Category: Politics

The far right is trying to defeat Sen. Lindsey Graham. He’s burning serious cash to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Spending from his campaign and allied outside groups ahead of Tuesday’s primary has already topped $18 million, according to an AdImpact analysis — an eye-popping sum in the relatively small state, and a sign that Graham is taking seriously the primary challenge from businessman Mark Lynch as he seeks to avoid a runoff election.

Graham allies including a pro-cryptocurrency organization, an outside group closely aligned with GOP Senate leadership, and a super PAC that has not yet been required to make its donor list public have combined to dump millions into the race on Graham’s behalf.

Lynch has held his own, mostly self-funding his campaign with $5 million of his retirement savings. He is running hard to Graham’s right, setting up a proxy test of whether the “America First” GOP base views President Donald Trump’s recent interventionist turn with some skepticism even as they continue to support the president. Core to his message is an attack on the senator’s long history in Washington, including his past support of amnesty for undocumented immigrants — and his stridently interventionist foreign policy, including his vocal support for Trump’s war in Iran. Lynch’s campaign ads feature clips of Graham from his 2016 presidential bid calling Trump a “bigot” and praising former President Joe Biden.

Lynch’s campaign has also attracted the support of some of the president’s most prominent MAGA Republican critics, like former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who says the GOP has moved away from Trump’s “America First” platform.

The few public polls of the primary show Graham either narrowly topping or just under the 50 percent threshold he’d need to avoid a two-week runoff. In addition to Lynch, four other Republicans will appear on the ballot, which could further dilute Graham’s share of the vote.

The big spending against a little-known primary opponent has drawn some attention in the closing days of the primary.

“Lindsey is well-funded. You might as well make sure you’ve got all the i’s dotted and all the t’s crossed to make sure that you win without a runoff,” said Tyson Grinstead, chair of the Richland County GOP and a former Graham campaign adviser. “For Lindsey, I think it’s not outside the norm, especially in Lindsey dollars.”

The matchup between the longtime senator and the Upstate South Carolina businessman is shaping up to be a test of what “America First” means and who can claim that mantle in the Republican Party: close allies of the president like Graham, or those who are the staunchest adherents to MAGA’s original values, like Lynch.

Anti-interventionism was a core tenant of Trump’s meteoric rise that helped him squash more hawkish Republicans, including Graham, to win the White House in 2016. But now, more than 100 days into a conflict with Iran, the president has aligned himself with Graham’s hardline approach to foreign policy — a complete reversal of his perennial campaign promise to keep the U.S. out of foreign wars.

Trump has backed Graham’s reelection bid, but several anti-interventionist Republicans have come out in support of Lynch in the closing days of the campaign, painting Graham as an avatar of establishment support for U.S. military intervention.

Greene, a former Trump acolyte who broke with the president over voting to release the Jeffrey Epstein files and the war in Iran, posted a long message supporting Lynch and slamming Graham as an “America Last warmonger.” Joe Kent, who left his Trump administration post in March because of the Iran war, posted a similar endorsement message a few days prior.

“All the double dealing, all the lies, all the selling out the country to foreign powers — now [Graham] faces the humiliation of being forced into a runoff,” Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, told POLITICO.

Graham is still seen as a heavy favorite to hold the seat. He has been sent back to the Senate three times since he first won in 2002, warding off a primary challenge from the right each time. He’s a fixture of both Palmetto State and national Republican politics, and has successfully rekindled a close alliance with Trump amidst their long-running on-again, off-again relationship.

Regardless of whether he wins outright or has to keep running for two weeks, Graham is still expected to defeat Lynch. But the viability of Lynch’s challenge so far reveals yet another fissure between a faction of MAGA and the Republican establishment that has been remade in Trump’s image.

“I take everything seriously when it comes to representing the people of South Carolina, including my primary,” Graham said in a statement to POLITICO.

The senator has long been a prolific fundraiser. He amassed the single biggest war chest of any Republican running this cycle and had just over $4 million cash on hand as of late May, despite the likelihood that he will not face a competitive general election. And he’s no stranger to spending big to ward off a primary challenge. In 2014, Graham spent $8.5 million to overcome a crowded primary field that became a test to prove his conservative credentials. And he spent nearly $100 million in 2020, successfully dispatching Democrat Jaime Harrison in the general election by 10 points in the deep-red state, even as Harrison outspent him.

But more important than money in deep-red South Carolina, he has firm backing from the president, who has stuck with Graham even as cracks emerge in his home state support — and in spite of their occasional splits.

Trump swooped in to boost Graham with a tele-rally on the eve of Election Day.

“He’s outstanding. He’s been at my side for a long time. We fought each other initially a long time ago,” Trump said Monday. “But after that fight was over, we were best of friends, and he’s helped me as much as anybody in the Senate.”

In encouraging Republicans to vote for Graham, Trump also tacitly acknowledged the challenge Lynch poses. “We don’t want any surprises, we don’t want any bad things to happen. Elections, you never know, so we have to be very careful,” he said.

