What we covered today
• Showdown in Maine: Marine veteran Graham Platner will win the Democratic Senate nomination, CNN projects, setting up a showdown against five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a race critical to Democrats’ chances of flipping four GOP-held seats and winning a majority. Despite the swirl of controversy surrounding Platner, the results so far show him performing well within his own party.
• South Carolina: In the closely watched gubernatorial race, Trump-endorsed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette will face state Attorney General Alan Wilson in a June 23 runoff for the GOP nomination, CNN projects. Evette becomes the third Trump-endorsed statewide candidate to slide into a runoff in recent weeks.
• California: Meanwhile, a week after elections there, CNN projects that Republican Steve Hilton will advance in the gubernatorial race and will face Democratic former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra in November.
Our coverage of today’s primaries in four states has wrapped for the day. Please scroll through the posts below to learn about all the developments or read our takeaways here.
Democrat Aaron Ford will take on Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo in November, CNN projects
The November race for Nevada governor is now set, with Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford set to take on incumbent Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, CNN’s Decision Desk projects.
Ford defeated his primary challenger, Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill. He has made affordability a cornerstone of his message to voters, highlighting his background of growing up in a working-class family and relying on programs like food stamps.
Ford’s platform focused on bringing down the cost of housing, healthcare and energy, accusing Lombardo of not doing enough and seeking to tie him to President Donald Trump.
“Well, let’s be clear, Joe Lombardo has had four years almost right now to address these issues,” Ford told CNN affiliate KTVN. “Task forces aren’t going to get the job done. What you need is, is bold action.”
Lombardo, the former Clark County Sheriff who is vying for a second term as governor, has focused on his economic achievements, highlighting ways he has brought jobs to the state and made Nevada more “business friendly.”
During his 2022 run for governor in the battleground state, Lombardo won the support of both the Republican establishment and Trump, though at times, he sought to distance himself from Trump as he looked to win over moderate and independent voters. The president again endorsed Lombardo last year.
Lombardo is also touting his deployment of the Nevada National Guard last year assisting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and his experience in law enforcement cracking down on crime.
“As the only candidate in this race to have put bad guys behind bars or deported violent criminals, Joe is opposed to sanctuary cities and will continue to do everything possible to keep us safe, and he isn’t afraid to take on the left-wing advocates constantly trying to make that more difficult,” his website says.
Collins campaign responds to Platner's fiery victory speech
Maine Sen. Susan Collins’ campaign took aim at her likely general election opponent tonight, hours after the projected Democratic nominee Graham Platner described the five-term Republican senator as “spineless and corrupt” and slammed her for siding with President Donald Trump.
In his victory speech, Platner zeroed in on Collins’ record, saying she had promised to protect Roe v. Wade “only to turn around and put a justice on the Supreme Court who overturned it. She lied to us.”
In Tuesday’s statement, Collins’ spokesperson said the senator continues to “earn the support of Republicans, Democrats, and independents across Maine.”
“While others talk about revolution and division, Susan Collins is delivering for Maine communities by funding rural hospitals, supporting our shipbuilders and fishermen, improving infrastructure, expanding broadband, and strengthening public safety,” the statement said.
GOP nominee for Maine governor will be decided by ranked choice voting, CNN projects
The Republican nominee for governor of Maine will be decided by ranked choice voting, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, with no candidate set to secure a majority of first choice votes.
It could be a week or more until a winner is determined as voters’ backup choices come into play.
First, votes from around the state are collected and brought to the capital of Augusta. Then results are tabulated in rounds. Each round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voters who supported them are reallocated to whoever they listed as their next preference. That process continues until only two candidates remain. Whoever has the most votes between those final two is the winner.
The Democratic gubernatorial nominee will also be decided by ranked choice voting, CNN previously projected.
Honeycutt and Smith to advance to GOP runoff in South Carolina's 1st District, CNN projects
Jenny Costa Honeycutt, a lawyer and Charleston County councilmember, will advance to a June 23 runoff against state legislator Mark Smith in the Republican primary to represent South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects.
Honeycutt ran as an “America First” candidate and campaigned on protecting conservative values and defending the US Constitution.
