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Voters head to the polls June 9 in South Carolina, Maine, Nevada and North Dakota, with key races for governor, Congress, statewide offices and state legislatures helping shape the 2026 midterm landscape. Follow live results, race calls, turnout updates and breaking developments throughout Election Day.
Covered by: Paul Steinhauser, Brooke Singman, Charles Creitz, Andrew Mark Miller, Leo Briceno, Alec Schemmel, Morgan Phillips, Elaine Mallon, Adam Pack, Alex Miller, Ashley J. DiMella, Amanda Macias, Robert Schmad, Hannah Brennan, Kiera McDonald, Greg Norman-Diamond, Peter D'Abrosca and Bonny Chu
Voters in South Carolina, Maine, Nevada and North Dakota head to the polls June 9 to choose party nominees in key races that will help shape the 2026 midterm elections.
Polls close first in South Carolina at 7 p.m. ET, followed by Maine at 8 p.m. ET, Nevada at 10 p.m. ET, and North Dakota between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET, depending on the county.
South Carolina’s marquee race is the crowded Republican gubernatorial primary, where a runoff is widely expected if no candidate wins a majority on Election Day.
Maine’s Democratic gubernatorial primary could remain unresolved on election night because the state uses ranked-choice voting, which may require additional rounds of counting.
Fox News Digital is tracking live results, race calls, turnout developments, candidate reactions and analysis throughout Election Day and into the overnight hours.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., appeared in a campaign video posted by Graham Platner on Tuesday ahead of Maine’s Senate primary, urging voters to turn out in support of the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Sanders, who has endorsed Platner, said the candidate is key to fighting what he described as entrenched financial interests in politics, according to the video posted on X.
“In American politics right now, the oligarchs have unlimited amounts of money,” Sanders said. “But there’s one thing they do not have that money can never buy. They do not have the people. They cannot put together enthusiastic grassroots organizations. That’s what Graham Platner is doing. Please come out and vote.”
“I am very proud to have Senator Sanders’ support,” Platner added. “But we need your support too. It is only in each other that we’re going to find the power to take back our politics in this country.”
Platner, who has aligned himself with Sanders’ democratic socialist movement, has leaned heavily into anti-corporate messaging and sought to mobilize progressive activists throughout his campaign.
Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, on Tuesday raised questions about Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner during a fiery hearing involving a civil rights group that officials alleged has ties to extremist organizations.
Bryan Fair, the interim CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), appeared before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington as lawmakers examined allegations involving federal fraud and ties to neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations.
During the hearing, lawmakers referenced Platner’s Nazi-linked tattoo resembling a Totenkopf — SS “death’s head” — which the Democratic nominee has said he received without understanding its origins.
Gill questioned Fair on whether Platner’s tattoo suggested ties to extremist groups.
“Do you think if somebody got a Nazi tattoo on their chest, that’s indicative that they might be a Nazi?” Gill asked.
“You’d have to ask Mr. Platner why he has that symbol,” Fair answered. “I’d like to say that if it is a symbol of Nazism, we oppose Nazi.”
“You think that somebody who has a Nazi tattoo on their chest should serve in the United States Senate?” Gill added.
“I wouldn’t vote for that person,” Fair said.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday blasted Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner as voters headed to the polls in the state’s primary.
The former Trump administration official urged Maine voters to exercise “good judgment,” describing Platner as unfit for the U.S. Senate.
“Graham Platner has no place in the United States Senate,” Pompeo said in a post on X. “I pray that the good people of Maine have the good judgment to keep him as far from the halls of power as possible.”
Platner, a Marine Corps veteran, has been widely viewed as the presumptive Democratic frontrunner in the race but has faced intense criticism from Republicans throughout the campaign amid a series of personal and political controversies.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills was spotted at a polling location in Waterville on Tuesday ahead of the state’s Democratic Senate primary, where her name remains on the ballot alongside frontrunner Graham Platner despite suspending her campaign earlier this year.
According to a video posted on X, Mills appeared at the site while accompanying her friend, former Maine state Rep. Hannah Pingree, who is running for governor.