Lynch’s campaign declined to make him available for an interview. His spokesperson and adviser Noel Fritsch said that if the campaign can push Graham into a runoff, it would be “a huge shock to the system” in South Carolina because Graham has won easily in the past.

Lynch’s platform is centered around spending money domestically rather than overseas, and he has spent significant time on the stump and on far-right media outlets hammering Graham’s record as more “Washington-first” than “America First.” He’s blasted Graham for his support of Trump’s war in Iran, in particular.

While Lynch casts himself as a strong supporter of Trump and his MAGA movement, Fritsch brushed aside concerns that the president’s endorsement of Graham will be insurmountable in the Republican primary.

“Everybody that we’re talking to is like, ‘what’s going on with his endorsements?’ There’s a couple of folks out there who are kind of like, ‘I’ll do whatever Trump says,’ but most of the folks are just like, ‘What is going on? This is not the Trump that we knew or voted for over and over again,’ Which, by the way, is what Mr. Mark Lynch did.”

Lynch’s campaign faces an uphill battle against a well-funded incumbent with deep ties to the Republican Party in Columbia and Washington. Graham’s campaign has spent $13 million alone on advertising, several million of which have been in negative ads hitting Lynch over his complicated past with drug use and arrest on charges of cocaine trafficking in 1984.

“Mark’s been very open about the fact that in the early 80s … he had some issues with substance abuse, specifically cocaine. He’s been a teetotaling, stone-cold sober, Southern Baptist guy for over four decades since then,” Fritsch said.

Observers and allies say that others have tried this kind of primary challenge with Graham before — and it hasn’t worked.

“Lindsey has only lost one county in any primary race in his career for the Senate, and that was — gosh, that was 2008,” Grinstead, the Richland GOP chair, said.

“The same people who are always against Lindsey are against Lindsey this time,” he added. “I’m not seeing a lot of new folks who are on the conservative side of the grassroots establishment starting to leave Lindsey.”

Andrew Howard and William Steakin contributed to this report.

​Politics

PORTLAND, Maine — Darcy Halvorsen, 59, had already cast her ballot early for Graham Platner in Maine’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary when she read news of sexual text messages the oysterman had sent while married to a woman who wasn’t his wife.

Halvorsen, who described herself as a Platner skeptic-turned-fan, is back to being a skeptic. As she attended a town hall of his at the Elks Lodge in Portland on Sunday — at least her eighth Platner event since last fall — she was regretting the vote.

“I’m feeling very let down, disappointed,” she said. “Because I don’t think it was handled well. I don’t think he took responsibility for it.”

Platner’s continued drumbeat of scandals has divided both Democratic Party leaders and voters as they stare down the must-win Senate race. Defeating Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November is crucial to the party’s plans to take back control of the upper chamber and provide a check on President Donald Trump. But even as Platner’s staunch supporters stick with him, his political baggage is threatening to sink him with some Democratic and independent voters heading into the general election, according to interviews with nearly two dozen Maine voters.

Several Democratic voters were hesitant to weigh in on the Senate race, saying they felt Platner’s candidacy was all but certain at this point and sharing their opinion on him was likely to be met with backlash. Others who were planning to vote Democratic in November are now toying with backing Collins or sitting out the Senate race entirely — a challenge for the likely nominee and his party.

Peter and Kelly Dufour were manning the grill at a Get-Out-the-Vote event for gubernatorial candidate Hannah Pingree in Portland on Saturday and excited about the former Democratic state House speaker’s candidacy for governor. Asked about the Senate race, Kelly put her head in her hands.

The pair were looking to learn more about David Costello, who was Democratic Senate nominee in 2024 and is running in the primary again this year — the only Democrat candidate on the ballot besides Platner and Gov. Janet Mills, who suspended her campaign in April.

Peter said he was “disappointed” by Collins’ votes in the past few years, particularly to confirm judges, but he’s “torn” over giving up her prime seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee for Platner.

“I want someone of good moral character to be my senator,” he said, describing himself as 50-50 on the race right now.

Kelly said she wasn’t sure if she was 50-50 anymore in light of the latest Platner news.

With Platner, she said, “it just seems like one thing after another.”

Platner and his allies have attributed his past poor conduct to his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol use after leaving the military. He has said he found community after moving back to Maine and asked voters to judge him on who he is now. But some Maine voters are still skeptical of his story of redemption.

Kathy Bonk, a Brooksville resident and president of the Maine chapter of the National Organization of Women, plans to vote for Mills in Tuesday’s primary, though she expects Platner to prevail.

“There’s been a lot of press coverage about, ‘Well, we’ll let Maine voters decide.’ The Maine Democratic voters are going to decide the primary, but then you put that question to all Maine voters in the general,” she said. “I just think there’s a number of people that after everything that’s come out on Platner just can’t bring themselves to vote for Platner.”

Some Democrats are hoping that a poor showing from Platner in Tuesday’s primary would help them convince him to step aside and allow the state party to replace him with another candidate. But the idea seemed fairly ludicrous to most voters in Maine, given not only Platner’s record of surviving scandals but also his strong base of supporters — many of whom see his controversies as outside attacks on his movement that have only hardened their resolve for him.

