If the chips are down, Maine voters can depend on a U.S. senator who has … “great sperm.”
That’s the literal message of a new campaign announcement video produced by Graham Platner, who’s in a highly competitive, fertile race for the Democratic nomination for the senate.
But Platner wants Maine voters to know he’s not doing this by himself – wink, wink.
Indeed, the video also features the other half of the political couple who says they’re trying to have a baby, so far unsuccessfully.
“Amy and I have been all over the state but in the background we’ve been trying to do something else – something we’ve been trying to do for a couple of years: trying to start a family.
“So we’re actually leaving for a little while because we’re going to go to Norway for IVF.”
The Platner video was apparently designed to mesh with a recent puff piece in the Midcoast Villager quoting an Amy Gertner (yes, that Amy) with a headline “Hoping To Have A Baby.”
The Bangor Daily News reran the story with the headline “Midcoast Woman’s Fertility Journey Is About To Get Political.”
Gertner tells viewers that she and the oyster farmer/military vet “fell in love pretty quickly. I knew his brother and we had friends in common so we went on a Bumble date and it was awesome.
“So we just fell in love and had hopes and dreams of starting a little family.”
Gertner says that “it was about a year ago that Graham and I got really serious about wanting to start a family” but that she couldn’t get pregnant and it was “a real disappointment.”
So they decided to turn to IVF treatment.
Platner then points out in the campaign video that “the expense of this in the United States is astronomical – $25,000 for a first attempt, just to try it, vs. $5,500.
“Even when you add on plane tickets it’s, like, incomparable.”
His wife then added that they tried to get financial coverage for the treatment through the Veterans Administration, which wouldn’t cover it.
“He has A+ sperm,” Gertner said wryly during the newspaper interview, underscoring her husband’s great productivity, “so the VA is not giving us any money.”
Then came the well-rehearsed punch line from Gertner in the follow-up video commercial: “Graham has great sperm (laughing). Can I say that on the internet?” she adds as he wryly wipes his eye.
“It turns out that Graham is very healthy and the infertility was something that is part of my body,” she assured.
“We’re going to have to have a conversation about this in the Senate by the way,” the sperm king quickly added.
Gertner: “yeah it takes two people.” Graham: “It takes two people if you want to have a kid.” (They lovingly rub each other’s hands.)
Platner: “To watch the woman that I love, who I want to start a family with, go through this experience of infertility, like I can see how this impacts her. I have so much respect.
“I’m so impressed at how you been able to handle it,” he says, looking her in the eye. “It’s really – not to get too political – a real indication of how flawed our healthcare system is,” he added.
“For us the Senate campaign is a way of making sure that other people do not have to go through the exact same things that we have gone through, where we can help build power in order to go get things that working people need, like a universal health-care system that provides fertility support.”
Gertner: “I really wanted to share this story with any of you that have experienced infertility.
“I don’t know if I have all the answers or if sharing this story makes you feel like you’re part of a community of infertility but I hope that this can offer you some support.”
Platner: “Amy does all the work.”
Gertner: “Well,” she added, as she she points at him, “Graham does all the wood-splitting and he walks the dogs, mostly. I’ll do the pregnancy work.”
The video ends with a campaign sign that says “Graham Platner for U.S. Senate.”
Platner’s apparently trying to appeal to men who want to be him and women who want to be with him.
Of course, the IVF debate raises a political or even philosophical question – whether Platner should be playing off women’s emotions as a cheap ploy for votes, and using his wife as a campaign prop in the process to boot.
The reality is, women unfairly and unequivocally carry the ill-placed painful guilt of infertility far more than men, no matter how virile Graham Platner is.
Adoption is a wonderful gift – on every front. Maybe that should be his next message – that women shouldn’t be beholden to men for natural procreation.
Even Democrats might lose their marbles over that one.
Just imagine their outrage were a Republican male candidate to drag his wife out in front of a camera to decry infertility as some sort of a tragic handicap…
Susan Collins, the Republican incumbent who may well end up competing against Platner, might take some counsel here.
After all, in a close race, pro-choice women could be pivotal – and Collins arguably has a women’s problem.
Her votes on judges, such as Neil Gorsuch and Brent Kavanaugh, are seen as directly enabling restrictions on reproductive rights, despite her stated concerns about overturning Roe v. Wade, the decision that was key to helping assure women’s independence.
If Collins were to cut an ad decrying Platner’s “great sperm,” it just might help her win her a victory in what looks to be a tough reelection slog.