Smith stressed his longtime support of President Donald Trump, noting that he endorsed him during Trump’s 2016 presidential run and appeared with him at a rally in the district a decade ago.
Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford mounted a brief campaign for the seat – which he held at various points over the last three decades before losing to a primary challenger in 2018 – but dropped his bid in April.
The post was updated with CNN’s projection of Mark Smith advancing to a runoff.
Lt. Gov. Evette thanks Trump after advancing to runoff in South Carolina
Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette thanked President Donald Trump for his support after advancing tonight to a runoff in South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial primary race.
“What a night and what a win,” she said.
She will face a runoff on June 23 against state Attorney General Alan Wilson, CNN projects.
They advanced from a crowded field vying to succeed Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who is term-limited, including businessman Rom Reddy, and US Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman. Mace on Tuesday night endorsed Wilson.
Here's what happened so far during tonight's primaries
CNN has made projections in several key races in South Carolina and Maine’s primary elections so far tonight.
Primaries also happened in North Dakota and Nevada, and more results from California’s races last week came in.
A lot has happened, so if you’re just getting caught up, here’s a recap:
South Carolina
- Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician who focused her campaign on healthcare, will be her party’s nominee for Senate. She will face incumbent Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is running for his fifth term in office.
- In his speech to supporters, Graham spoke directly to President Donald Trump and pledged to be his “strongest ally” in the Senate.
- Attorney General Alan Wilson and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette will advance to a runoff for the Republican nomination for governor. Rep. Nancy Mace, who was one of the candidates, acknowledged her loss and endorsed Wilson. Evette was boosted by an endorsement from Trump last month.
- On the Democratic side, state representative Jermaine Johnson will win his party’s primary for governor.
- Nancy Lacore, a retired three-star admiral and former chief of the Navy Reserve, and Mac Deford, a US Coast Guard veteran, will advance to a runoff for the Democratic nomination in the 1st District. Jenny Costa Honeycutt, a lawyer and Charleston County councilmember, will also go to a runoff in the district’s Republican primary.
Maine
- The Senate general election matchup in Maine between Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Graham Platner is now set, with Platner securing the nomination tonight despite several rounds of controversy that rocked his campaign.
- Platner made a plea for trust to his supporters tonight and turned his aim toward Collins in his victory speech, calling out her record.
- Meantime, the Democratic nominee for governor will be decided by ranked choice voting, with no candidate set to secure a majority of first choice votes. The Republican contest, which features a crowded field, hasn’t been determined yet.
- The Democratic nominee to represent Maine’s competitive 2nd Congressional District will also be decided by ranked choice voting.
And in California
- Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and former Fox News host Steve Hilton — who is backed by Trump — will advance to the general election in California’s governor race. In an Instagram post today, Gov. Gavin Newsom endorsed Becerra to succeed him.
- Billionaire activist Tom Steyer conceded after coming in third and spending more than $200 million on his campaign.
- There were also several key House results. You can check those out here.
CNN’s Molly English, Arit John, Tori B. Powell, David Wright, Maureen Chowdhury, Ethan Cohen, Arlette Saenz and Aaron Blake contributed reporting to this post.
Democratic nominee in Maine’s 2nd will be determined by ranked choice voting, CNN projects
The Democratic nominee to represent Maine’s competitive 2nd Congressional District will be decided by ranked choice voting, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, with no candidate set to secure a majority of first choice votes.
It could be a week or more until a winner is determined as voters’ backup choices come into play.
First, votes from around the state are collected and brought to the capital of Augusta. Then, the results are tabulated in rounds. Each round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voters who supported them are reallocated to whoever they listed as their next preference. That process continues until only two candidates remain. Whoever has the most votes between those final two is the winner.
Gov. Janet Mills addresses Maine primary results with no mention of Graham Platner
Maine Gov. Janet Mills issued a statement addressing the results of Maine’s Democratic US Senate primary, which CNN’s Decision Desk projects Graham Platner will win.
CNN has reached out for clarification on whether Mills plans to make an endorsement in the race.
The outgoing governor was recruited to run by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, eyeing the race against veteran incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins as a top pick up opportunity. But the campaign flagged against the grassroots enthusiasm generated by Platner, and Mills suspended her campaign in April due to a lack of fundraising success.