“Mainers don’t want to see one of their own cut down at the knees,” said Constantine Dixon, a 36-year-old from Portland who attended the Sunday town hall for Platner.

Platner has inspired many Maine voters in a way few other candidates have in the state’s recent political history, drawing massive crowds like few in the state have seen and going from an unknown oysterman to consistently leading the sitting governor in primary polls. Many of his backers brush off his recent controversies as less important than the issues he is running on: universal health care, getting money out of politics, and making the state affordable for working people.

He has maintained support from lawmakers like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) rallied with him in Bar Harbor on Friday, and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), in his first public display of support, hosted a virtual fundraiser for him on Sunday.

“Since this campaign launched, we have been and remain deeply humbled by the support and loyalty of this movement,” Ben Chin, Platner’s campaign manager, said in a statement. “Mainers know Graham, they understand what he stands for, and they believe in what this campaign is fighting for. Lifting people up and fighting for working Mainers has been and always will be our priority.”

Days after reports of the extramarital sexting, the New York Times published accounts of several of Platner’s ex-girlfriends who recalled disturbing patterns of behavior. One woman alleged that he had grabbed her in ways that left marks and once locked her in a room.

Platner’s campaign acknowledged he sent sexual text messages to other women while married, but had already addressed the issue with his wife. He admitted to being a “bad boyfriend” in past relationships but said he had never been violent.

At the town hall in Portland on Sunday, Platner was received enthusiastically by hundreds of supporters. Some attendees said they showed up specifically to indicate their support for him after a difficult week.

Charlotte Brown, an unenrolled voter, said she had supported Collins until the senator’s vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. In Platner, she finally found a politician who “represented us.”

“We wanted to come to stand up for him with all the attacks,” she said. “We wanted him to know that we have his back.”

Platner’s supporters, which include many older women who make up the core of the Democratic Party in Maine, largely don’t condone his past behavior — but they believe in his personal growth.

“What happened in his personal life was a long time ago,” said Janet Miles, an Air Force veteran attending an event for Pingree over the weekend. “People change. Do I approve of the things he did? Definitely not. If he did all those things a week ago, that would be different.”

“I was really upset when I heard his comments about women drinking and rape,” said Cathy Walter, a retiree from Gorham, Maine, referencing Platner’s Reddit history that was uncovered last fall. In posts more than a decade ago, Platner had written that sexual assault victims should take responsibility and avoid alcohol so as not to end up in a “compromising situation.”

But Walter appreciated how Platner owned up to his past conduct and said what happened “does not disqualify him.” She’s taking cues from national leaders on whether he can still beat Collins in November.

“I’m watching, what is Bernie Sanders saying? What is Elizabeth Warren saying?” Walter said. “They would be pulling their support if he couldn’t get elected.”

Platner’s political rise has captivated the state since his campaign launch last August. News reports about his old social media posts and a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol did not meaningfully slow his momentum. Mills, who was recruited for the race by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, ended up suspending her campaign at the end of April, as Platner continued to lead her in fundraising and public polls.

Mills has not endorsed Platner, and some of his skeptics are planning to vote for her in the primary. The governor hasn’t publicly remarked on the race other than reminding a Maine Trust for Local News columnist a week ago that she remains on the ballot.

Mills campaign signs still dotted Portland neighborhoods this weekend. In Portland’s Back Bay, one sign was improvisationally stapled to a wooden post. Written by hand in blue marker was a reminder for passersby: “She’s still in! Vote!”

National Republicans have been gearing up for a general election battle against Platner for months, with the pro-Collins super PAC Pine Tree Results launching ads last month that focused on Platner’s Reddit comments and tattoo. In the aftermath of the recent controversies, Collins told reporters in Maine on Friday that Platner had “a lot of questions to answer.”

Halvorsen, the former Platner fan who was frustrated with his recent scandals, said she could not remember seeing Maine Democrats so at odds over something — and she recalled many contested primaries in the state. On social media, she said, she’d faced attacks for being a Platner skeptic, attacks for being a fan, and now attacks for being ambivalent about him.

“Trump wants us to be divided,” she said. “And that’s what’s happening in Maine.”

​Politics

Among the sweeping tent of President Donald Trump’s winning coalition in 2024, there’s a niche that’s often overlooked despite the potency of its role in the burgeoning young right: conservative women.

It’s these women, like Christian conservative influencer Savanna Faith Stone, who say “we’re not really identifying with the MAGA party anymore.”

“Promises that were made have not been delivered on at all, and I think young women are realizing that,” Stone said in an interview with POLITICO. “They’re realizing, ‘Hey, you promised lower gas prices. You promised the economy would be better. Like, that’s why we voted for you.’”

Stone, who turns 21 this week, is one of a flurry of influencers who flocked to San Antonio this weekend, young families in tow, to gather under a bevy of bright pink lights at Turning Point USA’s Women’s Leadership Summit. It’s the biggest gathering of its kind for the young female right — a space for a collective disdain for “woke” culture, a love for God and kinship under the theme of “faith, family and freedom.”

