Graham Platner tears into Republicans after clinching Susan Collins matchup in Maine, and other primary night takeaways
By Eric Bradner, CNN
(CNN) — Graham Platner was all but certain to win Maine’s Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday.
But the swirl of controversies over Platner’s past personal behavior had raised a slew of questions about the outcome: Would there be a significant number of protest votes lodged for Gov. Janet Mills, whose name was still on the ballot even though she suspended her campaign in April? Would Democratic voters skip the race entirely?
None of that came to pass. With votes still being counted Tuesday night, the progressive populist Platner was on course to earn about three-fourths of primary voters’ support — effectively ending any question about whether Maine Democrats wanted him to be their standard-bearer against Republican Sen. Susan Collins in one of the nation’s marquee races in November.
His speech – and the reaction from both parties – set the fault lines for what will be a race Democrats consider critical for Senate control.
‘They don’t know Maine’
In his victory speech Tuesday night, Platner briefly addressed the months of controversies that have hit his campaign — including a tattoo that resembled Nazi iconography, Reddit posts criticizing police and White rural voters, revelations he had sexted with women who are not his wife during their marriage, and a New York Times report alleging unsettling and in at least one case physically threatening behavior toward women he dated. Platner has denied any claims of physical intimidation.
“If you believe, as I do, that we can change our politics, and change our country, then you must also believe that people can change,” Platner said, speaking at a YMCA in his hometown of Blue Hill. “And the reason I believe that is because I have lived it — and the reason I have lived it is because of my wife.”
He added: “To all those who feel let down, disappointed, or disillusioned. It is my job to earn your trust, your faith, and your 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 delivered a familiar refrain about critics, one printed on the lectern he used: “They don’t know Maine.”
A character test takes shape
Maine is a critical part of any Democratic path to flipping four GOP-held seats and winning a Senate majority in November. And with Platner’s victory Tuesday, the general election against Collins is now underway.
Collins, 73, is seeking a sixth term — and has a long history of easily batting away Democrats who are expected to be fierce challengers.
Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju earlier Tuesday whether she believes Platner’s denials of unsettling behavior toward former partners, Collins said, “The allegations against Graham Platner are extremely troubling and serious, and he owes the people of Maine a detailed answer. And I haven’t heard that.”
The Senate Leadership Fund, a key super PAC planning to boost Collins this year, said that while Collins had demonstrated “strong character, steady leadership, and unmatched effectiveness, Graham Platner is a dangerous deviant who cannot be trusted to represent the Pine Tree State.”
A day after the primary, however, Republican leaders warned of a tough road ahead for Collins, with a memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee saying the political fundamentals in the state “remain challenging and it is a fatal mistake to assume Platner is too damaged to win.”
“Senator Collins has won tough races before and can win this one, but only if we meet this moment with total urgency,” the memo, which was obtained by CNN, states.
Platner was eager to take aim at Collins on Tuesday night. Previewing his message against his Republican rival, Platner said in his victory speech that she is “just as spineless and corrupt as the establishment she now serves.”
He also criticized Collins for voting frequently with Trump, including to confirm conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and for supporting “endless wars since I was a teenager,” noting his own military service.
He targeted the GOP incumbent on abortion rights, saying she had promised to protect Roe v. Wade “only to turn around and put a justice on the Supreme Court who overturned it. She lied to us.”
“The truth is, Susan Collins does not serve us. She serves Donald Trump,” Platner said. “She serves the Epstein class. She serves her corporate donors and the corrupt political system that has rigged the economy against us. She does not serve us, and so we will defeat Susan Collins.”
Shawn Roderick, a spokesperson for Collins, responded that “Mainers aren’t looking for bitter campaigns, grand promises, or angry speeches riddled with lies.”
Key Democrats may not be as sure about him
Even if many Maine Democratic voters are comfortable with Platner, it might take party officials and national Democratic leaders more time.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee issued a statement from Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in which the two didn’t praise Platner, but said Collins “has never been more vulnerable” and predicted that “Maine voters will elect Graham Platner.”
A spokeswoman for the Senate Majority PAC, the Democrats’ super PAC focused on Senate races, praised Platner’s positions in a statement. “The difference between the two couldn’t be plainer: Platner’s agenda supports working people and families, while Collins upholds Washington’s status quo,” Lauren French said.
Mills, meanwhile, issued a statement in which she didn’t mention Platner at all.
In a sign that unease about Platner isn’t tied to ideology, progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday told Raju she found alleged behavior detailed by some of Platner’s former girlfriends to the Times “really challenging” and “hard to stomach.”
