As she runs for a sixth six-year term in the U.S. Senate in left-leaning Maine, Republican Sen. Susan Collins is now officially her party’s nominee in a crucial race that’s one of a handful across the country that will determine whether Republicans keep control of their slim Senate majority.

Collins can toss the «presumptive nominee» title after formally landing her party’s nomination on Tuesday by running unopposed in Maine’s Senate GOP primary.

As she fights for re-election, the 73-year-old Collins is once again a top target for Democrats as they aim to win back the Senate majority in this year’s midterms.

«I have been the No. 1 target of Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, not only in this campaign, but the last two campaigns as well. I’m always his No. 1 target,» Collins said in a recent Fox News Digital interview.

SIX MONTHS TILL MIDTERMS: THE TEN RACES THAT WILL DETERMINE THE SENATE’S MAJORITY

Facing Collins will be military veteran and oyster farmer Graham Platner, the all-but-certain Democratic nominee after two-term Gov. Janet Mills, who was backed by Schumer and the Democratic Party establishment, dropped out of the race earlier this spring after significantly trailing Platner in fundraising and polling.

While Collins has focused on her Senate agenda, and on Friday she received bipartisan praise after reaching a milestone by casting her 10,000th consecutive Senate vote, Platner has been playing defense amid multiple controversies, ranging from inflammatory online comments made on Reddit, a well-publicized and now covered-up tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol, to new allegations last week from ex-girlfriends of a history of rape fantasies, heavy drinking and violent episodes.

Platner, who has acknowledged his battle with post-traumatic stress disorder from his four tours of duty in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, has said he’s «been open about what was a very dark period of my life where I struggled with undiagnosed PTSD, too often self-medicated with alcohol, and was a far from perfect boyfriend.»

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Graham Platner, the Democrats’ presumptive Senate nominee in Maine, holds an energy event in Ellsworth, Maine, on Monday, May 11, 2026. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

«I take responsibility for all of that, and wish I had been better. Any characterization beyond that is false, and I believe, politically motivated,» Platner added. «I’m not proud of who I was then, but I am proud of the work I’ve done since, and the movement we are building in Maine.»

The candidate apologized for his controversial Reddit posts after they made headlines last fall soon after he launched his Senate campaign. Platner has said he got the skull and crossbones tattoo in 2007 while drinking with fellow Marines stationed in Croatia. He said that he covered up the tattoo with a new design after learning last year that it resembled a Nazi symbol. But new allegations raise questions about Platner’s timeline regarding knowledge of the tattoo.

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Platner, who is supported by progressive champions Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, is pushing an economically populist agenda as he takes aim at corporate influences and advocates for the working class.

Asked if Platner is too far to the left for voters in her northern New England state, Collins recently told Fox News Digital, «I believe that will be the conclusion of Maine voters. But, obviously, I don’t take anything for granted.»

Collins said that when it comes to her Democratic challenger’s growing political baggage, «Obviously, I’m going to be contrasting my record of achievement and accomplishments with Graham Platner’s approach.»

An outside political group aligned with the senator has already been blasting Platner, running ads spotlighting his multiple controversies.

Platner, who is running as an outsider, emphasizes that Collins is part of a «broken Washington» and «a generation of politicians who have failed us.»

He has described Collins’ moderate Republican image as a «charade,» highlights her support for some of President Donald Trump’s agenda and accuses her of being part of a political system that benefits the wealthy. 

«She and Republican politicians like her have prioritized the interests of billionaires and corporations over people,» he has charged.

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner stand together during a «Fighting Oligarchy» tour stop at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus in Orono, Maine, on May 24, 2026. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Republicans — as the party currently in power in Washington, D.C. — were already up against traditional political headwinds that typically lead to a loss of congressional seats. Add to that the challenging climate fueled by persistent inflation, rising gas prices tied to what polls show is an unpopular war with Iran and Trump’s underwater approval ratings.

Asked how she can overcome the blame pointed at Republicans over the high cost of living, Collins recently told Fox News Digital she’s championed the low-income heating assistance program, which «helps low-income families and seniors stay warm during the cold winter months. I just recently made sure the final tranche of money was released because there is a lot of need in the state of Maine, and the cost of living is high here.»

Collins also emphasized her opposition to cuts «in food stamp benefits and in other programs that are designed for low-income families because I know how important they are.»

The latest public opinion polls point to a competitive contest between Collins and Platner.

But Collins has a history of defeating the Democrats’ efforts to oust her from the Senate.

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Six years ago, she trailed Democratic challenger Sara Gideon, the then-Maine House speaker, but the senator ended up winning re-election by nearly nine points.

Pointing to the expected wave of attack ads targeting her, Collins said, «Fortunately, the people of Maine are smart, and they know lies and distortions when they see it.»

BLUE HILL, Maine – Graham Platner, the progressive left, and Donald Trump appear to be the big winners in Tuesday’s high-profile primaries in Maine and South Carolina.

Platner, the oyster farmer and military combat veteran who has been facing plenty of incoming fire amid mounting controversies, cruised to the Democratic nomination Tuesday in left-leaning Maine and will now face longtime moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a key race that is among a handful which will likely determine if Republicans hold their Senate majority in the midterm elections.

Meanwhile, in solidly red South Carolina, Trump-backed Sen. Lindsey Graham won a majority of the vote in the Senate GOP primary and will avoid a runoff against a primary challenger from the right.

And the candidate the president endorsed in the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, finished on top of a crowded field of contenders and will advance to a runoff election in two weeks against longtime South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who came in second.

Here’s what we learned in the key June 9th primaries.

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The left storms back

The convincing victory by Platner, who was backed by progressive champions Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, looks to be another feather in the cap for the left in their intra-party face-off with the establishment.