But bubbling under the surface are divisions within the GOP that have enveloped the online voices of the young right and a budding disillusionment among young women with the politics of the second Trump administration. It’s all part of a growing divide between being “MAGA” in 2026 and being “America First.”

Trump is “not America first,” Stone said. She voted for a president who promised no new wars, who was pro-family and would bring down costs. “It’s harder than ever for a young couple to be able to buy a home,” she added.

Young women moved from 33 percent for Trump in 2020 to 40 percent in 2024, while recent polling has shown the partisan gender divide is more stark than ever. Now less than six months out from the midterms, the young female right’s biggest voices are warning women could sit out the midterm elections.

“I cannot express to you the level of alarm bells that should be ringing for the GOP,” as women consider not voting, conservative influencer Alex Clark told POLITICO, adding that young women are looking at everything from the ongoing war in Iran to the persistence of pesticides and it’s breaking their trust.

Clark is a Turning Point darling, a 33 year-old podcaster with half a million followers who grew under the tutelage of the late Charlie Kirk. She’s built a MAHA-focused health and wellness platform that she calls an “unaggressive way to share conservative ideals” with a loyal following. (“You’re trailing my show!” she recalled Kirk telling her in 2024. “Yeah, you better watch out!” she responded.)

She hasn’t shied away from sharing her criticism of the administration. “I straight up told [the White House], ‘People want ‘fight, fight, fight Trump.’ They don’t want ‘ballroom Trump,’’” Clark said. “I feel like some of the magic and the spark that helped us win 2024 is missing.”

Along with other voices like Isabel Brown or Riley Gaines, they’ve become emblems of the Turning Point faction of Gen-Z and millennials. They believe women’s biology will push them to follow strong men — part of what they credit for some young women’s embrace of the GOP in 2024 as the party penetrated the manosphere. Stone drew controversy for saying voting should be one vote per household. Clark told POLITICO she doesn’t think a woman should be president.

But the universe of female influencers is vast and oftentimes at odds. Raquel DeBono, the self-proclaimed NYC conservative of “Make America Hot Again” fame, said in an interview that she “would not be caught dead” at Turning Point’s summit and rejects the rigidity of the online faction that has cast out figures like Megyn Kelly. “If you want to let women into the tent and you want more women to vote conservative, you need to be less cringe and horrible,” DeBono said.

And then there’s influencers like Emily Wilson, of “Emily Saves America,” and Priya Patel, conservatives living in West Hollywood who embrace traditional values but often find an audience in women who don’t. “I read my Bible. I want to get married young. I’m saving myself for marriage,” Patel said. But the pair who co-host “Pretty Political” have followers that are “girls that do Only Fans, makeup artists, graffiti artists” who all “love America,” Wilson said.

Whether city conservatives or Turning Point young moms, they agree on key issues — including around foreign policy or accountability for the Jeffrey Epstein files — that they say are diverting them from MAGA or the White House. And with young voters already a turnout challenge in midterm years, they’re all concerned many young conservative women simply won’t show up come November.

The White House, in response to a request for comment, touted the “most pro-woman agenda in American history” — pointing to women’s sports, decreasing violent crime, expanding the child tax credit and cutting food dyes, as well as “creating the most renter-friendly market we’ve seen in years,” in a statement from spokesperson Anna Kelly.

The administration, Kelly says, has “achieved win after win on issues women care about most — and we’re just getting started. The MAGA coalition is stronger than ever, and women continue to play a powerful role in the movement.”

But GOP women politicians know it’s “100,000 percent” a problem. “It’s something that I have spoken to the White House about, ” Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) — who co-chairs the Republican Women’s Caucus — said in an interview. She added the GOP has to be “laser focused” on delivering on affordability, “and if we don’t, we’re failing at earning their trust and support in the election.”

And the Republican Party made the mistake before of not messaging directly to women, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders told POLITICO. “Women want a lot of those same things. We want safe neighborhoods. We want the opportunity to make decisions about how we raise our families,” she said.

Yet there’s skepticism about whether the GOP will take these concerns seriously, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former congresswoman who appeared with Turning Point more than once, texted. “I think about all the single mothers and women out there trying to make it, and it is extremely difficult, with inflation continuing to rise and overall cost of living continuing to rise,” she said. She also called Trump’s tone and language “a major turn off to women.”

These young conservative women — some clad in florals, others still donning their ruby-red Trump hats — don’t regret their vote, and many expressed a desire for the administration to succeed.

But any future for the growth of the budding female right has a bridge of trust to re-build.

“After Trump in 2028, if we want to see this energy continue that we had in 2015 and 2024, if we want that to have any sort of life after 2028 — it has to become an America First movement,” Clark told Playbook. “That is the cry of the base right now.”

​Politics

Nancy Mace thinks she knows why she didn’t get President Donald Trump’s endorsement.

The embattled South Carolina House Republican, who’s in the midst of a bruising race for governor, has a long history of bucking — and then cozying back up to — Trump. But her leading role in releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files was likely a bridge too far for the president, who has spent significant time and energy this year to get revenge against his GOP defectors.

