An ex-girlfriend of embattled Senate candidate Graham Platner told The Washington Post that he repeatedly removed protection without her consent when they were having sex.
Lyndsey Fifield, who said she dated Platner from 2013 to 2015 in D.C. and has previously accused him of physical abuse, said that she told Platner on multiple occasions that he had to wear condoms during sex because she was not on birth control.
“He would pull condoms off,” she said in an interview. “He would do it in a sneaky way. He wouldn’t tell me.”
In a statement in response to questions about Fifield’s allegation, Platner’s campaign called the claim “categorically false and politically motivated.” The statement noted Fifield supported now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was accused of sexual assault prior to his confirmation.
Fifield, 41, is the second woman to allege this week that Platner engaged in nonconsensual sexual conduct. Jenny Racicot, 41, who said she previously dated Platner, told The Postand other outlets on Monday that he sexually assaulted her in late 2021, leading a growing number of allies to drop their endorsements and call on him to withdraw from the race for a Maine seat in the U.S. Senate. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), his most influential and prominent supporter, said he spoke with Platner on Tuesday and urged him to withdraw.
Platner, 41, a Marine Corps veteran and oyster farmer, also denied Racicot’s allegation but said on Monday that he was “mindful of the political reality” that the reporting will “inflict” on his campaign and was “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.”
Fifield initially told The Post about the alleged condom removal during a June 20 interview that was off the record. She said she decided to speak publicly about it Tuesday in part because, she said, she wanted to show that Racicot was not alone in experiencing issues with Platner involving sexual consent.
Removing a condom during sex without consent, known as “stealthing,” is classified as a form of sexual assault in several countries, including Britain, Canada and parts of Australia. In the United States, Maine, California and Washington state have laws that address the nonconsensual removal of condoms during sex. The alleged incidents involving Platner took place in D.C., Fifield said.
She estimated that Platner removed condoms without her consent at least six times when they had sex at both of their residences in D.C. during their two-year, on-and-off relationship. She said she told him that she was upset about it but that he would make light of the situation.
“I confronted him both during and after [sex] because he knew that I was not on birth control and how dangerous that was,” she told The Post in one interview. In another, she said: “He would act like cute about it, like ‘Oh sneaky me.’”
Fifield, who has worked for conservative organizations and in Republican politics, previously spoke to the New York Times about Platner for a June story that included details about his past relationships with women. In that story, she described how she at times felt afraid of Platner when he drank alcohol. She alleged that he grabbed her by her shoulders and by her wrist and twisted her arm behind her back.
Platner’s campaign told the Times that he “strongly disputes” any claims that he had physical altercations with her or that he had physically intimidated her.
Fifield told The Post that she also told the Times reporters about the removal of condoms in off-the-record discussions but felt embarrassed to publicly share such private information about their sex life.
The Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fifield’s close friend Emily Zanotti confirmed in an interview with The Post that Fifield told her about the incidents shortly after the end of her relationship with Platner.
Zanotti said Fifield told her she had always been “very careful” with safe sex practices, especially because she was not on birth control.
“She discovered that he had been taking off condoms in the middle of sex,” Zanotti said. “She was extremely angry about the situation and about what he had done.”
Fifield said she was unaware that the practice was known as stealthing and that there had been legislative efforts to curb it. In April 2025, Rep. Norma Torres (D-California) introduced federal legislation that would allow stealthing victims to pursue civil lawsuits against their perpetrators. The bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, but there has been no hearing.
In the month since the publication of the Times’s story, Fifield said she has faced a variety of reactions and some skepticism of her account due to her political leanings.
On Tuesday morning, less than 24 hours after Racicot’s sexual assault allegation was made public, Fifield, who lives in Virginia, posted on X that she had been driving her children to vacation Bible school while listening to the song “Vindicated” by Dashboard Confessional.
“Today does feel very vindicating,” she said in her interview with The Post. “It feels like people finally believe us.”
Amid cratering support for Platner’s campaign, several high-profile conservative figures questioned why Democratic leaders did not call for his withdrawal from the race earlier. It was only after Racicot’s sexual assault allegations became public Monday that prominent Democrats, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) and Ruben Gallego (Arizona), said they were pulling their endorsements of Platner.
Sarah Isgur, a conservative political commentator, called on those who rescinded their endorsements of Platner to also apologize to Fifield, even if privately.
“In both cases a principled American tried to tell the truth and was attacked as a partisan hack by partisans who didn’t want to hear the truth about their own team,” Isgur wrote on X Monday night.
Fifield has for weeks expressed disappointment on social media that her allegations of physical abuse in the Times story were not taken more seriously.
“I don’t have any regrets,” Fifield said about speaking out. “I do feel at peace about it.”
But with hindsight, she said she would change one thing: “I wish that I had just come out on the record from the very beginning. If I had come out the day that he ran, and I just tweeted like, ‘This is what this man did to me’ … they would have had more time to find a suitable candidate.”
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