{"id":1514492,"date":"2026-06-10T08:57:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T13:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?guid=081d558dbea2c462c0e77cd6d133d55e"},"modified":"2026-06-10T09:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T14:09:10","slug":"key-takeaways-from-tuesdays-primaries-platner-wins-but-now-faces-months-of-more-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1514492","title":{"rendered":"Key takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries: Platner wins, but now faces months of more scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner and his wife Amy Gertner wave to supporters as they arrive to Platner's Primary Election event on June 9, 2026 in Blue Hill, Maine.. (Photo by CJ Gunther\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>

(WASHINGTON) -- Closely watched primaries in four states on Tuesday showed a resounding victory for a Democrat who was facing some controversies but amassed much popular support, the continued strength of President Donald Trump\u2019s endorsement, and set up a key governor\u2019s race in November.<\/p>

Here are some takeaways from Tuesday's primaries:<\/p>

Platner triumphant in Maine even amid controversies<\/strong><\/p>

Graham Platner, an oyster farmer and military veteran, is slated to take on longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November\u2019s general election for the U.S. Senate in Maine, romping to victory in the primary even amid multiple controversies.<\/p>

That included a late-breaking controversy from a New York Times report last Thursday that some of the Army veteran's former girlfriends said that his actions could be \"intimidating and disturbing.\"<\/p>

Platner denied allegations of being physically intimidating towards former partners, and said after the story broke that he had been open to Mainers about his past, and that it had never crossed his mind to drop out of the race.<\/p>

Tuesday night\u2019s results showed Maine Democrats rallying behind Platner, as he romped to a projected victory in the primary with almost 75% of the vote as of late Tuesday. While Maine Gov. Janet Mills was also on the ballot, she had suspended her campaign weeks ago and appeared on track to get less than a fifth of the vote.<\/p>

\u201cOver the last nine months I have seen Mainers come together behind a vision to take back our power from corporations and billionaires,\u201d Platner told supporters on Tuesday night.<\/p>

Platner\u2019s win gives Democrats an everyman candidate who has been able to attract huge crowds and support.<\/p>

But he and other Democrats now face months of a general election campaign where Republicans say they will bring up Platner's controversies every chance they get, both to strike at Platner and to hound Democrats over supporting someone who the GOP says goes against values Democrats claim to support.<\/p>

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), for instance, shared a digital ad right as polls closed in Maine that called Collins \u201ca senator we can be proud of\u201d and portrayed Platner as out-of-touch and scandal-ridden.<\/p>

But Platner will have the Democratic establishment backing him, too. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, both of New York, wrote on Tuesday night, \u201cOver the past year, we have created a path to win a Democratic Senate majority and put a stop to the chaos and damage of the Trump administration by defeating the Republicans who enable his harmful agenda. \u2026 In November, Maine voters will elect Graham Platner, and we will win a Senate majority.\u201d<\/p>

Trump candidate advances in South Carolina while one who defied him doesn't<\/strong><\/p>

Most of the U.S. House and governor candidates Trump endorsed in the 2026 cycle have won their primaries, even when Trump endorsed against established incumbents. In South Carolina\u2019s Republican primary for governor, Trump\u2019s endorsement was again on the ballot, as the president had endorsed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette -- snubbing two U.S. representatives running for the seat, Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman.<\/p>

And the power of Trump\u2019s endorsement was borne out again, to an extent, as ABC News projected that Evette and state Attorney General Alan Wilson will advance to a June 23 runoff in the Republican governor's primary.<\/p>

While Trump\u2019s endorsed candidate did not win outright, that might not be a shock, given the sheer number of prominent candidates running and South Carolina\u2019s runoff rules, in which the top two candidates go to a runoff if no one gets more than half of the vote.<\/p>

Mace, who overall is a staunch supporter of the president, had voted for the release of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in defiance of Trump\u2019s wishes. Some observers had seen Trump\u2019s snub of Mace's gubernatorial bid as another example of his political vengeance against lawmakers who opposed him, although Trump did not mention Mace in his endorsement of Evette.<\/p>

\u201cI voted to release the Epstein files and lost some support for that,\u201d Mace said during remarks on Tuesday night, where she conceded the gubernatorial race without mentioning Trump.<\/p>

Evette, on the campaign trail, had promoted her own conservative bona fides and strongly pushed for the state to redraw its congressional districts, a move Republican state legislators ended up rejecting.<\/p>

A toss-up match set for governor in Nevada<\/strong><\/p>

While the candidates who won Nevada\u2019s primaries for governor were not surprising in and of themselves, the results on Tuesday set up what\u2019s likely going to be one of the most closely watched gubernatorial elections this fall.<\/p>

Republican incumbent Gov. Joe Lombardo, who is running for a second term and has Trump\u2019s endorsement, cruised to a projected victory in his primary, while Democrats nominated Aaron Ford, the state\u2019s Attorney General, as their candidate.<\/p>

Democrats have said they think Lombardo is the most vulnerable governor up for reelection during the 2026 cycle. They\u2019ve argued that voters impacted by rising prices and Latino voters in the state who are souring on the Trump administration will turn against him.<\/p>

Republicans, meanwhile, have argued that Lombardo is the best choice to continue leading the Silver State. The Nevada Republican Party wrote in September that Lombardo \u201chas shown he\u2019s a true champion for Nevada families and our conservative values. As Sheriff, he kept our communities safe, and now as Governor, he\u2019s battling against the Democrats\u2019 radical agenda.\u201d<\/p>

The Cook Political Report rates the seat as \u201cToss Up,\u201d meaning it could be anyone\u2019s game come November.<\/p>

ABC News' Jared Kofsky, Clarissa Gonzalez, and Juhi Doshi contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>

Copyright \u00a9 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner and his wife Amy Gertner wave to supporters as they arrive to Platner’s Primary Election event on June 9, 2026 in Blue Hill, Maine.. (Photo by CJ Gunther\/Getty Images)(WASHINGTON) — Closely watched prim…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":792,"featured_media":1514498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/06\/b47469fe388fd400676c471f727dd937.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1502,1449],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1514492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc-heads","category-abc-political-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 11:13:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/06\/b47469fe388fd400676c471f727dd937.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/792"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1514492"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1514499,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1514492\/revisions\/1514499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1514498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1514492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1514492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1514492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}