Graham Platner ex reveals reach-out before campaign, says he was trying to 'take my temperature'

FIRST ON FOX — Lyndsey Fifield never believed her ex-boyfriend Graham Platner was fit for office and suspects a friendly text exchange years after their relationship ended was intended to see if she would keep his skeletons in the closet. 

Fifield, who dated Platner between 2013-2015, was among the women to speak out about Platner’s controversial past before he officially dropped out of the Maine Senate race Wednesday night amid mounting party pressure. 

Roughly a decade after their relationship ended, Fifield said she received a random text from Platner in June 2025. She recalled Platner being friendly and expressing happiness that she found success, complimenting her "happy family" photos posted on Instagram. 

Then, Platner joked about not having to worry about anything "unflattering" from his past because he’s a simple oyster farmer and "oysters don’t require a clearance" before noting he was "immensely curious" about what Fifield had written in her diary about their relationship, according to an image of a screenshot she shared with Fox News Digital that Fifield says is a portion of her conversation.

Fifield was cordial and responded, "Maybe I’ll let you read some when we’re old," but she says she inwardly was appalled.

"I screenshotted it and sent it to a friend of mine like, ‘The audacity of this man,’" Fifield told Fox News Digital during a phone interview just hours before Platner suspended his campaign on Wednesday.

Platner launched his since-abandoned bid for U.S. Senate in August 2025, the month following the alleged conversation. 

"When I saw that he was running, it felt like a knife twist, because he was just trying to take my temperature," Fifield said. 

Platner’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

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Fifield went on to speak out about Platner, accusing him of physical misconduct during their relationship, saying that he sometimes grabbed her hard enough to leave marks on her body and that one time he twisted her arm around her back, pushed her into a bedroom and held the door shut until she "calmed down." 

Later, when speaking with another accuser, Fifield said she realized the "extremely promiscuous" Platner had dated both women at the same time.

"He was disgusting, he was lying to us both the whole time," Fifield said.

Fifield said she initially wanted to help the Marine Corps combat veteran overcome PTSD, comparing him to a "wounded animal." As the relationship progressed, she said Platner became more "controlling" and would make threats in order to get his way. 

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While Fifield has put a public spotlight on many of Platner’s alleged flaws, she understands why some Maine residents initially found him appealing.

"He could also be incredibly charming, he had a very big personality… he’s this charismatic narcissist that knows how to work a room," Fifield said. 

Despite his personality, Fifield said there is "no chance in hell" that anyone who knew Platner during their relationship would have predicted he would ever have been considered a legitimate Senate candidate. 

"He was such a loser," she said. "He was drinking all day and all night."

Platner suspended his campaign on Wednesday amid mounting controversies — including one former girlfriend who accused him of sexual assault — and growing calls from top Democrats in Maine and across the country to quit the race. He called the sexual misconduct allegations against him "false" and blasted the media for pushing the claims. 

"The things that have been claimed did not happen. It is not real," Platner said. "Those in power who have the ability to do so are using these allegations as an excuse to take away all the things that we need to run a campaign."

Platner was a controversial candidate throughout the race, including for a Nazi tattoo on his chest, past incendiary rhetoric online, abusive behavior in prior relationships, and sexually explicit messages he'd send to women outside his marriage. 

But Democrats and left-wing media figures largely stood by him as he tried to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, until the sexual assault charge this week finally prompted calls for him to step aside.

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser, Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.