{"id":22901,"date":"2026-06-10T16:20:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T16:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/10\/democrats-rally-round-platner-in-maine-as-trump-reaffirms-grip-on-gop-after-primaries-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T16:20:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T16:20:39","slug":"democrats-rally-round-platner-in-maine-as-trump-reaffirms-grip-on-gop-after-primaries-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/10\/democrats-rally-round-platner-in-maine-as-trump-reaffirms-grip-on-gop-after-primaries-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats rally round Platner in Maine as Trump reaffirms grip on GOP after primaries – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outcome of polls in four states offers mixed signals about direction of two major parties before November\u2019s midterms
Graham Platner wins Maine Democratic Senate primary \u2013 video<\/a>
Progressives rallied round the controversial Graham Platner after his primary victory in Maine on Tuesday<\/a>, while Donald Trump again exerted his grip on the Republican party, helping to defeat a politician who had pushed for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Primary elections were held in four states \u2013 Maine, Nevada, North Dakota and South Carolina<\/a> \u2013 ahead of November\u2019s midterms to decide control of both houses of Congress. The results offered mixed signals about the direction of the two major parties.
The marquee race was a Senate primary election in Maine, where Platner won 72% of the vote<\/a>, defeating the state governor, Janet Mills, who had suspended her campaign but remained on the ballot, and third-placed David Costello, based on early results reported by Reuters.
The result sets up a bruising general election battle against the Republican incumbent, Susan Collins. Maine<\/a> is among a handful of states where Democratic strategists believe a Republican-held seat is genuinely vulnerable.
Platner, 41, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer from the small coastal town of Sullivan, had in effect wrapped up the nomination weeks ago when Mills suspended her campaign after concluding there was little prospect of catching him.
But Platner was carrying substantial political baggage, including old incendiary Reddit posts, a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol, sexually explicit messages sent to other women early in his marriage and accusations from a former girlfriend, denied by Platner<\/a>, that he had been physically intimidating. Platner has apologised repeatedly for aspects of his past conduct and has linked some of his struggles to post-traumatic stress disorder and depression after combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Addressing a crowd of cheering supporters at a YMCA gym in Blue Hill, he acknowledged the controversies directly, adopting a tone that was part confession, part political appeal. \u201cIf you believe, as I do, that we can change our politics and change our country, then you must also believe that people can change,\u201d he told supporters.
\u201cI\u2019ve made mistakes in my life, mistakes that I regret, that I live with, that I continue to learn from. I\u2019m still far from perfect, but every day I wake up and I try to be a little bit better and a little bit kinder than I was the day before.\u201d
Supporters packed the hall long before Platner appeared. His mother, Leslie Harlow, took the stage before him, describing her son as someone who had spent his life helping others. \u201cI am very, very proud of my son,\u201d she told the crowd. Platner\u2019s wife, Amy Gertner, joined him after his speech in what appeared to be a carefully choreographed effort to project stability and unity.
During the height of the #MeToo movement, Democrats<\/a> often portrayed themselves as champions of strict accountability for allegations of personal misconduct. But on Tuesday party leaders wasted little time rallying around their nominee. The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement that Collins \u201chas never been more vulnerable\u201d and \u201cMaine voters will elect Graham Platner\u201d.
The race against Collins is likely to be tight, and could help decide control of the Senate. In his remarks, Platner, a progressive populist backed by Senator Bernie Sanders, set out a critique of Collins that is likely to feature heavily in the coming campaign. Mentioning her name prompted immediate boos from supporters.
\u201cSusan Collins may have started her career decades ago in Washington with good intentions, but she has become just as spineless and corrupt as the establishment she now serves,\u201d he said. \u201cShe got elected promising to protect Roe v Wade, only to turn around and put a justice on the supreme court who overturned it. She lied to us.\u201d
He accused the senator of enriching herself while ordinary Americans struggled, and attacked her support for military interventions abroad. \u201cSusan Collins has never met a war she didn\u2019t like,\u201d he said.
