By Hamed Aleaziz, Alexandra Ostasiewicz, Jon Hazell, Gilad Thaler, Stephanie Swart and Rafaela Balster

June 10, 2026

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

Platner, the oyster farmer and military combat veteran who has been facing plenty of incoming fire amid mounting controversies, cruised to the Democratic nomination Tuesday in left-leaning Maine and will now face longtime moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a key race that is among a handful which will likely determine if Republicans hold their Senate majority in the midterm elections.

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

And the candidate the president endorsed in the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, finished on top of a crowded field of contenders and will advance to a runoff election in two weeks against longtime South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who came in second.

Here’s what we learned in the key June 9th primaries.

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The left storms back

The convincing victory by Platner, who was backed by progressive champions Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, looks to be another feather in the cap for the left in their intra-party face-off with the establishment.

The primary in Maine was held a week after Iowa state Rep. John Turek, who was supported by longtime Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, won the Democratic Senate primary and will face Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson in another crucial 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 expensive primary battle was viewed as a proxy war between the establishment and anti-establishment wings of the party.

Fast-forward a week and the ballot box performance by Platner, who promotes an economically populist agenda as he takes aim at corporate influences and advocates for the working class, gives a boost to the left.

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

And Green warned that Platner’s victory “should be a wake-up call for a Democratic establishment that has spent too long underestimating the appeal of economic populism and outsider politics.”

EMBATTLED PLATNER WINS DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY TO TEE UP CRUCIAL MIDTERM SHOWDOWN

What controversies?

Platner in recent weeks has been facing one of the roughest stretches of his bid for the U.S. Senate.

The candidate has been playing defense the past month, amid multiple controversies. They include inflammatory online comments made on Reddit, a well-publicized and now covered-up tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol, recent reports that he exchanged sexually explicit messages with several women while married, and new allegations last week from ex-girlfriends of a history of rape fantasies, heavy drinking and violent episodes. Platner has called the latest allegations of violence untrue.

On Monday, a day before the primary election, a former high-level staffer from the Platner campaign wrote in the Washington Post that Platner “is not someone who would be good for Maine or for the country.”

While the mounting controversies triggered some Democrats in the nation’s capital to question whether Platner was damaged goods and needed to be replaced, the candidate this past weekend thanked Maine voters for continuing to support him.

“When hurtful things I said on the internet a decade ago came out into the public as I shared my personal journey through PTSD and darkness of recovery and accountability and growth. Maine had my back,” Platner said at a rally Friday not far from his hometown in Down East Maine. “Now, as every single piece of that past and journey gets dug up, litigated, and weaponized, you have my back. And when politically motivated, serious and false accusations are made against me. Maine, you have my back.”

THE GROWING LIST OF CONTROVERSIES THREATENING DEMOCRAT GRAHAM PLATNER’S MAINE SENATE BID

And voters in Maine’s Democratic Senate primary seemed to shrug off the controversies.

“In trying so hard to understand me, they failed to understand that this is not about me at all,” Platner said in his victory speech as he dismissed news reports about his past misdeeds as immaterial to the Senate election.

“This is a movement about us, about the far too many working far too hard and struggling far too much.”

Trump has a big night

The president wasn’t on the ballot in South Carolina, but he had plenty on the line in the GOP Senate and gubernatorial primaries.

One week after Trump’s endorsement-winning streak in high-profile Republican primaries was snapped, the president’s immense clout over the GOP was on the line again, this time in South Carolina.

And the president easily passed the test.

The candidate Trump endorsed in the Palmetto State’s GOP gubernatorial primary, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, finished first in a crowded field of candidates and clinched one of the two tickets in the race for the nomination.

TRUMP ALLY LINDSEY GRAHAM SURVIVES CHALLENGE FROM GOP’S ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT WING

Evette, who repeatedly spotlighted Trump’s support, now advances to a Republican runoff election in two weeks against South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, the second place finisher, in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Henry McMaster. 

Since no candidate topped 50% of the primary vote to land a majority, Evette and Wilson will battle for the nomination in the June 23 runoff, and the winner will be considered the clear favorite in the general election in the solidly red southeastern state.

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

Graham, who was endorsed by Trump, was facing primary challenges from five candidates, including conservative businessman Mark Lynch, who took aim at the senator over his support for the war in Iran. Lynch was backed by some MAGA leaders who have been 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 Evette for a primary eve tele-rally.

The brute force of the president’s endorsement power has been on display in GOP primaries over the past month, with his candidates ousting incumbents he targeted in showdowns in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas that grabbed plenty of national attention.

But his 11th-hour endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa a week and a half ago — which came on the same day he also backed Evette — in the race to succeed retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds wasn’t enough to muscle the three-term congressman to victory.

Feenstra was narrowly edged by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and former political strategist who was backed by the political wings of MAHA — the 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, the major contenders had long been highlighting their support for Trump and his agenda, in hopes of landing his support.

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Trump, after staying neutral for months, endorsed Evette, praising her as an “America First Patriot” and a “WINNER” in his announcement.