“I don’t think that it’s to hand-wave away any of this. I think it’s … for voters, and frankly, I don’t think the people of Maine are particularly concerned about what people in Washington are fretting about with this,” said Ocasio-Cortez, a close ally of perhaps Platner’s most high-profile endorser, independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
California Sen. Adam Schiff, who met with Platner last week, said it’s “very hard for me to evaluate these news reports, as well as the conversation that I had with him, and I’m going to take some time to digest it” when asked if he thinks Platner was honest in his assurances that he could continue a viable campaign.
“At the end of the day, it will be up to the voters of Maine what they make of his arguments, both in terms of his personal conduct, but also in terms of the issues they care most about,” he said, adding that voters will have to decide between “a focus on his personal life and personal flaws” or on “who will do the best job for their quality of living.”
A Trump endorsement is not always a sure thing …
The South Carolina GOP primary for governor was the latest test of President Donald Trump’s grip on the Republican electorate. The verdict: His endorsement was helpful Tuesday but didn’t turn the race’s outcome into a slam dunk.
Trump-endorsed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette will face Attorney General Alan Wilson in a June 23 runoff for the nomination. The winner of that runoff will be the heavy favorite in November against Democratic primary winner Jermaine Johnson, a state representative.
Evette’s failure to win more than 50% of the vote to clinch the nomination outright shows that there are limits to Trump’s endorsement — particularly against a candidate like Wilson, who has been in office for more than 15 years and brands himself as “Trump tough.”
Another Trump-endorsed candidate in South Carolina, Sen. Lindsey Graham, did avoid a runoff — but not before the president did a tele-town hall to boost him. He cleared the 50% threshold against a field that included self-funding businessman Mark Lynch.
… but GOP voters didn’t tolerate opposing him
Two House members from South Carolina learned Tuesday that even if Republican primary voters don’t immediately line up behind Trump’s picks, they also aren’t tolerating candidates who break from the president.
Rep. Ralph Norman, a staunch conservative, endorsed and campaigned with home-state ally Nikki Haley over Trump in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.
Rep. Nancy Mace, meanwhile, pushed aggressively to force Trump’s Justice Department to release records related to its probe into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. She was one of four Republicans to sign a discharge petition forcing a House vote on the matter.
The two are on track to finish fourth and fifth in the gubernatorial primary.
For Mace, in particular, it’s the culmination of a combustible relationship with the president. She turned sharply against him in the wake of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. But she was back by Trump’s side in 2024, endorsing him and campaigning for him and against South Carolina’s former governor, Haley, in the state’s presidential primary. She said she would fight hard to win Trump’s endorsement in the governor’s race. But an incident at the Charleston airport last fall in which Mace was accused of berating security officials led to embarrassing headlines, and her advocacy for the Epstein measure may have been the final straw.
In a Truth Social post endorsing Evette, Trump didn’t mention Mace by name. But he did tout Evette’s relationship with another Trump ally, Gov. Henry McMaster.
Democrats, on the other hand, eagerly embraced those seen as opponents of Trump’s administration. In South Carolina’s 1st District, Nancy Lacore, a three-star admiral fired last year by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was one of two candidates to advance to a runoff for the party’s nomination for the seat currently held by Mace. Lacore has highlighted the Trump administration’s purge of top military officials in her campaign. She’ll face Mac Deford, a Coast Guard veteran and attorney, in the runoff.
Maine races go to ranked-choice counts
Several other key races in Maine proceeded to ranked-choice vote tabulation with no candidate on track to clear the 50% threshold on Tuesday — including both parties’ primaries in the race to replace Mills in the governor’s office.
Former Navy intelligence officer Bobby Charles, who served in George W. Bush’s administration, advanced to ranked-choice voting in the Republican pack for governor. But Jonathan Bush, the nephew of former President George H.W. Bush and cousin of George W. Bush who is seeking to revive the family’s active participation in the political landscape, is in the mix, as is Ben Midgley, a former executive of two fitness companies.
The Democratic gubernatorial primary features four candidates who are tightly bunched together: former state Sen. Troy Jackson; Nirav Shah, a former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention; Hannah Pingree, a former state House speaker and daughter of US Rep. Chellie Pingree; and Shenna Bellows, the Maine secretary of state.
Meanwhile, in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, where Republican former Gov. Paul LePage is seeking a political comeback in the battleground seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, the three top Democratic candidates — state Sen. Joe Baldacci, state Auditor Matt Dunlap and former congressional staffer Jordan Wood — were also within a few percentage points of each other as results were being tallied Tuesday night.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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