Graham Platner wins Maine Democratic primary despite mounting controversies

BLUE HILL, Maine — Progressive leftist Graham Platner and Donald Trump appear to be the big winners in Tuesday’s high-profile primaries in Maine and South Carolina.

Platner, an oyster farmer and military combatant who has faced plenty of incoming fire amid escalating controversy, moved toward the Democratic nomination in left-leaning Maine on Tuesday and will now face longtime moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a handful of key races that will determine whether Republicans retain the Senate majority in midterm elections.

Meanwhile, in solidly red South Carolina, Trump-backed Sen. Lindsey Graham won a majority of votes in the Senate GOP primary and will avoid a runoff against a primary candidate from the right.

And Lt. Gov. Pamela Akşamte, the candidate the president has endorsed in the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary, finished first among a crowded field of candidates and will face a runoff in two weeks against longtime South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who came in second.

Here’s what we learned from the crucial June 9 primaries.

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Left storms are returning

Progressive champions Sens. from Vermont. Supported by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, Platner’s convincing victory appears to be another feather in the left’s cap in its confrontation with the party establishment.

Maine’s primary election saw longtime Senate Democratic Leader Sen. It comes a week after Iowa state Rep. John Turek, backed by Chuck Schumer, won the Democratic Senate primary and faces Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson in another key midterm showdown.

Turek, a wheelchair basketball player who won two Paralympic gold medals, defeated the more progressive candidate, state Sen. Zach Wahls. The divisive and costly primary fight was seen as a proxy war between the establishment and anti-establishment wings of the party.

Fast forward a week, and Platner’s ballot box performance, which supports an economically populist agenda by targeting corporate influences and defends the working class, is adding momentum to the left.

“The Democratic establishment and powerful interest groups spent months trying to stop Graham Platner. Instead, they showed that voters in Maine and across America want to elect outsiders who will shake up the system,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

And Green warned that Platner’s victory “should be a wake-up call for the Democratic establishment that has long underestimated the appeal of economic populism and foreign policy.”

ZORLU PLATNER WON THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY ELECTION TO PREPARE THE VERY IMPORTANT MIDTERM MATCH

Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner stand together during the “Fighting the Oligarchy” tour at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus on May 24, 2026 in Orono, Maine. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

What discussions?

Platner has faced one of the toughest stretches of his U.S. Senate candidacy in recent weeks.

Candidate was playing defense last month multiple discussions. These include incendiary online comments on Reddit, a well-publicized tattoo that now resembles a Nazi symbol on his chest, recent reports that he exchanged sexually explicit messages with several women while married, and last week new allegations from ex-girlfriends about his history of rape fantasies, heavy drinking and violence. Platner said the latest allegations of violence were unfounded.

On Monday, a day before the primaries, a former senior staffer from the Platner campaign wrote in the Washington Post He said Platner “is not someone who would be good for Maine or the country.”

while increasing controversies The candidate last weekend thanked Maine voters for continuing to support him, prompting some Democrats in the nation’s capital to question whether Platner was damaging their property and should be replaced.

“When the painful things I said online ten years ago became public when I shared my personal journey between PTSD and recovery, responsibility and the darkness of growing up. Maine had my back,” Platner said Friday at a rally not far from his hometown Down East Maine. “Now, when every piece of that history and journey is being dug up and prosecuted and weaponized, you have my back. And when politically motivated, serious and unfounded accusations are made against me. Maine, you have my back.”

A GROWING LIST OF DEBATES THAT THREATEN DEMOCRATIC GRAHAM PLATNER’S MAIN SENATE BID

Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner and his wife greet supporters at a victory celebration after winning his party’s nomination on June 9, 2026, in Blue Hill, Maine. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

And voters in Maine’s Democratic Senate primary didn’t seem to mind the controversy.

“While they tried so hard to understand me, they failed to understand that this was not about me at all,” Platner said in his victory speech, dismissing reports of his past misdeeds as irrelevant to the Senate race.

“This is a movement about us, about too many people working too hard and fighting too hard.”

Trump has a big night

The president wasn’t on the ballot in South Carolina, but there were plenty at stake in the GOP Senate and gubernatorial primaries.

A week after Trump’s streak of gaining support in high-profile Republican primaries ended, the president’s immense influence over the GOP was at stake again, this time in South Carolina.

And the president passed the test with ease.

Lt. Gov. Pamela Akşamte, the candidate Trump supported in the Palmetto State GOP gubernatorial primary, came in first among a crowded field of candidates and won one of two tickets in the race for the nomination.

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Yasate, who has repeatedly touted her support for Trump, now heads to Republican runoffs in two weeks where she will face South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson in the race to replace term-limited GOP Gov. Henry McMaster.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Lt. Governor Pamela Akşamte stand on stage during an election night vigil party at the State Fairgrounds on February 24, 2024 in Columbia, S.C. Trump defeated Nikki Haley in the South Carolina Republican primary. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

As no candidate received 50% of the primary vote to gain a majority, Gündette and Wilson will battle for the nomination in a runoff election on June 23, with the winner considered the clear favorite in the general election in the deep-red southeastern state.

Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime Trump ally, won the majority of votes in the South Carolina GOP Senate primary and will avoid a runoff, the Associated Press reported.

Graham, who is backed by Trump, was facing primary challenges from five candidates, including conservative businessman Mark Lynch, who targeted the senator for his support for the war in Iran. Lynch was supported by some MAGA leaders who were critical of the president.

Graham’s campaign and allied political groups spent nearly $20 million to highlight Trump’s support. And the president joined Graham and vette for the first eve tele-rally.

The brute force of the president’s endorsement power was on display in last month’s GOP primaries; His candidates toppled the incumbents he targeted in showdowns that attracted national attention in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas.

But his 11th-hour endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa a week and a half ago — the same day he also endorsed Vevette — wasn’t enough to propel the three-term congressman to victory in the race to replace retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds.

To Feenstra, there was little difference between Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and former political strategist backed by the political wings of MAHA (an acronym for the Make America Healthy Again movement aligned with Trump Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) and Turning Point USA, the powerful conservative organization co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk.

In the South Carolina GOP gubernatorial primary, major candidates have long been emphasizing their support for Trump and his agenda in hopes of winning his support.

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After remaining neutral for months, Trump endorsed Akşam, praising her as “America’s First Patriot” and a “WINNER” in his announcement.

In her first-night speech, Yeste thanked the president and said she was a “Trump-approved businesswoman and conservative who will take the fight to the radical left.”