In her primary night speech, Evette thanks the president and touted that she’s a “Trump-endorsed businesswoman and conservative who’s going to take the fight to the radical left.”

Polls have closed in South Carolina, which along with Maine, Nebraska and North Dakota are holding primary elections on Tuesday.

One week after President Donald Trump’s endorsement-winning streak in high-profile Republican primaries was snapped, the president’s immense clout over his party is facing another key test in South Carolina’s GOP gubernatorial and Senate nomination races.

But the race grabbing the biggest national spotlight is in Maine, where it’s judgment day for Graham Platner, the embattled Democratic Senate candidate in left-leaning Maine who is aiming to oust longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a crucial race that’s among a handful that will determine if the GOP holds its slim Senate majority in the midterm elections.

Platner, an oyster farmer and military combat veteran who is backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and other top progressive champions, is facing a slew of controversies, which could make his expected Democratic primary victory in Maine much more interesting than originally expected.

PLATNER TO SUPPORTERS: ‘MAINE, YOU HAVE MY BACK’

Platner has been playing defense for the past month, amid mounting controversy. It includes inflammatory online comments made on Reddit, a well-publicized and now covered-up tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol, recent reports that he exchanged sexually explicit messages with several women while married and new allegations last week from ex-girlfriends of a history of rape fantasies, heavy drinking and violent episodes. Platner has called the latest allegations of violence untrue.

The negative headlines have triggered some Democrats in the nation’s capital to question whether Platner was damaged goods. The candidate this past weekend thanked Maine voters for continuing to support him.

“When hurtful things I said on the internet a decade ago came out into the public, as I shared my personal journey through PTSD and darkness of recovery and accountability and growth, Maine had my back,” Platner said at a rally Friday not far from his hometown in Down East, Maine.

“Now, as every single piece of that past and journey gets dug up, litigated, and weaponized, you have my back. And when politically motivated, serious and false accusations are made against me. Maine, you have my back.”

SEE IT: MAINE VOTERS SOUND OFF ON PLATNER CONTROVERSIES

Platner, who has acknowledged his battle with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from his three tours of duty in the war in Iraq with the Marines and one tour with the Army National Guard in Afghanistan, apologized for his controversial Reddit posts after they made headlines last fall soon after he launched his Senate campaign.

And Platner has said he got the skull and crossbones tattoo in 2007 while drinking with fellow Marines stationed in Croatia. He added that he covered up the tattoo with a new design after learning last year that it resembled a Nazi symbol. But new allegations from an ex-girlfriend raise questions about Platner’s timeline regarding knowledge of the tattoo.

Rep. Ro Khanna, the progressive leader from California who organized Friday’s rally with Platner, was asked by Fox News Digital whether he’s concerned if the current allegations, and any potential future ones, could sink Platner’s campaign and hurt Democrats’ hopes of winning back the Senate.

“I’m more concerned about making it clear that we’re opposed to misogyny, those relationships were toxic and volatile, there’s no excuse for that,” Khanna said. “I talked to Graham, and he says he was at a very dark period, he had come back from two tours of duty in Iraq as an infantryman seeing violence and death. That doesn’t excuse it.”

SEE IT: DEM SENATORS DODGE ON BACKING PLATNER AS MAINE CANDIDATE’S SCANDAL CLOUDS FINAL DAYS BEFORE PRIMARY

But Khanna noted that Platner said “he really grew as a person when he came back to Maine, and he was an oyster farmer, and he found peace, and he is ashamed of that period. To me, that suggests someone taking accountability and improving their lives, and we need that redemption in this country. And I agree with a lot of his economic policies, that we should be taxing the billionaires, we should be focusing on the working class.”

Platner has been considered the all-but-certain Democratic nominee after two-term Gov. Janet Mills, who was backed by longtime Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Party establishment, dropped out of the race earlier this spring after significantly trailing Platner in fundraising and polling.

He’s facing two long-shot rivals for the nomination in Tuesday’s primary, but Mills’ name remains on the ballot, which she highlighted in a recent interview. A source in Mills’ wider political orbit confirmed to Fox News last week that the governor was receiving calls urging her to get back in the race amid Platner’s controversies. But there’s no active campaign effort on behalf of Mills.

Maine voters Fox News reporters spoke with ahead of the rally were divided on whether Platner’s controversies would impact their opinions of the candidate and whether the allegations would weaken his ability to defeat Collins.

Collins, returning to Maine on Friday after a busy week on Capitol Hill where she reached a milestone by casting her 10,000th consecutive vote in the Senate, was asked by reporters about the latest allegations facing Platner.

“The allegations in the latest story are troubling,” Collins responded. “And I believe that Graham Platner has a lot of questions to answer.”

THE TEN RACES THAT WILL DETERMINE THE SENATE’S MAJORITY

Platner is facing plenty of incoming political fire from Republican groups. A super PAC aligned with Collins has been blasting Platner, running ads spotlighting his multiple controversies.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) charged that Platner is a “fraud.”

