The Maine Concern

Today’s notice: Platner wins big, but big enough? The U.S. strikes Iran. Republicans on the Hill don’t like Trump’s AI company equity plan. The Secret Service prepares to be busy. And: Will D.C. ban foie gras?

THE LATEST

On the ground in Maine: In theory, Graham Platner’s win last night in the Democratic Senate primary kicked off one of the most important races on the party’s map. Huge resources should pour into the effort to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins now. But will they? “It just doesn’t feel worth the investment when this guy has proven to be so untrustworthy,” one Democratic strategist told NOTUS.

Our Igor Bobic, Christa Dutton and Alex Roarty report on the trepidation among some Democrats and the desire to move on from the series of scandals that have dogged Platner for months. “I’m sure it’ll be an interesting general election, but I think he can win,” Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minnesota) said.

One metric worth considering: As the polls closed, some wondered how big a win Platner would have to put up in the primary to silence critics. As votes were still being counted late last night, he appeared to be doing better in his primary than the last Democratic nominee to face Collins, the former state legislator Sara Gideon, did in hers.

Christa was at Platner’s victory party. She caught some of that ride-or-die energy he’s going to need to calm national Democratic nerves. “The tattoo, the sexting — which I thought was ridiculous as far as an issue — and a couple other things, they don’t look good, but he’s a realized man,” one supporter at the rally told her. “When you hear him speak, he doesn’t speak in platitudes.”

A name you won’t be hearing on the general election campaign trail: Rep. Nancy Mace. She failed to qualify for the runoff in the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary, which will feature Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Attorney General Alan Wilson. There’s a runoff in both the Republican and Democratic primaries for Mace’s House seat as well.

Other results: The Democratic primary in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, being vacated by retiring Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, will go to a ranked runoff. The winner of that primary will face former Republican Gov. Paul LePage in the fall. And Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) won his primary over an opponent who had drawn a lot of attention by condemning the war in Iran, which Graham has championed.

Meanwhile, in Iran: U.S. Central Command announced just before 9 p.m. ET yesterday that it had completed “self-defense strikes against Iran,” the latest test of an increasingly tenuous ceasefire with the country. The strikes were launched after Donald Trump said the U.S. “must, of necessity, respond” to an attack that brought down a U.S. Apache helicopter patrolling the Strait of Hormuz.

Open tabs: Kalshi Plans Workplace Disclosure Rule to Combat Insider Trading (WSJ); The White House blocked a study on alcohol consumption. This is what it said (The Hill); Gallego hires Andrew Bates for crisis comms around Swalwell (Axios); ICE has detained over 500 babies and toddlers under Trump (MS NOW)

From the Hill

The DHS shutdown fight finally ends: Yesterday, House Republicans narrowly passed a party-line immigration-enforcement funding bill that their counterparts in the Senate approved last week. There were lots of distractions during this process — Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund, ballroom construction money — but in the end none of them were attached to the bill.

Republicans say no to Trump’s AI stock plan: “I’m not a huge fan of the government owning industry, and I think with this you’d combine the worst of the big bureaucrats with the Big Tech monopolist,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) told NOTUS, echoing several members of his party who do not want the president to go through with his plan for the government to own equity stakes in AI companies.

FISA shot/chaser: Senate Republican Leader John Thune told reporters yesterday that it would be easier to pass a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reauthorization if Trump appointed a permanent director of national intelligence now, our Hill team reports. But that appears unlikely. “William Pulte, who is working closely with Tulsi Gabbard, will be taking over as Acting Director of National Intelligence on Friday, June 19th,” Trump posted to Truth Social yesterday evening, seemingly dashing Thune’s and others’ hopes.

From the White House

The Secret Service’s busy summer: It will be one of the most demanding periods in the agency’s history, NOTUS’ Derek Hawkins reports. The first test comes this weekend, when the agency provides security for a UFC cage fight at the White House. Then comes the 250th anniversary events, campaign travel, the World Cup and on and on.

The list got longer just last week when Trump announced his “rally to end all rallies” would take place on June 24 in place of a Freedom 250 concert that many acts dropped out of. Derek reports that Secret Service officials have met to discuss how they would position the rally stage and mitigate lines of sight. One agenda item: whether livestock from the Great American State Fair happening on the National Mall would need security screening.

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Bad news for Butterworth’s? The MAGA-favored eatery may lose one of its prized dishes if a petition drive to get a foie gras ban on the D.C. ballot succeeds this summer, NOTUS’ Martin Austermuhle reports. June is a make-or-break month for the effort; organizers say they are more than halfway to collecting the roughly 24,000 signatures they need to turn in by early July.

A recent study says D.C. is tied with Las Vegas for having the second-highest number of restaurants serving foie gras in the country. New York is first. “It is my favorite ingredient, hands down,” Bart Hutchins, Butterworth’s chef and co-owner, told Martin. The restaurant has a regular menu item featuring foie gras and lamb, and recently offered foie gras ice cream, too.

ON NOTUS PODCAST

From your favorite podcast app: On today’s episode of On NOTUS, President Trump blurs the lines between branches as Speaker Johnson cedes influence in the House. NOTUS’ Oriana González is joined by her colleagues Kadia Goba, Reese Gorman and Paul Kane to discuss Trump’s influence in both chambers of Congress. Plus, new revelations about the House Ethics Committee, including how a gender gap impacted one investigation into sexual misconduct allegations.

NEW ON NOTUS

Awkward: The long-shot Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, Stacy Garrity, is supported by Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania, a grassroots organizing group founded by donor and organizer Cliff Maloney, NOTUS’ Avani Kalra reports. The backing is notable because Maloney has faced multiple accusations of sexual assault and harassment throughout his time in Pennsylvania politics — though he has denied the allegations.

More: Social Security Is in Worse Shape Than Previously Projected: Report, by Torrie Herrington

Ex-Fox News Host Steve Hilton to Face Xavier Becerra in California Governor’s Race, by Manuela Silva

NOT US

• ‘Unbelievable how accurate’: How paid influencers hype Polymarket’s odds, by Jason Beeferman, Maya Kaufman, Jessie Blaeser and Declan Harty for Politico
• A Disorienting Weekend With the Women of Turning Point, by Elaine Godfrey for The Atlantic
• How Spencer Pratt Lost Los Angeles, by Maxwell Adler for Vanity Fair
• The Fading Fun of Trump 2.0, by Philip Wegmann, Sabrina Rodriguez and Elias Leight for The Wall Street Journal

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That’s a whole lot of cash.

Correction: Yesterday’s newsletter misstated the entity that EMILYs List’s super PAC arm paid. It paid the FTX Recovery Trust. It also misstated which elections Sam Bankman-Fried contributed to, which were all prior to FTX’s bankruptcy in 2022.

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