But Republicans<\/a> are already sharpening their attacks. The Senate Leadership Fund, a powerful Republican organisation, labelled Platner a \u201cdangerous deviant\u201d. Conservative groups are expected to spend millions highlighting the allegations against him.
Beyond Maine, Tuesday\u2019s elections offered fresh evidence of the issues shaping the wider political landscape.
South Carolina served up another test<\/a> of Trump\u2019s enduring influence over the Republican party. The president enjoyed a comfortable victory through his ally Lindsey Graham, who secured renomination to the Senate without being forced into a runoff.
Graham, once one of Trump\u2019s fiercest critics, thanked the president during his victory speech and promised to continue supporting his agenda in Washington. \u201cPresident Trump, I\u2019m coming back to the Senate,\u201d he declared. On Truth Social, Trump toasted Graham\u2019s \u201cBIG WIN tonight\u201d in a field \u201cof very capable candidates\u201d.
In the South Carolina primary for governor, congresswoman Nancy Mace became the latest casualty of Trump\u2019s efforts to topple Republicans, after she demanded the release of the government\u2019s Epstein files. She responded on X<\/a>: \u201cAs a survivor, I chose to stand on principle and stand against the Epstein cover-up. I chose to expose the names hidden in the sexual harassment slush fund. I chose to expose DEI judges. I chose to expose the abusers of children. And apparently, I chose wrong if the goal was winning an election.\u201d
But Trump\u2019s preferred candidate, Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette, failed to secure an outright majority and must now face Alan Wilson, the state attorney general, in a runoff election later this month.
The longtime South Carolina congressman James Clyburn easily fended off a little-known primary challenger. Two Republicans are still competing for the chance to face Clyburn but he is expected to be the overwhelming favourite in the general election.
In Nevada<\/a>, Democrats selected the state attorney general, Aaron Ford, as their nominee for governor, setting up what is expected to be one of the country\u2019s most competitive statewide contests. Ford defeated the Washoe County commissioner, Alexis Hill, after largely ignoring his primary opponent and focusing instead on the Republican governor Joe Lombardo.
At his victory celebration, Ford painted a bleak picture of the state\u2019s economic condition. \u201cNevadans are feeling more pain at the gas pump, at the grocery store, at the businesses that are closing in front of our eyes,\u201d he said.
Ford repeatedly linked Lombardo to Trump and argued that both were responsible for rising economic anxiety. \u201cThis is all about strengthening the working class,\u201d he said.
Lombardo remains one of the most vulnerable Republican governors seeking re-election. Democrats believe economic dissatisfaction could create an opening, although Republicans insist the governor\u2019s record on jobs, public safety and education will prove decisive.
Nevada also produced one of the most important congressional contests of the cycle. Republicans nominated Marty O\u2019Donnell, a composer best known for creating the soundtrack to the hugely successful Halo video game franchise, to challenge the Democratic congresswoman Susie Lee in the state\u2019s highly competitive 3rd congressional district.
O\u2019Donnell\u2019s win marked another victory for Trump, whose endorsed candidates won Republican primaries across the country.
Teresa Benitez-Thompson won the Democratic primary in Nevada\u2019s 2nd district. Benitez-Thompson, a former assembly leader, faces an uphill battle. Republicans outnumber Democrats by 70,000 in the district that covers Reno and rural northern Nevada.
In Maine, the Republican primary for governor will be decided by ranked choice voting. No candidate won the majority of votes on Tuesday so the race will go to a ranked runoff.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Outcome of polls in four states offers mixed signals about direction of two major parties before November\u2019s midtermsGraham Platner wins Maine Democratic Senate primary \u2013 videoProgressives rallied round the controversial Graham Platner after his primary victory in Maine on Tuesday, while Donald Trump again exerted his grip on the Republican party, helping to defeat a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}