Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is “testing whether Democrats are willing to play by the same rules” as the GOP when it comes to voters’ tolerance for scandal,” said Axios. Renewed anxiety over Platner follows the latest controversy to hit his campaign. Multiple outlets have reported he sexted with several women early in his marriage in 2023. This, coupled with his now-covered Totenkopf Nazi tattoo, history of incendiary Reddit comments, and associations with far-right podcasts, means Platner has “weathered more scandals in six months than many politicians do in a lifetime,” said The Economist. Democrats are now in an “awkward position.” 

Gov. Janet Mills, Platner’s “main challenger” for the party nomination, has resurrected her campaign social media accounts for the first time since pausing her candidacy in April, said The Economist. This is “fueling speculation that she may reenter the race” ahead of the June 9 Democratic primary. 

Democrats are “caught in the bind Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) sought to avoid” when he endorsed Mills over Platner, said Axios. But the progressive lawmakers who backed Platner in a “proxy battle” with party leadership “aren’t abandoning him.” It’s important to “focus on the issues facing working families a little bit more than Graham Platner’s marriage,” said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to reporters. 

Democrats in Maine are now “forced to answer a basic question,” said The Boston Globe. Should they vote for someone they may “not believe is the best person for the job” or support the candidate they believe will “vote the right way in the Senate?”

Democratic Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger was “elected in a landslide” by “promising to be a centrist,” said The Washington Post. But months into her term, she’s “seeing up close how difficult that path is in a polarized country,” particularly in a state where Democrats have a “pent-up list of demands” after four years of GOP control. 

Spanberger is “clashing with members of her own party” in disagreements that are “spilling out into public fights over policy and priorities,” said WTOP. Democratic lawmakers “passed a bunch of bills earlier this year during the legislative session,” expecting them to be signed into law by “fellow Democrat” Spanberger, said politics reporter Gregory Schneider to WTOP. Instead, the governor “issued 40-some vetoes of their legislation,” which “rubbed some of the Democrats the wrong way.”

“I think I’m really consistent,” said Spanberger in an interview with Cardinal News about the legislation she blocked. “They say the devil’s in the details, so I pay attention to the details. I care about the details.”

Having already been “written off” by Republicans as a “closet liberal,” Spanberger is now being targeted from “both ideological directions,” said the Post. She “alienated the right early on” by endorsing Virginia Democrats’ (ultimately unsuccessful) gerrymander effort, said Vox. Her veto spree is, in part, intended to “reestablish her moderate credentials by saying no to Democrats in the legislature.” Legislation vetoed by Spanberger this term included the “creation of a retail cannabis market, expansion of collective bargaining rights, and the establishment of a prescription drug affordability board,” said C-Ville. 

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has a plan to punish cities that don’t enforce federal immigration policies