In a handful of primaries on Tuesday, Democrats showed strong voter enthusiasm even in states where they hold little political power. Several key races now shift toward November.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Voters in Nevada, South Carolina, North Dakota and Maine made their primary choices yesterday. That includes the high-profile Democratic Senate primary in Maine where embattled oyster farmer Graham Platner easily clinched the nomination. And President Trump’s influence on the Republican Party continued to be on display. Joining us now with an update is NPR’s Stephen Fowler. Hi, Stephen.
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Hey there.
CHANG: Hey. OK, let’s start with the Maine Senate primary. What does Platner’s victory, you think, say about the overall state of the Democratic Party? Like, how much can we actually glean?
FOWLER: I mean, it’s not as much as what some Democrats and Republicans may want you to think.
CHANG: OK.
FOWLER: I mean, the seat is a must-win for both parties in their quest to control the Senate chamber after the midterms. And that zero-sum nature means there’s perhaps a more forgiving lens that voters in Maine have for the myriad controversies around Platner that have come up. Here’s Platner speaking last night at his victory party.
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GRAHAM PLATNER: Redemption is not just some simple or easy destination. It’s a journey. I’ve made mistakes in my life, mistakes that I regret, that I live with and that I continue to learn from. And I’m still far from perfect.
FOWLER: I think he’s banking on the stakes of the race and is using some of the backlash that the campaign faces as fodder for his sort of outsider-y, populist, anti-status-quo messaging.
CHANG: I mean, Maine is unique in the sense that the Senate seat is held by a Republican, has for many years in an otherwise pretty Democratic-leaning state, right? Like, but how much can we connect that with what’s happening in other states, you think?
FOWLER: You can’t really extrapolate the views of the Democratic primary voters in Maine to the purple states – like Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan – or even some of the party stretch states for the Senate like Texas, Iowa, Ohio. And since Platner didn’t face any actual challenger by the time election day rolled around, there’s not really much to say about what flavor of Democrats are more successful either. So I would not read very much into this particular result in this particular moment. However, looking ahead to November, there was a surge of Democratic primary turnout, about 25% higher than the last primary to take on Susan Collins, which also happened in a presidential election year. So it’s safe to say that Democrats do have enthusiasm.
CHANG: Yeah. Well, about that enthusiasm, I mean, we’ve seen more Democrats show up to vote in these primaries so far this year, especially in places that are not heavily Democratic, right? What did that look like yesterday, exactly?
FOWLER: Let’s look at South Carolina. It’s a southern state where Republicans actually blocked a Trump-backed push for redistricting this year out of concerns, among other things, that it would juice Democratic turnout in a pretty Democratic-friendly year. They were right. Democrats literally doubled their turnout from the 2022 midterm primaries. And there was record early voting. You had similar turnout dynamics in Nevada, which has some of the most competitive governor and House races this fall as well.
CHANG: Right. OK. And there’s been a lot of talk about President Trump and the power of his endorsements in Republican primaries. How did Trump’s involvement play out in some of these states?
FOWLER: Well, Trump made a last-minute endorsement of South Carolina’s lieutenant governor, who barely finished ahead of the state’s attorney general. That goes to a runoff. It’s also notable because Trump made a similar last-minute endorsement in Iowa’s Republican primary last week, and his choice there lost. And looking ahead, we’re also waiting to see who, if any, gets the Trump endorsement in a key Senate runoff in Georgia next Tuesday.
CHANG: That is NPR’s Stephen Fowler. Thank you, Stephen.
FOWLER: Thank you.
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