In the video, Mills declined to comment on the state’s key races but said she planned to return to her hometown of Farmington to cast her vote.
Mills, who is barred from seeking another term as governor under Maine’s term-limit laws, previously entered the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat before suspending her campaign.
A source in Mills’ broader political orbit confirmed to Fox News last week that the governor had received calls urging her to reenter the race amid controversies surrounding Platner.
Mills said in a recent interview that her name remains on the ballot, but there has been no active effort to revive her campaign.
The two-term governor, who was backed by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and much of the Democratic establishment, dropped out of the race earlier this spring after significantly trailing Platner in both fundraising and polling.
Platner, a Marine Corps veteran, has been widely viewed as the presumptive Democratic nominee despite facing a series of controversies. Backed by progressive figures including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., he faces two long-shot challengers in Tuesday’s primary.
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that “the allegations against Graham Platner are extremely troubling and serious.”
“And he owes the people of Maine a detailed answer and I haven’t heard that yet,” Collins added.
Voters are heading to the polls in Maine on Tuesday, where Platner is seeking to become the Democratic Senate nominee to challenge Collins in November.
“We’re a long ways before the election. Today is primary day. Let’s see what happens in the primaries,” Collins also said.
Fox News’ James Levinson contributed to this post.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., claimed Tuesday that an employee of rival South Carolina gubernational candidate Pamela Evette’s campaign “physically assaulted a supporter of mine last night” and that “the violent offender was arrested.”
“This is not the appropriate behavior of a sitting Lt. Governor or anyone wishing to become Governor. Pam needs to disavow this right now, fire the individual and apologize to the young man who was assaulted,” Mace wrote on X.
Mace’s campaign released a statement saying “Blake Garrison Kirsch, a member of Evette’s campaign,” was taken into custody “on charges of Assault & Battery 3rd Degree after physically attacking a Mace supporter.” The campaign cited Greenville County court records for Kirsch’s arrest.
“Mace’s supporter was attending a campaign event when Kirsch allegedly carried out the attack. Kirsch was arrested the same day,” the Mace campaign said.
The congresswoman reposted a video on X purportedly showing a man walking up to another individual who was speaking into a megaphone near an Evette campaign bus. The man then tries to grab the megaphone away from him and a struggle ensues.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, campaign manager Megan Finnern said, “Our team is deeply disappointed that this occurred.”
“We support free speech and do not in any way condone violence. He is not, and has never been, employed by the Evette campaign,” she added.
Kirsch was described as a volunteer on the Evette finance committee who has since voluntarily resigned.
Images are emerging Tuesday showing voters heading to the polls in Maine for primary elections.
Graham Platner is seeking to become the Democratic Senate nominee and challenge longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins later this year.
Platner is facing scrutiny of his past conduct, with controversies ranging from sexually explicit messages and offensive social media posts to a Nazi-linked tattoo and campaign staff upheaval.
Fox News Digital’s Amanda Macias contributed to this post.
Graham Platner shouldn’t be elected to represent Maine in the U.S. Senate, a former high-level staffer for the embattled Democratic candidate told voters just hours before polls opened in the state’s Tuesday primary.
Genevieve McDonald, once a Maine state representative who worked briefly as Platner’s campaign director last year, warned in an op/ed in The Washington Post on Monday evening: “Graham Platner is not someone who would be good for Maine or for the country.”
While she overlooked his Nazi-linked tattoo and possible cheating scandal, McDonald said in the piece titled “I know firsthand why Graham Platner shouldn’t be a U.S. senator” that she couldn’t ignore how “he exhibits a pattern of dishonest behavior,” and ultimately quit the campaign after just two months.
“I was one of the Platner campaign’s first gaslighting casualties,” she wrote.
McDonald said she was “disturbed” by what she learned during her time on his staff from August to October 2025.
“If America wants a stronger democracy, elevating leaders with integrity is essential,” she wrote in the opinion piece. “Leaders with sound judgment and ethics. Leaders who embrace and live the ideals the nation stands for.”
Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, in a message asking voters for their support, wrote on X Tuesday that “Meeting all of you has been the honor of a lifetime.”
