Maine has not been spared. In 2025, a Maine man was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison after prosecutors proved he produced child sexual abuse videos for other Kik users. A separate case involved a man accused of photographing children at sporting events and using artificial intelligence to sexualize those images.
Which brings us back to Platner. A man running for the U.S. Senate, on a platform of fighting for working people, maintained an active profile on an app that federal prosecutors have spent years describing as a recurring tool in child exploitation cases and that child safety organizations have labeled a "Predator's Paradise." His explanation? He deleted the app. Just never closed the account.
The Kik profile is not an isolated footnote. Deleted Reddit posts previously surfaced, in which Platner called himself a "communist" and blamed sexual assault victims for their own assaults. His wife confirmed that she disclosed his explicit texts to other women to the campaign herself, as RedState wrote earlier on Saturday. Each time, the campaign's answer has been the same: old news, political hit job, move on.
Read More: Oyster Man Saga Continues, As the Latest Hit Is Delivered on the Dems’ Golden Boy, Graham Platner
Platner Embarrasses Himself at Bernie Rally, Gets Blasted by Fellow Democrat
The Kik profile is harder to wave away. This is not an angry Reddit comment from 2021. It is an account on a platform that federal prosecutors have spent years flagging as a tool for child exploitation, and it was still active this week.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) has called Platner's controversies "disqualifying." Despite that, a University of New Hampshire poll still shows him leading Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) by nine points. That number will mean nothing if Maine voters decide that maintaining a profile on a platform law enforcement calls a "Predator's Paradise" is not the kind of judgment they want in the U.S. Senate.
Platner's defense is that he forgot to close the account. Maine's children deserved better than that excuse. So do Maine's voters.
Editor's Note: Do you enjoy RedState's conservative reporting that takes on the radical Left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member