Top Senate Democrats’ statement conspicuously avoids praising Platner
Graham Platner’s big Maine Democratic Senate primary win doesn’t appear to have totally allayed national Democrats’ concerns about associating with him.
A case in point: the statement tonight from Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairwoman Kirsten Gillibrand.
“Susan Collins has never been more vulnerable after she voted with Trump 96 percent of the time, confirmed his far-right judicial nominees, and took millions from special interests while voting to rip health care away from Mainers,” they said. “In November, Maine voters will elect Graham Platner, and we will win a Senate majority.”
Notice what they didn’t do, which is say anything nice about Platner. They just attacked Collins and said Platner would win.
But one key outside group did praise Platner, at least for his policies. The Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC praised his economic agenda.
“The difference between the two couldn’t be plainer: Platner’s agenda supports working people and families, while Collins upholds Washington’s status quo,” the super PAC said.
Platner looks strong within his own party
Graham Platner isn’t out of the woods when it comes to reports about his past personal issues. But Tuesday’s results made him look pretty strong within his own party.
The results currently show Platner taking around three-quarters of the vote in Maine’s Democratic Senate primary. He’s ceding a significant chunk to Gov. Janet Mills, who remained on the ballot despite suspending her campaign in April, and also some votes to David Costello.
Losing a quarter or more of the vote isn’t ideal, given Platner has been the presumptive nominee for a while.
But a University of New Hampshire poll that showed Platner at 76% – just above where he currently sits – was conducted before recent revelations about the candidate sexting with women who weren’t his wife and a New York Times investigation in which former girlfriends alleged toxic and even physically threatening behavior.
So just like it appeared voters didn’t desert him over a tattoo that resembled Nazi iconography and Reddit posts in which he insulted the police and White rural voters, it appears they haven’t deserted him over this.
There also doesn’t appear to be much dropoff between those voting in the competitive Democratic primary for governor and the Senate primary. If people were voting in the former but not the latter, that could be troubling for Platner.
Certainly, the results should foreclose talk about replacing Platner on the ticket, at least for now. After the Times’ latest major story, a person close to Mills suggested she was receiving calls to resume her primary campaign, although she never did.
Notably, some Democrats have begun talking about what the party does if the Platner revelations look like they’re imperiling what is a very important race for the party’s hopes of regaining Senate control.
Platner accuses Collins of becoming "just as spineless and corrupt as the establishment”
Graham Platner took aim at GOP opponent and incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, calling her “just as spineless and corrupt as the establishment she now serves.”
Platner went after her record, saying that she had promised to protect Roe v. Wade “only to turn around and put a justice on the Supreme Court who overturned it. She lied to us.”
He also called out her history of siding with President Donald Trump.
He also slammed Collins over the military actions she has supported.
“Susan Collins has never met a war she didn’t like. She’s been supporting endless wars since I was a teenager. I would know, I fought in two of them,” Platner said.
“Sen. Collins — I got blown up, while you handed out billions of dollars to defense companies that you … invested in. You and your friends profited. My friends died,” Platner said.
It's 10 p.m. ET and polls are closing in Nevada. Here are the key races
A competitive race for governor in Nevada will test Democratic strength in a heavily Latino state that’s been shifting to the right in recent years. It’s 10 p.m. ET and polls are now closed.
Democrats will be looking to unseat Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, four years after he defeated a Democratic incumbent. While there are plenty of candidates on the ballot, neither primary looks especially competitive, with state Attorney General Aaron Ford likely to face Lombardo in November.
Nevada’s 2nd District is the only Republican-held seat in the state and it’s open this year with the retirement of Rep. Mark Amodei.
President Donald Trump recently endorsed Air Force veteran David Flippo, but Amodei and Lombardo are supporting former state Director of Conservation and Natural Resources James Settelmeyer. The other three districts are all held by Democrats but could be Republican pickup targets this fall.
As key results come in, the general election is filling out in California
Tonight is supposed to be all about Maine, Nevada, North Dakota and South Carolina.
But we’re also suddenly seeing key results from California’s primary that have major implications for the midterms.
But we also got some key House results.
