(The Hill) – Progressive oyster farmer Graham Platner easily won the Democratic contest on Tuesday to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) — officially teeing up one of this year’s marquee Senate races.
Platner was expected to win the Democratic primary, but recent revelations over a sexting scandal and his alleged toxic conduct from several ex-girlfriends have rocked his campaign and rattled Democrats who see the race as a must-win to clinch the upper chamber’s majority this fall.
The Democratic nominee, who has denied any claims alleging physical roughness, struck a defiant tone as he accepted the primary nod Tuesday, acknowledging the uphill climb ahead of him this November.
“To any of those who feel let down or disappointed or disillusioned, it is my job to earn your trust, faith, and support, and I will spend every day of this campaign, and if I have the privilege, every day in the United States Senate, doing exactly that,” he told supporters at a rally.
“It is deeply humbling to stand here as your Democratic nominee,” he continued. “It is an honor, and I will not let you down.”
Top Senate Democrats stood firmly behind the progressive after the primary results, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), the chair of the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, saying in a statement that “in November, Maine voters will elect Graham Platner, and we will win a Senate majority.”
South Carolina and Nevada also teed up several competitive primaries, including the race to succeed retiring Gov. Henry McMaster (R), the Democratic nomination to take on Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo’s (R) tough reelection bid.
Here are the key takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries:
Platner posts strong performance despite scrutiny
Populist oyster farmer Graham Platner easily won his Democratic primary on Tuesday night, with Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) projecting the contest for Platner a little over an hour after polls closed in the Pine Tree State with just 6 percent of the vote reported.
Political observers were closely watching Tuesday’s primary to see whether a sizeable chunk of Mainers opted to vote for outgoing Gov. Janet Mills (D), who suspended her bid against Platner, in protest of Platner amid recent controversies.
As of 12 a.m. Wednesday, with nearly 70 percent of the vote reported, Platner secured about 72 percent of the vote while Mills garnered nearly 20 percent, according to Decision Desk HQ. Democrat David Costello has just 8 percent support.
Another key test included whether the vote in Maine’s Democratic gubernatorial primary drastically exceeded the amount case in the Senate race. There is a minimal imbalance between the two contests, with about 129,4000 votes cast in the upper chamber’s race and nearly 129,600 votes reported in the governor’s primary.
This is a win for the progressive candidate as some Democrats expressed anxiety about his candidacy in recent weeks amid controversy.
Last month, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Platner had sent sexually explicit messages to multiple women early on in his marriage.
The New York Times also interviewed several of Platner’s past girlfriends, some of whom alleged that he was physically rough with them and that he knew that a tattoo of his was a Nazi symbol. Platner had previously said he unaware of the since-covered tattoo’s resemblance to the symbol, denying allegations he knew what the tattoo represented.
“Maine, I love you. I love this state,” Platner said Tuesday. “Now the national pundits, the political establishment, they keep looking for that one story, that one headline, that one moment in my life that they can define the campaign by, but in trying so hard to understand me, they failed to understand that this is not about me at all.”
“This is a movement about us, about the far too many working far too hard and struggling far too much at the hands of the ruling class,” he added.
Graham survives ‘America First’ challenger to avoid runoff
Graham easily advanced in the Republican primary for his reelection bid as he vies for a fifth term, avoiding a June 23 runoff and fending off five other GOP candidates.
His most serious challenger, businessman Mark Lynch, questioned Graham’s conservative bona fides and sought to use President Trump’s past criticism of the senior GOP senator against Graham.
Lynch had endorsements from former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent and former Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino. He raised just shy of $6 million, roughly $5 million of which he loaned his campaign, according to a pre-primary federal campaign filing.
Graham had Trump’s coveted endorsement in addition to the backing of Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and McMaster.
Trump and Graham both criticized Lynch over his support of Trump detractor Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)
Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, won the Democratic primary to take on Graham this fall. She faces an uphill climb intoppling the incumbent as the state hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate in the Palmetto State since 1998.
Nancy Mace’s firey political career peters out with primary loss
The GOP primary race for governor of South Carolina is headed to a runoff, and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) didn’t make the cut — hitting pause on her political career after publicly breaking with Trump over the release of Jeffrey Epstein files.