“He’s preaching about living a small but decent life growing up in Maine. The truth? Graham Platner is an elitist whose parents sent him to boarding school in Connecticut and bought him a house,” the NRSC wrote.

And the Republican National Committee (RNC) also targeted Platner.

“Graham Platner says his violent and erratic past is being “weaponized” against him. Platner said he would rape someone to show his dominance and “rape was about power,” the RNC research team wrote on X, pointing to the latest allegations against the candidate.

Despite the allegations and the incoming fire from the GOP, no Democratic politicians who have backed Platner have rescinded their endorsements.

“We need to unite and realize that the goal is defeating Susan Collins. And everyone from Schumer to Sanders is unified around that goal,” Khanna told Fox News Digital.

Platner has drawn large crowds and built a healthy fundraising war chest, and Democrats see Maine as a crucial pickup opportunity as they aim to win back the Senate majority.

But beating Collins, a moderate who is running for a sixth six-year term in the Senate and has a history of voting against President Donald Trump’s agenda, won’t be easy. Six years ago, public opinion polls indicated the senator was headed to defeat, but Collins defied expectations and won re-election by topping then-Democratic state House Speaker Sara Gideon by nine points.

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There’s a crowded and competitive field of Democrats running for their party’s gubernatorial nomination in the race to succeed the term-limited Mills. On the Republican side, Bobby Charles — former federal investigator — leads eight other candidates, including Jonathan Bush, nephew of the late President George H.W. Bush.

Also in the spotlight, the Democratic primary in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, in the race to replace moderate Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, who announced last year that he would not seek re-election due to political polarization.

Republicans, who are aiming to hold their razor-thin majority in the House, view the mostly rural district which Trump carried in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 presidential elections, as a top pickup opportunity. Former two-term Republican Gov. Paul LePage is uncontested for the GOP nomination.

In South Carolina, Trump’s endorsement is in the spotlight.

The president, a week and a half ago, handed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette 11th-hour support as she seeks to succeed a top Trump ally, term-limited Republican Gov. Henry McMaster.

Evette is facing off in the GOP primary against a handful of top rivals. They are longtime South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, nationally known Rep. Nancy Mace, Rep. Ralph Norman and multimillionaire businessman Rom Reddy.

Since no candidate was expected to top 50% of the primary vote and land a majority, the top two finishers will advance to the June 23 Republican runoff.

The brute force of the president’s endorsement power has been on display in GOP primaries over the past month, with his candidates ousting incumbents he targeted in showdowns in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas that grabbed plenty of national attention.

But his last-minute endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa — which came on the same day he also backed Evette — in the race to succeed retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds wasn’t enough to muscle the three-term congressman to victory.

Feenstra was narrowly edged by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and former political strategist who was backed by the political wings of MAHA — the 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, the major contenders had long been highlighting their support for Trump and his agenda, in hopes of landing his support.

Trump, after staying neutral for months, endorsed Evette, praising her as an “America First Patriot” and a “WINNER” in his announcement.

After Trump backed Evette, Mace said that her very vocal push last year for the Justice Department to release the files related to its probe into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein contributed to the president’s backing of her rival.

“I know I put the likelihood of an endorsement on the line when I demanded transparency on the Epstein files,” the lawmaker wrote. “I demanded it because you deserved the truth — ALL OF IT,” Mace emphasized in a post on X.

Trump, in a social media post endorsing Evette, also said he expected Evette to choose Henry McMaster Jr., the governor’s son, as her running mate for lieutenant governor.

The comment by the president led to blowback in South Carolina political circles and speculation that McMaster, who succeeded then-Gov. Nikki Haley when she stepped down to serve as U.N. ambassador during Trump’s first term and who is in his 10th year as governor, was trying to give his son a political boost.

But McMaster denied any deal or pressure, and Evette has said she wouldn’t name any running mate until after the primary is over.

And on Friday, the younger McMaster took his name out of contention, saying it was “incredibly humbling” to be mentioned as a possible lieutenant governor candidate, but that “now is simply not the right time.”

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The winner of the Republican gubernatorial nomination will be considered the clear favorite in November’s general election in South Carolina.

State Rep. Jermaine Johnson, trial attorney and 2010 gubernatorial candidate William Mullins McLeod Jr., and businessman Billy Webster, who served as chief of staff to then-Democratic Gov. Richard Riley, are running for their party’s nomination.

Longtime Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham is the clear favorite in the Republican Senate primary, but is facing a tougher-than-expected challenge from South Carolina businessman Mark Lynch in a race that has devolved into mudslinging.

In Nevada, incumbent Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo is expected to fend off a handful of primary challengers as he seeks re-election. On the Democratic side, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford is the clear favorite over Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill.

And in solidly red North Dakota, there is a competitive GOP house primary for the state’s at-large district.

Fox News Digital’s Alexis McAdams, Sally Persons, Jessica Sonkin and Luke Trevisan contributed to this report.