- In GOP Rep. David Valadao’s swing district, Bernie Sanders/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-aligned professor Randy Villegas will advance over establishment-favored state Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains.
- In the 40th district, we learned GOP Rep. Young Kim will face fellow GOP Rep. Ken Calvert in a rare matchup between members of the same party.
- And in the 6th district, Rep. Kevin Kiley, who recently switched from Republican to independent, will face Democrat Richard Pan. Kiley faces an uphill battle in the strongly Democratic district.
Platner’s refrain: “They don’t know Maine”
Addressing supporters at a victory rally tonight, Maine Democratic US Senate nominee Graham Platner delivered a familiar refrain, one printed on the campaign sign on his lectern: “They don’t know Maine.”
The circle-the-wagons messaging reflects the anti-establishment ardor that powered Platner through a primary race amid several controversies around allegations about his personal behavior.
But after what Platner touted as “the most powerful grassroots movement in the history of the state,” it’s now up to Mainers to render the final judgment on the untested candidate in the general election.
Senate campaign groups trade barbs as Platner is projected to win in Maine
The super PACs dedicated to electing Senate Democrats and Republicans traded barbs tonight after Graham Platner, the Democrats’ controversial candidate in Maine’s Senate race, was projected to win his party’s primary.
Platner will face Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November. In dueling statements, the parties previewed their messages for the general election.
SLF, which backs GOP candidates, said Platner “presents a serious threat to the Republican Senate majority.”
Democratic nominee for Maine governor will be decided by ranked choice voting, CNN projects
The Democratic nominee for governor of Maine will be decided by ranked choice voting, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, with no candidate set to secure a majority of first choice votes.
It could be a week or more until a winner is determined as voters’ backup choices come into play.
- First, votes from around the state are collected and brought to the capital of Augusta. Then, the results are tabulated in rounds.
- Each round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voters who supported them are reallocated to whoever they listed as their next preference.
- That process continues until only two candidates remain. Whoever has the most votes between those final two is the winner.
"It is my job to earn your trust," Platner tells supporters in Maine
Graham Platner, whose campaign has been rocked by controversies, made a plea for trust to his supporters tonight after he was projected to win the Democratic Senate nomination in Maine.
“If you believe, as I do, that we can change our politics, and change our country, then you must also believe that people can change,” Platner said, speaking at a YMCA in his hometown of Blue Hill. “And the reason I believe that is because I have lived it — and the reason I have lived it is because of my wife.”
Platner is facing mounting allegations of unsettling and in at least one case physically threatening behavior toward women he dated, according to a report published by The New York Times.
Platner has strongly disputed claims of physical intimidation or altercations, and his campaign said the most serious allegations were false and politically motivated.
Graham Platner’s mom: "Are we ready for something different?"
As very early results began trickling in on Tuesday night, Graham Platner’s mother, Leslie Harlow, told supporters assembled at the Blue Hill YMCA that she was “very, very proud of my son.”
“I am proud of who he is,” Harlow said. “I am proud of what he has fought for, and for building this movement that all Mainers here are part of.”
Harlow is no stranger to politics — she served as a delegate from her hometown of Sullivan to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. She also spoke at an October rally for her son.
Platner is projected to win tonight’s primary election, according to CNN’s Decision Desk.
Sen. Lindsey Graham says he will be Trump's "strongest ally" after projected primary win
Sen. Lindsey Graham started his watch party event with a long list of thank yous, including to President Donald Trump who he gave what he called “the most consequential endorsement, I think, in the history of politics.”
Graham, who is seeking a fifth term representing South Carolina, is projected to win the Republican Senate primary. He said he’s going to be “the Trump guy” and the president’s “strongest ally” in the Senate.
He pledged to continue to help Trump accomplish his agenda, including initiatives like nominating conservative judges, keeping taxes low and funding the military.
“This was a decisive win. It’s the most challenged I’ve ever been in terms of money, most challenged I’ve ever been in terms of the garbage thrown at me, and the reason I’m standing here tonight as a winner is because people around me made me a winner,” he said.
He took aim at the Democratic nominee, Annie Andrews, saying that he will call her out “for being the most liberal person ever nominated by the Democratic Party in the history of South Carolina to run for the United States Senate.”