Polls are currently open across Maine until 8 p.m. ET.
Platner has been considered the all-but-certain Democratic nominee after two-term Gov. Janet Mills, who was backed by longtime Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Party establishment, dropped out of the race earlier this spring after significantly trailing Platner in fundraising and polling.
He’s facing two long-shot rivals for the nomination in Tuesday’s primary, but Mills’ name remains on the ballot, which she highlighted in a recent interview. A source in Mills’ wider political orbit confirmed to Fox News last week that the governor was receiving calls urging her to get back in the race amid Platner’s controversies. But there’s no active campaign effort on behalf of Mills.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette said Tuesday that President Donald Trump “needs a strong partner as Governor who will deliver on our conservative America First agenda.”
“It’s why he gave me his ‘complete and total endorsement,’” she added in a post on Election Day urging voters to head to the polls in South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial primary.
Evette is seeking to succeed a top Trump ally, term-limited Republican Gov. Henry McMaster.
She is facing off in the GOP primary against a handful of top rivals. They are longtime South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, nationally known Rep. Nancy Mace, Rep. Ralph Norman and multimillionaire businessman Rom Reddy.
After Trump backed Evette, Mace said that her very vocal push last year for the Justice Department to release the files related to its probe into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein contributed to the president’s backing of her rival.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
LEWISTON, ME – As Maine voters head to the polls Tuesday to nominate a Democratic Senate candidate, a Republican lawmaker in the state says that Maine voters should be most concerned with the policies of Graham Platner, even though his political baggage has received most of the attention.
“His personal life is a mess, right?” Maine Republican State Representative Laurel Libby told Fox News Digital on Monday. “We understand that. We’ve seen scandal after scandal come out. But what I think is incredibly dangerous are the policies that he’s looking to advance.”
Libby, who represents Maine House District 90, which encompasses Minot and part of Auburn, said one of the policies she is most concerned about is Platner’s support of the progressive “Green New Deal,” sweeping legislation that would cost taxpayers tens of trillions of dollars and phase out fossil fuel production.
“Taking the extreme green agenda to DC that has already made our cost of electricity skyrocket in our state under Democrat leadership for the last eight years,” Libby said. “If we see that implemented in D.C., and we see costs increase across the country, it won’t just be crushing Mainers, it will be crushing American families and workers across the board.”
Libby told Fox News Digital that it “doesn’t surprise me” Democrats are poised to nominate Platner, despite his laundry list of controversies that critics have seized on, because Maine has been led by the “same kind of extremism” for eight years as the party controls the governor’s mansion and legislature.
“We have seen 32 new or increased taxes, we’ve seen all of our overall cost of living increase and so Graham Platner has sprung out of that and is looking to take those same policies to D.C., harming not just Mainers but folks across the country,” Libby said. “I think he’s tremendously dangerous, and we can’t have him in the Senate.”
Fox News Digital’s Kiera McDonald contributed to this report.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, repeatedly declined to weigh in on Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner’s sexting controversy last week, opting to keep her distance from the escalating scandal as Maine voters head to the polls Tuesday.
“I really have nothing to add to it,” Collins told Fox News Digital when asked about the allegations surrounding Platner, the Democratic frontrunner and her presumed opponent.
Collins reiterated that position when pressed further, declining multiple opportunities to comment as scrutiny surrounding Platner intensified ahead of the Democratic primary.
“As I said to you earlier, I do not have anything to add to this,” Collins said.
Collins’ refusal to engage comes as Republicans have increasingly made Platner’s controversies a central line of attack ahead of the primary. Outside organizations backing Collins have aired ads and amplified criticism of the Maine Democrat, while the senator herself has largely avoided publicly weighing in despite being expected to face him in November’s midterms.
Collins’ recent reluctance to comment differs from her earlier remarks about Platner. Last month, she criticized the Democratic candidate when speaking to Fox News Digital after he mocked a wounded U.S. soldier.
“It’s never appropriate to mock a downed American soldier,” Collins said to Fox News Digital last month. “It’s just appalling.”
