Welcome to a special edition of At the Races! Throughout the 2026 primary season, watch for these updates from the CQ Roll Call campaign team on what you need to know for Election Day. Know someone who’d like to get this newsletter? They can subscribe here.
By Mary Ellen McIntire and Daniela Altimari
Maine is central to Democrats’ hopes of winning the Senate this fall. But Democrat Graham Platner’s vulnerabilities have underscored the challenge the party will face in ousting Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who is seeking a sixth term.
Platner, an oyster farmer and military veteran who essentially came out of anonymity to launch a Senate campaign last summer, has parlayed grassroots support into becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee in Maine. He weathered revelations last fall about his controversial Reddit posts, including posts that were dismissive of rape, and about his chest tattoo of a Nazi symbol that he has since covered up.
But his campaign came under renewed scrutiny last week following reports that he had sent extramarital sexual text messages and a New York Times report that quoted an ex-girlfriend saying he’d been physically threatening to her — an allegation Platner denies — and that described a series of “volatile and ‘toxic’ relationships.”
Platner met with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and a half dozen Democratic senators at the party’s Senate campaign headquarters in Washington last week. His campaign has said that despite the new reports, he saw a surge in fundraising and maintains the support of Mainers.
Gov. Janet Mills, who dropped her Senate bid at the end of April, hasn’t restarted campaigning as Platner has come under renewed scrutiny but told the Portland Press Herald: “People have the impression that I ‘withdrew’ or ‘dropped out,’ but I simply suspended active campaigning. I am still on the ballot.”
Also on Tuesday, Maine Democrats will pick their nominee to face Republican former Gov. Paul LePage in the 2nd District, where Democratic Rep. Jared Golden is retiring. Donald Trump has carried this seat three times but district voters have also backed the moderate Golden in four straight elections.
Four Democrats are seeking the nomination, as we wrote about in last Thursday’s newsletter: state Sen. Joe Baldacci, who has the support of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, state Auditor Matt Dunlap, former congressional staffer Jordan Wood and social worker Paige Loud.
Baldacci has been the target of outside spending by a group called Real Change PAC, which reportedly has ties to Republicans, but he said on a Friday press call that the spending was having “the reverse impact that was intended.”
Maine’s use of ranked choice voting makes it difficult to determine who is leading the race, and independent voters will be able to participate in party primaries this year.
Republicans view the 2nd District as a top pickup opportunity given its recent conservative lean on the presidential level. LePage, who is unopposed for the GOP nod, carried the seat in his 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial races, despite losing the latter. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Likely Republican.
The five-way Democratic primary for governor also features some familiar names to Capitol Hill watchers. Hannah Pingree, the former state House speaker and daughter of Rep. Chellie Pingree, and businessman Angus King III, the eponymously named son of the state’s junior senator, are both running.
South Carolina
Four-term Sen. Lindsey Graham faces several Republican primary challengers, including Mark Lynch, an appliance shop owner who has emphasized his opposition to the war in Iran. Lynch has styled himself as an insurgent in the mold of Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and has picked up the backing of several former Trump associates, including Joe Kent, the onetime director of the National Counterterrorism Center, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. But Graham has the backing of Trump himself, who has called Lynch “a LUNATIC” who would be “a DISASTER for the Republican Party.”
Pediatrician Annie Andrews is the front-runner on the Democratic side.
The winner of each party primary needs to capture at least 50 percent of the vote to avoid a June 23 runoff.
One of the most heated primary contests in the deep-red state is the open GOP contest for governor, which features two House members, Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman. Also in the race are Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who has Trump’s backing, state Attorney General Alan Wilson, the son of Rep. Joe Wilson, and businessman Rom Reddy.
The coastal, Charleston-based 1st District seat vacated by Mace has drawn a crowd of contenders from both parties. Republican hopefuls include Charleston County Councilwoman Jenny Costa Honeycutt, physician Sam McCown and state Rep. Mark Smith. Former Republican Rep. Mark Sanford, the state’s former governor, dropped his bid for the seat but his name remains on the ballot.
On the Democratic side, the field includes admiral and Chief of the Navy Reserve Nancy Lacore, who was removed from her post last year by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; 2024 contender Mac Deford and state Democratic Party official Mayra Rivera Vazquez.
In the open 5th District, state Sen. Wes Climer is the sole Republican in the primary and is heavily favored to succeed Norman.
Nevada
Rep. Mark Amodei’s decision to retire leaves the heavily Republican 2nd District open for the first time since 2011. The leading GOP contenders are former state Sen. James Settelmeyer, who has the backing of Amodei and Gov. Joe Lombardo, and retired Air Force Lt. Col. David Flippo, who picked up Trump’s endorsement.
Republicans are targeting the state’s other three congressional seats held by Democrats Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford.
North Dakota
Republican freshman Julie Fedorchak is facing a rematch against retired foreign service officer Alex Balazs in the primary for North Dakota’s at-large district. Balazs won the backing of the state GOP in March, though Fedorchak secured the all-important Trump endorsement last year.
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