Many are sticking by the presumptive Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner. But some have soured, and others are anxious about how recent revelations could affect a close race.
Platner's supporters entered the Friday rally through a phalanx of cameramen asking what they thought of their candidate now. They were a little tense when the candidate started talking about his scandals. But many later insisted that all of it was a test from DC.
Graham Platner would have been dismissed as unacceptable in the Democratic party just a decade ago.
Ken Paxton‘s former personal lawyer is bucking his high-profile client to endorse Democratic candidate James Talarico for Texas’s U.S. Senate seat. After Paxton’s GOP runoff victory against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Texas solidified the long-awaited matchup between Trump-endorsed Paxton and vocal Christian Democrat Talarico in late May. The Lone Star State’s 2026 Senate race […]
With his grip on the South Carolina Republican primary suddenly less certain than anyone anticipated, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is calling in the biggest favor he has — President Donald Trump.Graham announced Monday that Trump has agreed to join a last-minute tele-rally Monday evening ahead of Tuesday's GOP primary, urging supporters to dial in at 5:30 p.m. "I'm proud to be endorsed by President Trump, and I'd be honored to have you join us for a Tele-Rally TONIGHT at 5:30 PM," Graham wrote on X.The move underscores an uncomfortable reality for the four-term incumbent: heading into Tuesday's vote, Graham cannot be certain he will clear the 50% threshold South Carolina requires to avoid a June 23 runoff.The most recent polling tells a mixed story. A late-May Citadel Poll of likely Republican primary voters had Graham at just 46% — four points short of the runoff barrier — with challenger Mark Lynch at 36%. A Trafalgar Group survey conducted around the same time showed a more comfortable 52%-28% edge, and a poll released Saturday by The Public Sentiment Institute put Graham at 51% to Lynch's 26%.The wild card is Graham's hawkish support for the U.S.-Israel war against Iran. Lynch has made it the centerpiece of his challenge, arguing Graham is focused on prolonging a conflict South Carolinians are growing tired of. "People are tired of him getting [the United States] into endless, needless wars," Lynch told the Christian Science Monitor in a piece published Monday.The TPSI poll found that among voters who believe Israel has too much influence in American politics — roughly 36% of the Republican electorate — Lynch actually led Graham, 37% to 33%.Graham has shown no sign of backing down. "If you're scared of losing your job, you cannot be a very good senator," he told the Post and Courier, according to the Christian Science Monitor.Trump formally endorsed Graham on June 4, urging South Carolina Republicans to vote for him, and Graham has leaned hard into that alliance. But with Lynch self-funding his campaign to the tune of $5 million and anti-establishment energy running high, Trump's voice on a phone line may be the deciding factor between a clean win and two more weeks of political headaches for the Palmetto State's senior senator.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, an enthusiastic backer of President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, faces an anti-interventionist insurgency at home in South Carolina, where he’s fending off a challenge from businessman Mark Lynch in the state’s June 9 primary.A self-styled “America First” candidate, Lynch has attacked Graham by calling him a “warmonger” who cares more about “a fancy ballroom than he does your sons and daughters dying in the Middle East.”Differences over foreign policy aside, Lynch’s candidacy taps into the more extreme tradition of far-right politics, compared to Graham’s relative moderation.Graham is running with the endorsement of Trump, who dismissed Lynch as a “lunatic” while expressing annoyance that Graham’s challenger supported Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a critic of the war against Iran.“Mark Lynch would be a DISASTER for the Republican Party, and Lindsey Graham just, GETS THE JOB DONE,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.Lynch has racked up endorsements from retired Lt. General Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor; former Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino; Joe Kent, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center; Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet; and Ivan Raiklin, the self-styled “secretary of retribution.”Graham has become a target of anger for the restive MAGA faction, which sees the war with Iran as a betrayal of Trump’s promise to avoid getting the United States into new wars. Among Trump’s Republican allies in Congress, Graham distinguished himself by urging the U.S. to seize Iran’s Kharg Island and saying he would be willing to send South Carolina’s “sons and daughters” to the Middle East.Speaking at an anti-war rally in Michigan last month, Raiklin dangled a red cap inscribed with the words “Dump Lindsey” from a mic stand.“Do you want your president listening to Lindsey Graham?” Raiklin asked.“No!” the crowd thundered in response.“If you’re in South Carolina, primary this scumbag,” Raiklin said, “so he’s no longer golfing down at Mar-a-Lago promoting the war machine.”The Graham campaign did not respond to questions concerning this story.Lynch, who trails Graham by about 20 points in recent polls, has attempted to strike a delicate balance between supporting Trump and appealing to the MAGA dissidents.“I believe that the job of a U.S. senator is to uphold their oath to the Constitution, represent the interests of the constituents, and promote America First principles,” Lynch told Raw Story. “And I would support everything President Trump does to those ends.”At the same time, Lynch is staking positions markedly to the right of Graham by vocally supporting white Christian nationalism, while embracing a theocratic doctrine that critics view as anti-constitutional.Lynch has used his X account to argue that “white replacement is real,” while expressing agreement with a call for religious exclusion by a violent Jan. 6 rioter who has faced multiple criminal charges since Trump pardoned him for his conduct at the Capitol.During an angry tirade directed at a city council in the Dallas suburbs last month, Jake Lang accused the city of replacing “white people” with Muslims and Hindus, while declaring that the United States “is a Christian country” and suggesting that Muslims and Hindus can’t be Texans.“Gotta say, I agree with Jake Lang here,” Lynch wrote on X.Asked how he reconciles Lang’s views with the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion, Lynch told Raw Story, “Islam is not a religion; it is a theocratic construct that should be banned in the United States.”Lynch’s friendliness with Lang and other Jan. 6 rioters who participated in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol lines up with his ultraconservative activism as founder of a group called United Patriots Alliance that has promoted the controversial “doctrine of lesser magistrates.”Lynch introduced the Rev. Matthew Trewhella, a Wisconsin pastor who popularized the doctrine, during an event sponsored by United Patriots Alliance in Greer, S.C. in September 2024.Trewhella, who advocates for the criminalization of abortion and homosexuality, described the doctrine in an interview with United Patriots Alliance tactical strategist Ethan Mulch as holding that “when the higher-ranking civil authority makes unjust or immoral law, policy, or court opinion, the God-given right of the lesser civil authority is not to obey.“They’re to stand between the tyranny of the superior civil authority and the people they represent,” Trewhella continued. “It’s called interposition. You can do it verbally, or physically, or both. And it’s massively needed in our day.”Trewhella published his book, The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates, in 2013 following more than two decades in the anti-abortion movement.
If the media had one standard, this interview would have been treated as a major political crisis. Instead, it became another example of how the left protects its own when power is on the line. The post Graham Platner Responds to Serious Allegations on MSNOW—Leftist Hosts Seemingly Move On Like It’s Nothing (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
The scandal-plagued Maine Democrat has no record to run on, so voters have only his word. But he has left them no reason to trust anything he says.
Platner's rocket to stardom reflects something ugly that's developed, not only on the right but the left as well. As of Wednesday morning this week, even after his sexting scandal broke, I knew two things about Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner: I was glad I didn't have to vote in Maine, and that if I did, I would probably hold my nose and vote for Platner.