Graham Platner won Maine's Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday, capturing the nomination to face Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November despite a campaign shadowed by scandal and a last-minute broadside from his own former campaign director. The oyster farmer and Marine veteran had been the effective front-runner since Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign on April 30, though her name remained on the ballot.
The final hours before polls opened brought fresh turbulence: Genevieve McDonald, Platner's former campaign director, went public with claims that the candidate should not be elected, adding to months of controversy that included a lingering sexting episode. Primary voters proved unmoved — polling had consistently shown Platner leading both Mills in the primary and Collins in a prospective general-election matchup.
The result sets up one of the marquee Senate races of the 2026 midterms. Collins, who ran unopposed for the Republican nomination, is the only GOP senator representing a state carried by Kamala Harris in 2024, and Democrats view the seat as essential to any realistic path toward a Senate majority.
Tuesday's voting stretched well beyond Maine. In Nevada, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford cruised to their parties' nominations for governor, setting up what is expected to be one of the most competitive gubernatorial contests of the fall in a perennial swing state.
In South Carolina, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette — backed by President Donald Trump — advanced to a Republican gubernatorial runoff, extending a primary season in which the president's endorsement has continued to carry decisive weight in GOP contests.
The night's results sharpen the November map: Democrats got the nominee their polling says runs strongest in Maine, Republicans consolidated early behind incumbents and Trump-endorsed candidates elsewhere, and both parties now turn to a general-election season in which control of the Senate could plausibly run through a state of 1.4 million people.