Trump’s recent decision to back one of Mace’s primary opponents, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, in the crowded field will carry monumental weight in the crimson-red state. Past elections suggest that, with the president’s endorsement, Evette has all but secured her place in a runoff, as Mace and three other Republicans continue to scramble for the second spot on the ballot.

Still, the three-term representative says she has no regrets about her Epstein vote — or its consequences.

“That’s the sole reason I didn’t get the endorsement, because I voted to release the Epstein files, and I’m okay with that,” Mace told POLITICO. “I’ve worked very hard to expose pedophiles, and child rapists, and sex trafficking in my state, and will continue to do it regardless of the outcome of the election.”

“It’s full steam ahead, no matter what. I’m not going down without a fight,” she added. “I’m still the MAGA candidate. I support all of MAGA’s policies. I support our president. I’m also an independent conservative.”

Mace is one of the few remaining Republican Epstein files defectors left standing, after the president blitzed Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) out of Congress and turned on former Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

Unlike with the other figures, Trump has not publicly made this particular race about his personal dissatisfaction with Mace, staying relatively quiet until he announced his endorsement of Evette in the final two-week window of the primary. But the late Trump headwind is yet another obstacle for Mace’s campaign, which has been otherwise dogged by controversies and a serious primary field that’s already been difficult for her to navigate.

Mace’s run for governor is her highest-profile race yet — and one that will define the next chapter of her rollercoaster career. She’s had to overcome retributive political challenges from several influential figures in her own party and navigate public questions about her own mental health.

She bested a Trump-backed challenger in 2022, a consequence for condemning the president after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. In 2024, she handily defeated a primary challenge funded by allies of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who Mace voted to oust the year prior. And now, she’s back on the outs with Trump again, though she’s still trying to align herself closely with the president and reiterating her respect for him.

The White House declined to comment and instead referred POLITICO to the president’s Truth Social post explaining his endorsement of Evette, which did not mention Mace. He instead touted Evette’s closeness to GOP Gov. Henry McMaster, a Trump ally.

Observers and Mace’s opponents in South Carolina paint a complex picture of how the race and Mace’s candidacy have shaped out.

She launched her campaign in the summer of 2025, armed with sky-high name recognition and the ability to tap into grassroots online fundraising, which paid dividends at the outset of the contest. Trump even shared a poll that showed her leading the field — one that Mace told POLITICO last year that she personally sent to the president. But in early September, she joined House Democrats and signed onto Massie’s effort to force a vote to later release the Epstein files — an open defiance of the president’s wishes.

The tide started to shift against her in November, and not only because of the Epstein files drama.

Mace got into a public entanglement with the Charleston Airport Authority over a prearranged escort from the curb to her gate, leading to embarrassing headlines locally and nationally.

Airport authorities detailed in a report that Mace, in a profanity-laced tirade, lit into law enforcement officers and TSA agents for failing to meet her at a preordained pickup location, even as they walked her to her flight.

“I think the airport thing hurt her more than the [Epstein] thing,” said Terry Sullivan, a longtime South Carolina Republican operative, who is unaffiliated in the race. “She’s had really strong debate performances, she’s articulate, she’s right on the issues for these folks, but then she just goes a little haywire.”

Mace, for her part, defended her actions at the airport a few days after it happened in a Charleston press conference, calling the report’s release a “political hit job.”

“Did I drop an f-bomb? I hope I did,” she said at the time. The incident drew harsh criticism from fellow South Carolina Republicans, including Sen. Tim Scott who published a blistering statement rebuking her language and treatment of the officials. Sen. Lindsey Graham piled on, too.

Even now, months later, Mace stands by what she did.

“I get over a thousand death threats a year, and I’m the only one that doesn’t get security when traveling. In fact, the last three times I’ve had an altercation or been accosted has been at an airport, particularly the Charleston airport, because the left has lost their mind,” she told POLITICO.

Then, in February, she accused her ex-fiancé and several of his business partners of serious sexual crimes during a speech on the House floor. They have denied the allegations, and Mace has been representing herself in the subsequent litigation, often swapping the campaign trail for the courtroom.

Controversies aside, ad spending reveals another reason why she’s struggling to break through to the front of the race.

Mace, shockingly, hasn’t spent a single dollar on television ads at all, according to an AdImpact analysis, despite her healthy fundraising throughout the campaign. She’s only dropped $50,000 on digital advertising.

Meanwhile, overall ad spending in the Republican primary has hit nearly $28 million between the candidates’ committees and aligned PACs, nearly $2 million of which has been in negative advertising targeting her specifically. Protect Freedom PAC, an outside group aligned with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, has spent $1.4 million in positive ads on Mace’s behalf.

One candidate in particular — millionaire and political outsider Rom Reddy, who jumped into contention at the last minute — has topped all other candidates and PACs, reaching nearly $6 million in the relatively small state. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) are also in the race and spending real money.