The primary in Maine was held a week after Iowa state Rep. John Turek, who was supported by longtime Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, won the Democratic Senate primary and will face Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson in another crucial midterm showdown.

Turek, a wheelchair basketball player who won two Paralympic gold medals, defeated the more progressive candidate, state Sen. Zach Wahls. The divisive and expensive primary battle was viewed as a proxy war between the establishment and anti-establishment wings of the party.

Fast-forward a week and the ballot box performance by Platner, who promotes an economically populist agenda as he takes aim at corporate influences and advocates for the working class, gives a boost to the left.

«The Democratic establishment and powerful interests spent months trying to stop Graham Platner. Instead, they demonstrated that voters in Maine and across America want to elect shake-up-the-system outsiders,» Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green emphasized.

And Green warned that Platner’s victory «should be a wake-up call for a Democratic establishment that has spent too long underestimating the appeal of economic populism and outsider politics.»

EMBATTLED PLATNER WINS DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY TO TEE UP CRUCIAL MIDTERM SHOWDOWN

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner stand together during a «Fighting Oligarchy» tour stop at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine campus in Orono, Maine, on May 24, 2026. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

What controversies?

Platner in recent weeks has been facing one of the roughest stretches of his bid for the U.S. Senate.

The candidate has been playing defense the past month, amid multiple controversies. They include inflammatory online comments made on Reddit, a well-publicized and now covered-up tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol, recent reports that he exchanged sexually explicit messages with several women while married, and new allegations last week from ex-girlfriends of a history of rape fantasies, heavy drinking and violent episodes. Platner has called the latest allegations of violence untrue.

On Monday, a day before the primary election, a former high-level staffer from the Platner campaign wrote in the Washington Post that Platner «is not someone who would be good for Maine or for the country.»

While the mounting controversies triggered some Democrats in the nation’s capital to question whether Platner was damaged goods and needed to be replaced, the candidate this past weekend thanked Maine voters for continuing to support him.

«When hurtful things I said on the internet a decade ago came out into the public as I shared my personal journey through PTSD and darkness of recovery and accountability and growth. Maine had my back,» Platner said at a rally Friday not far from his hometown in Down East Maine. «Now, as every single piece of that past and journey gets dug up, litigated, and weaponized, you have my back. And when politically motivated, serious and false accusations are made against me. Maine, you have my back.»

THE GROWING LIST OF CONTROVERSIES THREATENING DEMOCRAT GRAHAM PLATNER’S MAINE SENATE BID

Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner and his wife greet supporters after he won his party’s nomination, at his victory celebration in Blue Hill, Maine on June 9, 2026. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

And voters in Maine’s Democratic Senate primary seemed to shrug off the controversies.

«In trying so hard to understand me, they failed to understand that this is not about me at all,» Platner said in his victory speech as he dismissed news reports about his past misdeeds as immaterial to the Senate election.

«This is a movement about us, about the far too many working far too hard and struggling far too much.»

Trump has a big night

The president wasn’t on the ballot in South Carolina, but he had plenty on the line in the GOP Senate and gubernatorial primaries.

One week after Trump’s endorsement-winning streak in high-profile Republican primaries was snapped, the president’s immense clout over the GOP was on the line again, this time in South Carolina.

And the president easily passed the test.

The candidate Trump endorsed in the Palmetto State’s GOP gubernatorial primary, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, finished first in a crowded field of candidates and clinched one of the two tickets in the race for the nomination.

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Evette, who repeatedly spotlighted Trump’s support, now advances to a Republican runoff election in two weeks against South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, the second place finisher, in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Henry McMaster. 

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette stand on stage during an election night watch party at the State Fairgrounds in Columbia, S.C., on Feb. 24, 2024. Trump defeated Nikki Haley in the South Carolina Republican primary. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Since no candidate topped 50% of the primary vote to land a majority, Evette and Wilson will battle for the nomination in the June 23 runoff, and the winner will be considered the clear favorite in the general election in the solidly red southeastern state.

Meanwhile, in the South Carolina GOP Senate primary, longtime Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham did win a majority of the vote, and will avoid a runoff, the Associated Press reported.

Graham, who was endorsed by Trump, was facing primary challenges from five candidates, including conservative businessman Mark Lynch, who took aim at the senator over his support for the war in Iran. Lynch was backed by some MAGA leaders who have been critical of the president.

Graham’s campaign and allied political groups spent nearly $20 million to highlight Trump’s support. And the president joined Graham and Evette for a primary eve tele-rally.

The brute force of the president’s endorsement power has been on display in GOP primaries over the past month, with his candidates ousting incumbents he targeted in showdowns in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky and Texas that grabbed plenty of national attention.

But his 11th-hour endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa a week and a half ago — which came on the same day he also backed Evette — in the race to succeed retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds wasn’t enough to muscle the three-term congressman to victory.

Feenstra was narrowly edged by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and former political strategist who was backed by the political wings of MAHA — the acronym for the Make America Healthy Again movement aligned with Trump Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and Turning Point USA, the powerful conservative organization co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk.

In the South Carolina GOP gubernatorial primary, the major contenders had long been highlighting their support for Trump and his agenda, in hopes of landing his support.

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Trump, after staying neutral for months, endorsed Evette, praising her as an «America First Patriot» and a «WINNER» in his announcement.

In her primary night speech, Evette thanks the president and touted that she’s a «Trump-endorsed businesswoman and conservative who’s going to take the fight to the radical left.»

El papa en Barcelona

Unas 40.000 personas asistieron a la misa del Papa León XIV en Barcelona, este martes. Foto: REUTERS

Sin tenis ni piscina

Vigilia con 40 mil fieles

El Papa León llega a una vigilia en un estadio en Barcelona, este martes. Foto: EFE

“Un espacio acogedor para todos”