Polls are now open Tuesday in Maine’s three largest cities – Portland, Lewiston and Bangor – as voters across the state are deciding the fate of Graham Platner, the Democratic Senate candidate who is aiming to oust longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Collins is a moderate who is running for a sixth six-year term in the Senate and has a history of voting against President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Polls will remain open across Maine until 8 p.m. ET.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
As Primary Day arrives in Maine, Democratic candidate Graham Platner is facing arguably the roughest stretch to date of his campaign for the U.S. Senate, amid a slew of controversies that have been dominating the political spotlight.
Platner has been considered the all-but-certain Democratic nominee in Maine after two-term Gov. Janet Mills, who was backed by longtime Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Party establishment, dropped out of the race earlier this spring after significantly trailing Platner in fundraising and polling.
Platner, who is supported by progressive champions including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, is facing two long-shot rivals for the nomination in Tuesday’s primary. But Mills’ name remains on the ballot, which she highlighted in a recent interview.
A source in Mills’ wider political orbit confirmed to Fox News last week that the governor was receiving calls urging her to get back in the race amid Platner’s controversies. But there’s no active campaign effort on behalf of Mills.
As votes are counted after polls close at 8pm ET, keep a close eye on how Mills performs.
A strong showing for the two-term governor could potentially renew calls for Platner to step aside.
But a big night for Platner could help him shift the spotlight off his political baggage.
until Republicans relentlessly go after him.
One week after President Donald Trump’s endorsement-winning streak in high-profile Republican primaries was snapped, the president’s immense clout over his party is facing another key test in South Carolina’s GOP gubernatorial nomination face-off.
The president, a week and a half ago, handed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette 11th-hour support as she seeks to succeed a top Trump ally, term-limited Republican Gov. Henry McMaster.
Evette is facing off in the GOP primary against a handful of top rivals. They are longtime South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, nationally known Rep. Nancy Mace, Rep. Ralph Norman and multimillionaire businessman Rom Reddy.
Since no candidate was expected to top 50% of the primary vote and land a majority, the top two finishers will advance to the June 23 Republican runoff.
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 last minute endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa — 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.
Trump, after staying neutral for months, endorsed Evette, praising her as an “America First Patriot” and a “WINNER” in his announcement.
And the president headlined a tele-rally for Evette on the eve of the primary.
But Trump, in a social media post endorsing Evette, also said he expected Evette to choose Henry McMaster Jr., the governor’s son, as her running mate for lieutenant governor.
The comment by the president led to blowback in South Carolina political circles and speculation that McMaster, who succeeded then-Gov. Nikki Haley when she stepped down to serve as U.N. ambassador during Trump’s first term and who is in his 10th year as governor, was trying to give his son a political boost.
But McMaster denied any deal or pressure, and Evette has said she wouldn’t name any running mate until after the primary is over.
And on Friday, the younger McMaster took his name out of contention, saying it was “incredibly humbling” to be mentioned as a possible lieutenant governor candidate, but that “now is simply not the right time.”
BANGOR, Maine — It’s judgment day for Graham Platner, the embattled Democratic Senate candidate in left-leaning Maine who is aiming to oust longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a crucial race that’s among a handful that will determine if the GOP holds its slim Senate majority in the midterm elections.
Platner, an oyster farmer and military combat veteran who is backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and other top progressive champions, is facing a slew of controversies, which could make his expected Democratic primary victory in Maine much more interesting than originally expected.
Platner has been playing defense the past month, amid mounting controversy. It includes 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.
Meanwhile, one week after President Donald Trump’s endorsement-winning streak in high-profile Republican primaries was snapped, the president’s immense clout over his party is facing another key test in South Carolina’s GOP gubernatorial nomination face-off.
The president, a week and a half ago, handed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette 11th-hour support as she seeks to succeed a top Trump ally, term-limited Republican Gov. Henry McMaster.
Evette is facing off in the GOP primary against a handful of top rivals. They are longtime South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, nationally known Rep. Nancy Mace, Rep. Ralph Norman and multimillionaire businessman Rom Reddy.
Read the full story here
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This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG.
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