If none of the candidates clear a 50 percent threshold — a likely scenario with five serious contenders on the ballot — the two top vote-getters will advance to a one-on-one runoff race, with a second round of voting scheduled for just two weeks later on June 23.

The weekend after Trump made his endorsement of Evette, Mace said she texted a friend who would understand her predicament: Massie. “I let him know that I didn’t get the endorsement, and we all know why,” she told POLITICO.

But Massie had already taken to social media.

“Although virtually all Republicans eventually admitted by their votes that it was right to release the Epstein files, only three were brave enough to sign my discharge petition to force that vote. [Lauren] Boebert, [Marjorie Taylor] Greene, and Mace have paid an enormous price for doing the right thing,” he said in a post on X. Greene resigned from Congress earlier this year after clashes with Trump over Epstein and the economy, and Trump recently called for a primary challenge to Boebert after she campaigned with Massie ahead of the Kentucky primary.

Massie has already hinted that he could make some kind of comeback in 2028, whether for his old House seat in Kentucky or another federal office. Mace, should she come up short in the primary, is not so sure.

“I’m not running for Congress again,” Mace said. “I said I would do six years because I believe in term limits, and I made the promise that I would leave Congress after six years, so I won’t be running again.”

What about a political career outside of Congress? “I’m going to wait and see how Tuesday looks,” she demurred.

​Politics

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) is set to help rally donors for Graham Platner on Sunday — a major show of support from a top establishment figure for the embattled Maine Senate candidate.

Schatz is listed as the special guest at a “virtual pre-primary event in support of Graham Platner,” according to two donors familiar with the event and an invitation obtained by POLITICO. Tickets range from $100 to $7,000, the maximum allowed contribution, for the Sunday evening event, per the invite.

It’s not clear when the event was organized, but the invitation was circulated to donors on Friday afternoon — as the campaign continued to face an onslaught of criticism from fellow Democrats over a series of scandals.

The event is the first public stamp of approval from Schatz, who has not endorsed Platner previously. Making it even more notable is Schatz’s status as a rising leader in the party: He is currently deputy conference secretary and chief deputy whip for the Senate Democratic Caucus, and he has secured the votes — and Chuck Schumer’s endorsement — to take over the No. 2 role next year.

One person from Schatz’s campaign, granted anonymity to discuss a not-yet-public donation, said the senator had given money to Platner’s campaign in May after he became the presumptive nominee, part of a practice of donating to battleground Democrats who clear their fields. (Donations from that time have not yet been disclosed in campaign finance reports.)

One person close to Platner’s campaign, granted anonymity to share private details, confirmed the event and that the senator had not formally backed Platner yet.

Schatz’s presence is the latest signal that Senate Democrats are standing by Platner as he weathers a series of scandals.

Last week, news broke that Platner had sent sexually explicit texts to other women while married. Then, on Thursday, the New York Times reported new allegations of violent and disturbing behavior toward ex-girlfriends. One of them said the Democrat knew about his tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol when he got it done, despite his saying otherwise.

Platner has denied the claims. He is poised to lock up the Democratic nomination against GOP Sen. Susan Collins in Maine in Tuesday’s primary as the sole major candidate remaining and said he has “not once” considered dropping out.

His campaign on Friday announced that it had raised more than $200,000 since the Times story was published, calling it the best day of fundraising since Democratic Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign.

Democrats have been torn over how to respond to the escalating controversy surrounding Platner, with some arguing he is undermining the party’s values and should drop out of the race and others maintaining that he’s their best option to beat Collins. Maine, which former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024, is the party’s crown jewel of Senate pickup opportunities this cycle and effectively a must-win if they are to take back control of the chamber.

But Democrats and allied groups that have backed Platner have reiterated their support, including Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.); Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.); VoteVets, a group that has historically been aligned with Schumer; the Working Families Party and Showing Up for Racial Justice.

At a pre-planned Friday rally alongside Khanna, Maine 2nd District candidate Matt Dunlap and gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson, a defiant Platner thanked the crowd for having his back.

“As every single piece of that past and journey gets dug up, litigated and weaponized, you have my back,” he said to loud applause. “And when politically motivated, serious and false accusations are made against me, Maine, you have my back.”

The presence of Dunlap and Jackson — who are both in contested down-ballot races in Tuesday’s primary — suggests they see associating with Platner as a net positive with Maine voters, despite the controversies.

Khanna, speaking after Platner, said “no one should make excuses” for the candidate’s past relationships, but urged rallygoers to give him room for redemption — and focus on the upcoming battle in November.

“The Democratic Party, from Schumer to Sanders, is united with a single goal: we will defeat Susan Collins in November,” he said.

Still, some Democrats are closely watching what happens Tuesday — and whether a protest vote for Mills emerges — before renewing their calls for Platner to drop out.

Aaron Pellish contributed to this report. 

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LAYUP: The New York Knicks are in the NBA finals, and politicians can’t seem to get enough of it.

They’re hosting invite-only watch parties as an excuse to butter up the political press and cash in on the cultural cachet.

