The results in Maine's high-stakes U.S. Senate contest on Tuesday night were never in question, with neither Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins nor Democratic challenger Graham Platner facing serious opposition for their party's nomination. And yet it marked an especially significant moment for Platner, the embattled veteran and oyster farmer fighting to rebuild his credibility in a campaign rocked by controversy.
Elsewhere, President Donald Trump's clout within his party was tested anew in states like South Carolina and Nevada, where he endorsed his favored candidates. Plus, Bill Gates' closed-door Hill testimony on Jeffrey Epstein, and how children are doing with post-pandemic learning. And a note: Moving forward, Washington bureau chief Anna Johnson's weekly picks will be in our Friday edition, which debuts this week.
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Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner, right, and his wife Amy Gertner gesture to supporters during a primary election night watch party Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Blue Hill, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) |
Platner's big night, Clyburn carries on and Trump's support gets mixed results — By Steve Peoples and Joey Cappelletti
There is no question that Platner has repair work to do, and he openly acknowledged as much Tuesday night, telling a room packed with cheering supporters that “people can change.” It was hardly a defiant message for a man who sits at the very center of the Democratic Party's fight to reclaim the Senate majority. Although he spent the closing minutes of his election-night speech attacking Collins, much of the night was choreographed to address other controversies.
It was barely a week ago when revelations surfaced that Platner had engaged in sexually explicit messages with multiple women while married. Allies wondered if more baggage would emerge, and then The New York Times reported new allegations about his behavior during previous relationships. Meanwhile, as Trump was looking to rebound from an embarrassing recent loss in Iowa, where his preferred candidate for governor was defeated in a rare rebuke from GOP primary voters, South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial primary offered only an incomplete victory. Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette was unable to secure a majority of the vote in the five-candidate field needed to avoid a runoff. She will face state Attorney General Alan Wilson on June 23. The night produced a more decisive result for one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress. Sen. Lindsey Graham avoided a runoff and secured the Republican Senate nomination over businessman Mark Lynch, whose election Trump had warned "would be a “DISASTER for the Republican Party.”
On the Democratic side, longtime South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, who holds significant national political clout as the state’s lone Democratic House member, easily fended off a little-known primary challenger.
Read more from Peoples and Cappelletti on this week's primary results. |
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Bill Gates testifies before Congress about Jeffrey Epstein |
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, arrives on Capitol Hill for a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in Washington, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) |
Bill Gates will testify in a congressional panel's Jeffrey Epstein investigation — By Hannah Schoenbaum and Joey Cappelletti
The Microsoft co-founder appears Wednesday before a congressional panel investigating the Epstein files, becoming the latest powerful figure linked to the disgraced financier to testify.
Members of the House Oversight Committee are slated to interview the billionaire Microsoft co-founder behind closed doors, as they have done with other witnesses in the investigation. Transcripts are often released later.
Gates, as he arrived at the Capitol on Wednesday morning, noted he was there voluntarily and said he hoped his testimony would be useful for the committee.
Republican U.S. Rep. James Comer, the committee chairman, formally requested that Gates testify after he appeared multiple times in a trove of documents released by the Justice Department as part of its Epstein probe.
Read more from Schoenbaum and Cappelletti on Gates' testimony. |
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Test scores show middle school reading, math education have stalled |
Sixth graders read a passage and give constructive feedback to their partners during Nancy Barajas' class at Fairview Elementary School on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, in Modesto, Calif. (AP Photo/Annie Barker) |
Teens' reading and math scores have stagnated, US test results show — By Annie Ma and Sharon Lurye
How are U.S. students doing with reading and math, post-pandemic? It might depend on how old they are.
According to the latest testing data released Wednesday by the federal government, younger students have regained ground academically after the pandemic's disruptions while older students' test scores continue to stagnate. Nine-year-olds rebounded to pre-pandemic reading scores and saw some recovery in math, according to data from a test taken regularly in the United States since the 1970s.
The same recovery has not emerged for 13-year-olds, whose average scores in math and reading remain below pre-pandemic averages. In fact, the latest reading scores, from teenagers who took the test in 2024, are essentially the same level as they were when the test started in 1971.
Since the pandemic, schools and state policymakers have focused on overhauling instruction for elementary students, especially in implementing the “science of reading,” which teaches kids to read by understanding how letters form sounds.
But recent test scores show educators should also focus more intensely on adolescent learners and turning around academic outcomes in middle school, said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board.
Read more from Ma and Lurye on the education test results. |
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Mary Saunders gets help from election officials after picking up her ballots to vote in the Maine Primary, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Augusta, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) |
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