{"id":307,"date":"2026-06-12T22:11:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T22:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=307"},"modified":"2026-06-12T22:11:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T22:11:57","slug":"graham-platner-had-a-much-better-primary-result-than-lindsey-graham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=307","title":{"rendered":"Graham Platner Had a Much Better Primary Result Than Lindsey Graham"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Two high-profile Grahams faced voters in US Senate primaries this week: Graham Platner, the outsider Maine Democrat mounting his first campaign; and Lindsey Graham, the insider incumbent seeking a fifth term, in a South Carolina Republican contest.<\/p>\n

Read more Our Endorsement: Brad\u00a0Lander\u00a0for Congress<\/a><\/p>\n

Graham Platner had been the subject of intense national scrutiny and late-breaking headlines about personal controversies\u2014what Maine Public media described as \u201ca withering blitz of unflattering revelations and ongoing attempts by Republicans and some Democratic operatives to weaken his candidacy.\u201d The attention was bruising enough that Maine Governor Janet Mills, who had suspended her own Senate campaign after trailing Platner badly in the polls, delivered a high-profile, pre-primary reminder that she was still on the ballot and still eligible for votes. Platner\u2019s populist campaign against billionaire elites, which attracted enthusiastic support from small donors and grassroots volunteers, also faced 2024 Democratic US Senate nominee David Costello, a veteran state and federal official, who was actively campaigning.<\/p>\n

Lindsey Graham, the onetime critic of Donald Trump who now enjoys strong support from the president, looked to be in a far better political position. He was running with the backing of the Republican political establishment in a red state where the party has grown into a muscular force over the 62 years since segregationist Democratic US Senator Strom Thurmond switched his allegiance to the GOP. Graham also, according to Politico<\/em>, enjoyed an enormous financial advantage, \u201ccombining with his allies to spend over $18 million in television and digital ads touting his record and endorsement from President Donald Trump\u201d to overwhelm the campaigns of self-funding right-wing businessman Mark Lynch and several other rivals.<\/p>\n

So what were the results?<\/p>\n

In South Carolina, Lindsey Graham won with 56.8 percent of the vote\u2014a victory, but an unspectacular one for such an ostensibly powerful figure. Indeed, he looks to have lost two of the state\u2019s more sizable counties\u2014Greenville and Spartanburg\u2014to Lynch.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Maine, Graham Platner carried 72 percent of the Democratic primary vote, sweeping every county and inspiring headline writers to describe a \u201cdecisive,\u201d\u201clandslide\u201d win.<\/p>\n

Read more What Elon Musk\u2019s Trillion-Dollar Payday Is Costing the Rest of Us<\/a><\/p>\n

There is no question that Graham Platner, who promises to be \u201ca senator for the people who cannot afford to buy a senator,\u201d will face a tough fall contest with Lindsey Graham\u2019s Republican colleague, Susan Collins, an enormously well-funded, corporate-aligned incumbent who is seeking her sixth term in a Senate where she votes 95 percent of the time with Trump. Collins brings what the BBC described as \u201ca political war chest that has more than $20 million between her campaign and affiliated committees.\u201d She\u2019s expected to relentlessly attack Platner\u2019s history of ugly social-media posts and multiple reports about the \u201ctoxic,\u201d \u201cvolatile\u201d and physically \u201cintimidating\u201d past relationships of the Democratic nominee, an Iraq War veteran who acknowledges that he went through \u201ca very dark period of my life, when I struggled with undiagnosed PTSD.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Maine race will get major attention in a political season where control of the Senate is at stake. But perhaps some attention might also be spared for the South Carolina race involving the other Graham.<\/p>\n

South Carolina Democratic US Senate nominee Annie Andrews, a pediatrician whose energetic campaign won her own party\u2019s nomination with a notably higher percentage of the vote than Lindsey Graham took in his GOP primary, has long argued that the incumbent is vulnerable in a year where frustration with Washington is running high. In light of Tuesday\u2019s results, Andrews may be on to something when she says, \u201cIt is clear to me that people in South Carolina are ready for something different. Lindsey Graham is a career, corrupt, cowardly politician. He\u2019s been our senator for 23 years now. And people understand that he really has abandoned South Carolinians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trumpworld\u2019s Global War on Multiracial Democracy<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nGraham Platner Had a Much Better Primary Result Than Lindsey Graham - Atlas Living Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=307\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Graham Platner Had a Much Better Primary Result Than Lindsey Graham - Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nation Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=307\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Atlas Living Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-12T22:11:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=307#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=307\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f6233854b1f92a6d21147fe5d5e58abc\"},\"headline\":\"Graham Platner Had a Much Better Primary Result Than Lindsey Graham\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-12T22:11:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=307\"},\"wordCount\":658,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=307#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/85080fd5f7accd5b82904f60fae51426.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=307#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=307\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atlaslivingmedia.com\\\/?p=307\",\"name\":\"Graham Platner Had a Much Better Primary Result Than Lindsey Graham - 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