They’re deploying taxpayer-funded staff to film and edit Knicks-focused social media clips of themselves, fit with music, multiple shooting locations and a whole lot of hype.

And they’re even mocking up government documents in an effort to spread good vibes — and good publicity — around New York’s basketball team.

It feels like Empire State’s electeds are jumping at every opportunity they can to graft their political brands onto a once-in-a-generation milestone for the Knickerbockers, and it’s happening everywhere you look.

“There is a real unique hunger that is both exciting and unifying about this year and this run that a lot of candidates are trying to tap into,” said Matt Rey, a Democratic operative with Red Horse Strategies. “It’s really hard to reach people on anything live now, except for sports, and this is the height of it, especially for a local area … Any way that you can advertise during, before, after games in the finals is the best chance you have to reach the most amount of Democratic primary voters, bar none.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani got in on that opportunity Wednesday night when he starred in a commercial that aired during Game 1 and featured the mayor’s three favored congressional candidates dishing the rock to each other as if they left their day jobs to become full-time hoopers.

He also revealed this morning he’ll be at Monday night’s game, and paying for his own ticket — which will cost the former rent-stabilized tenant a pretty penny.

President Donald Trump also plans to attend, and Mamdani demurred when asked if he was invited to sit with the president or plans on holding some sort of in-person meeting while Trump is in town.

“I’ll keep the nature of those conversations between the two of us,” Mamdani told 1010 WINS.

The mayor is making his Knicks fandom known in other ways, like drafting up an executive order allowing kids to stay up past their bedtimes to watch the Knicks (It’s the law, mom!), inviting the San Antonio Spurs’ center Victor Wembanyama to participate in the next Charter Revision Commission meeting, and commissioning Knicks-themed art for City Hall’s rotunda and steps.

Other more staid politicians are getting in on it too. Crime-prosecuting Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg happily turned his press conference about the indictment of a brazen retail theft ring into an opportunity to talk Knicks basketball.

And the irreverent Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar posted an AI graphic of herself with two of the team’s star players, as if the three are all pals.

“New York, it’s time. Let’s. Go. Knicks. 🏀” she said.

Then there’s the bets: the cliched wagers between elected officials from different cities, where the losing team’s city or state’s quintessential food is sent to the winning team’s supporters. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is betting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz slices of Joe’s Pizza and some Brooklyn Lager — and she’ll get to down Texas BBQ if the orange-and-blue win. Nick LaLota is betting a 6-foot hero on the Knicks winning, in a wager with a Texas congressman. And the New York City Council is putting bagels on the line in a wager against the breakfast-taco-eating San Antonio City Council.

For those electeds considering whether or not to jump in on the trend, Rey, the Knicks-fan-turned-Dem-operative, has some advice: “Don’t be a bandwagon fan.”

“If you’re into this run, go all for it, because this is exciting to you, and is part of what makes you unique, but if it doesn’t make you unique, find something else,” he said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, for her part, isn’t betting anything. She shut the door on any friendly wager with the Lone Star State after the Texas Gov. Greg Abbott published an AI-generated image of dunking on Hochul.

For Hochul, a famous Bills fan, the bar for glomming onto — and embracing — any sort of athletic energy that engrosses New York is low.

“I’m fired up,” she said at a press conference Thursday, where both the World Cup and NBA Finals were discussed. “I’m excited about this. I’m a huge sports fan, whatever it is. If there’s a ball involved, I love it.”

From the Capitol

THE LEGISLATIVE FINALE: The annual legislative session is crawling to a close with the Assembly spending today chipping away at its final package of bills.

The Senate concluded its business at 1:30 this morning. Assemblymembers are expecting to wrap up this evening — but optimism that the final buzzer will sound before the Knicks tip off at 8:30 p.m. is ebbing.

A good chunk of the final day was spent unanimously passing a bill from Assemblymember Alex Bores that would impose regulations on how AI chatbots interact with minors. The bots would be banned from engaging in sexually explicit conduct or encouraging kids to commit suicide.

“If you cannot make chatbots safe for children, you should not make them available to children,” said Bores, who’s running in a hotly-contested congressional primary. “I cannot think of a more appropriate bill to be my final bill in the chamber.”

The Assembly also debated a constitutional amendment that would move elections such as upstate mayoral contests and district attorney races to even-numbered years.

Democrats have argued the shifts will improve turnout in under-the-radar races and save money since polling sites will be opened less often. It’s much easier for voters “to put their energy into these elections all at once, instead of being stressed out every year about different offices,” Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha said.

Republicans have long opposed this, as well as 2023 legislation that moved most town and county races to even-numbered years, saying the shifts will politicize elections that should be decided by who’s best at managing snow plows.

“This is blatant power grab number four,” Assemblymember Joe Sempolinski said, summarizing a week when Democrats also passed measures on congressional redistricting, judicial redistricting and ending the bipartisan Board of Elections’ power to choose the wording for referenda.