South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette (R) and state Attorney General Alan Wilson (R) are projected to advance to a June 23 showdown, after neither snagged the majority of votes needed to win Tuesday’s primary outright. They defeated Mace, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and other rivals vying to succeed McMaster.
Evette snagged Trump’s endorsement days ahead of the primary, a snub to Mace and the rest of the crowded field as candidates sought to stress their alignment with Trump in the state he won by double digits in 2024.
Mace said late last month that she “put the likelihood of an endorsement on the line” when she criticized the administration’s approach to the Epstein files. On Tuesday night, she doubled down in a social media post conceding the race.
“I chose to expose the abusers of children. And apparently, I chose wrong if the goal was winning an election. I’m at peace with that. Because when a candidate is OK with corruption and cover-ups – something is broken. That’s not a political opinion. That’s a moral emergency,” Mace said.
The three-term lawmaker’s tenure in Congress will come to an end next year, but she hinted that the House race was not the end of the road.
“This isn’t the end of the fight. It’s just the end of this chapter,” Mace said.
Now, Trump is on track to pass another test of his endorsement power, if Evette can win the upcoming runoff and add to a list of victories for the president’s primary picks this cycle.
Ranked choice voting set to decide key races
Maine’s ranked-choice voting (RCV) system is set to determine key races that were still too close to call Tuesday night.
Rep. Jared Golden’s (D-Maine) decision not to seek reelection created an opening for the GOP in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which went to Trump in the last presidential cycle even as the rest of the state went blue.
The seat, rated by Cook Political Report as “likely Republican,” could be a critical pickup for Republicans in their fight to keep the House majority. Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) was uncontested on Tuesday, but the four-candidate Democratic race was headed to ranked-choice voting, according to DDHQ.
State Sen. Joe Baldacci, brother of former Gov. John Baldacci (D), was narrowly leading state auditor Matt Dunlap, who launched a challenge from Golden’s left before the lawmaker announced retirement plans, and Jordan Wood, a chief of staff for former Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), according to first-round tallies from DDHQ as of 12 a.m.
The votes will be tallied with the lowest-ranked candidates eliminated each round until there are only two candidates left, and the candidate with a majority will be declared the winner.
The race for governor of Maine was also headed to RCV rounds on Tuesday night. Former Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah was leading the Democratic primary’s first round by less than a point, ahead of former state Sen. Troy Jackson and former state House Speaker Hanna Pingree as of DDHQ numbers at 12 a.m.
A progressive trio of Jackson, Pingree and Bellows had cross-endorsed each other, while Shah had encouraged voters to rank him second if he wasn’t their first choice.
In the GOP primary for the seat, former federal official Bobby Charles was leading in the first round by double digits ahead of former fitness industry CEO Benjamin Midgley and healthcare executive Jonathan Bush, a nephew and cousin of the two Bush presidents.
The seat, which is being vacated by Mills, is considered likely Democratic — though the Pine Tree State governor’s mansion has flip-flopped between parties multiple times in the last fifty years.
Lombardo fights for political life in Nevada
Lombardo is set to fight for his political life this fall in his quest for a second term helming the quintessential swing state. He is projected to face state Attorney General Aaron Ford (D).
Lombardo was the only Republican to flip a governor’s mansion in 2022, a difficult year for the GOP. This cycle, he is the only incumbent Republican whose election is considered a “toss up” by Cook Political Report.
The former Clark County sheriff has sought to walk a fine line with Trump, likely an implicit acknowledgement of president’s underwater approval ratings and how issues around cost-of-living has rattled the state.
Ford, who is backed by all five of Nevada’s Democratic congressional delegation, defeated five other Democrats in the primary for governor, including Washoe County Commission Alexis Hill. Ford has used his role as the Silver State’s top prosecutor to position himself as a chief antagonist to Trump and his administration.
Nevada is one of six battleground states Trump won in 2024 and is uniquely defined in large part by its tourism and hospitality economy, which creates a transient population where candidates and lawmakers alike have to continually reintroduce themselves to voters.
Nevada is also home to a substantial Hispanic and Latino voting bloc, which proved crucial for Trump’s win in 2024 and will play a key role in state’s gubernatorial race this summer.
