Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is reportedly requiring campaign staff to sign NDAs amid growing backlash over his past Reddit posts.
Former political director Genevieve McDonald, who resigned in October, said the agreements were issued around that time, Politico reported.
McDonald said she refused to sign an NDA before resigning, saying, “The campaign offered me $15,000 to sign a NDA. I did not accept the offer. I certainly could have used the money. I quit my job to work on Platner’s campaign, believing it was something different than it is.”
The NDA reportedly began circulating among Platner’s staff shortly after backlash over his resurfaced Reddit posts erupted. The campaign also claimed its $15,000 offer to McDonald was a standard severance package, according to Politico.
A campaign spokesperson explained to the outlet that the team recently hired Spruce Street Consulting, which has ties to progressive candidates such as Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, “to take over campaign compliance to institute standard practices that had yet to be put into place. Some of those standards had to be instituted retroactively but as a matter of course we do not require anyone previously involved in the campaign to do so. Genevieve McDonald was offered severance which is standard for all campaign employees and contractors.”
The NDA was emailed on Sunday by campaign contractor Victoria Perrone to McDonald, who had resigned days earlier. The campaign voided it Wednesday evening—hours after Politico sought comment. Perrone, president of Spruce Street Consulting, confirmed Platner was a client but declined further comment. McDonald said the $15,000 offer appeared tied to signing the NDA, sharing a text screenshot as evidence.
“If you can get it back to me before the end of the day, I can get your payments out the door,” the message read, according to the report.
In addition to reportedly issuing NDAs, Platner brought on his friend Kevin Brown — a veteran of Barack Obama’s and Elizabeth Warren’s campaigns — as campaign manager and hired an in-house attorney to help stabilize his troubled operation, Politico reported.
Platner’s once-promising campaign has been rocked by reports about his past, emerging soon after Democratic Gov. Janet Mills entered the primary as the party’s preferred challenger to GOP Sen. Susan Collins. He has apologized for an alleged Nazi tattoo and resurfaced Reddit posts, including one suggesting violence can drive social change and another calling police “all bastards,” CNN reported.
We need to give young people something to believe in. pic.twitter.com/hsaNPWTBht
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) October 24, 2025