“All of those are very partisan attacks on the integrity of our democratic institutions,” Sempolinski said. “What the people back home want us focused on is making their lives better, making their lives more affordable, not what we’re doing — which is the Democratic Party seizing more power for itself.” — Bill Mahoney

FROM CITY HALL

OVERKILL: A new report from City Comptroller Mark Levine found the majority of NYPD overtime — an outlay that routinely costs the city around $1 billion annually — comes from events that are known well in advance and could be better planned for.

“Overtime spending has been a clear cost the NYPD wants to rein in, especially as New York City seeks to reduce recurring expenses in light of projected budget gaps,” Levine said in a statement accompanying today’s report. “Overtime should be used when absolutely necessary to enable police officers to keep communities safe.”

During last year’s mayoral campaign, Mamdani pledged to rein in OT spending that has regularly been underbudgeted in the city’s annual spending plan, creating an unwelcome and pricey surprise when the bill comes due.

In the current fiscal year set to end June 30, Levine projects NYPD overtime costs will reach $890 million, the third-highest year on record.

To rein in costs, Levine suggested the department better manage staffing for parades, quality-of-life initiatives and other predictable events to prioritize regular shifts. He also recommended holding specific commands accountable when they routinely blow their overtime budgets, mandating rest periods for officers who work extended shifts to avoid fatigue and creating a more comprehensive accountability structure that could be audited.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has pledged to get a better grip on overtime spending too, and Levine’s report suggested that her efforts have produced some preliminarily positive results.

But a confluence of summer events including the World Cup, the NBA finals and celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary are expected to add around $92 million to the NYPD’s overtime budget for the upcoming fiscal year, though some of that will be covered by federal dollars.

At a recent City Council hearing, where Tisch said the department’s overtime spending has also gone up because of salary increases and general inflation, she pledged to balance the demands on the department with the fiscal goals of the comptroller and mayor.

“This uniquely busy period will lead to an increase in overtime spend,” she said. “However, this increase does not change our overtime management plan or our priority to ensure the safety of all New Yorkers while being a responsible fiscal steward.” — Joe Anuta

PENN DRAMA: Rep. Jerry Nadler is fuming over legislation pushed by a developer selected to redo Penn Station.

Before Amtrak picked Halmar to overhaul Penn in May, the developer shopped a bill on Capitol Hill to allow the railroad to benefit from nearby commercial development.

The effect of the legislation would be to supplant a now-paused deal between the state and midtown developers, including Vornado, to fund billions of dollars in upgrades to the rail hub using so-called payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, incentives. Under the bill, the developers could strike a deal with the Trump administration and make payments to Amtrak, cutting out New York officials. The head of Vornado, Steve Roth, is a former business associate of the president’s.

Nadler was the only member to vote against the idea in committee when it was attached as an amendment to a surface transportation bill. The Democrat dinged the plan as a giveaway to developers and an effort to bypass local accountability.

“This is a handout to Donald Trump and his real estate buddies, and New Yorkers will pay the price,” Nadler said in a statement to POLITICO.

Halmar, which Amtrak awarded master development rights to in May, approached Nadler in mid-March with bill language. That was after Amtrak had floated the idea of using PILOT incentives to help it pay for the new Penn Station — but before Halmar was tapped as the winning developer.

The amendment was introduced by Rep. Addison McDowell (R-N.C.) and backed in committee by Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.). Both see the bill, which has broad language that applies outside of New York, as a way to make it easier for Amtrak to fund upgrades across the country.

“This is maybe the first time I’ve ever heard a Democrat not support Amtrak making these kinds of decisions,” Moulton said as he and Nadler briefly sparred over the amendment during a May 21 hearing.

Halmar declined to comment. A spokesperson for Vornado did not respond to a request for comment.

It remains unclear whether other Democrats will come out swinging against the idea, which supporters say could help speed up development around mass transit hubs — an idea that’s generally appealing to Democrats. — Ry Rivard

FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

DEBATE-A-PALOOZA: One of the city’s suddenly most competitive races will be getting a high-profile debate before the primary.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat and Darializa Avila Chevalier — his Mamdani-backed challenger — will take the stage on June 17 for a debate hosted by Telemundo 47/WNJU. Theo Chino-Tavarez and Oscar Romero, two other candidates vying for the seat, will appear as well.

The debate will be conducted exclusively in Spanish. Hispanic residents make up around half of the district, which includes parts of upper Manhattan and the Bronx.

The primary has heated up since Mamdani weighed in for Avila Chevalier last week. On Friday, a day after a testy forum on WNYC between Espaillat and Avila Chevalier, both campaigns held events in Harlem touting their respective progressive backing. — Madison Fernandez

IN OTHER NEWS

— BATTLEGROUND: Espaillat and Avila Chevalier are intensifying outreach to Harlem’s Black electorate, a crucial bloc in the closely watched primary fight. (The New York Times)

— ‘BLINDSIDED’: Parents of trans children say Mount Sinai plans to share records of children receiving gender-affirming care with the Trump administration. (Gothamist)

— MR. MET: Ali Najmi, former election attorney to Mamdani and head of NYC’s commission to select local judges, is now working for billionaire Mets owner Steve Cohen. (Hell Gate)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

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