Voters in Maine, Nevada, South Carolina, and North Dakota will head to the polls this Tuesday, June 9, to participate in another round of primary elections. The elections will determine the candidates for the Senate, the House of Representatives, governorships, and dozens of state and local offices that will be up for grabs in November.

Among the races drawing the most attention are the search for a challenger to Republican Senator Susan Collins in Maine, the Republican race to succeed Governor Henry McMaster in South Carolina, and the gubernatorial primary in Nevada. In addition, North Dakota will vote on a proposal to amend its state Constitution.

When and at what time are the primary elections?

The primary elections will be held on Tuesday, June 9, 2026.

Polling hours vary by state. In South Carolina, polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time. In Maine, hours depend on each municipality, although most polling places will close at 8:00 p.m. In Nevada, polling places will close at 7:00 p.m. local time, while in North Dakota, hours vary by county, with closing times scheduled between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.

What’s on the ballots?

In South Carolina, voters will elect candidates for governor, the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives, and various state offices. The race for governor is one of the most closely watched, with seven Republicans and three Democrats vying to succeed outgoing Governor Henry McMaster.

Maine will hold primaries for governor, the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives, and the state legislature. Much of the attention is focused on the Democratic primary to determine who will face Republican Senator Susan Collins, considered one of the most vulnerable figures in the Republican Party in the Senate. The race for the 2nd Congressional District, which became open following Representative Jared Golden’s decision not to seek reelection, will also be decided.

In Nevada, nominations will be decided for governor, the House of Representatives, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and other state offices. Republican Governor Joe Lombardo will seek to advance toward a re-election campaign, while Democrats will choose their candidate in an effort to win back one of the most competitive governorships in the country.

In North Dakota, voters will elect candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, various state offices, the state legislature, and two seats on the Public Service Commission. They will also vote on a proposal to amend the state Constitution to require that each constitutional amendment initiative address a single, specific issue.

Who can vote?

South Carolina uses an open primary system, so any registered voter can choose to participate in either the Democratic or Republican primary.

North Dakota also allows voters to participate without first registering with a political party, although they must select a single party ballot for the primary races.

Maine maintains a mixed system. Voters registered with a party may only participate in their political party’s primary, while independents may choose which primary to vote in.

Nevada uses a closed system. Voters must be registered with a party to participate in their respective primary, although state law allows voters to register or change their party affiliation even on Election Day.

How and where to vote?

Voters can find their polling place, verify their voter registration, review their ballot, and learn about their state’s specific requirements through the official websites of election authorities.

An easy way to find this information is through Vote.org, where you can verify your voter registration, find your polling place, and access each state’s official links.

Some jurisdictions have specific requirements. In South Carolina, for example, voters must present a valid photo ID to vote in person. In Nevada, voters can register or update their party affiliation on Election Day at authorized locations.

When will the results be announced?

The first results will begin to be released after the polls close on Tuesday night.

However, the time required to complete the count will vary from state to state. Nevada and Maine may take longer due to the volume of early and mail-in ballots, while South Carolina and North Dakota typically report a significant portion of their results during the early hours of election night.

In some races, runoffs or additional processes may also be necessary to determine the nominees. In South Carolina, for example, the two candidates with the most votes will advance to a runoff if no one receives more than 50% of the votes in the primary.

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Pope Leo XIV delivered a historic speech on Monday inside Spanish parliament in a joint session of both houses, where he stressed that the moral value of political decisions must prevail “over mutable social consensus” and lamented “the permanent denigration of the adversary.”

Much of his address, which lasted half an hour and was met with seven minutes of applause, was devoted to condemning discrimination against migrants and policies that forget their dignity as human beings. “Wherever a person is discriminated against because of their origin, the principle of the equal dignity of all human beings is violated,” he said.

“Those who exercise public responsibility have a special duty to guard their language in order to ‘disarm speech.’ Firmness does not require contempt; disagreement does not entail humiliation,” he warned in an appeal to tone down verbal aggression and polarization in politics. “The world is undergoing a profound spiritual and cultural crisis, which is manifested in multiple forms of violence, polarization, and mutual distrust.”

After initially keeping a low profile, the pope has this year begun to reveal himself as a global voice against far-right populism. In a speech to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See on January 9, 2026, he said that “in our time, the weakness of multilateralism is a particular cause for concern at the international level. A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies. War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading.”

Leo XIV arrived in Madrid on Saturday for a weeklong visit to Spain — the first by a pontiff in 15 years — and has since made a point of meeting with migrants and homeless people. On Sunday he officiated a mass that attracted 1.2 million people, according to local authorities.

On Monday, during his address to the national legislature, Leo XIV was very clear in his global call for “a peace that requires diplomatic courage” and respect for international law “above the interests that profit from war.” He also reiterated his opposition to rearmament policies.

On immigration, he said that the drama of migration challenges the conscience of nations and the ethical foundation of the international order. He said that it is a problem that “exceeds any purely demographic or economic reading: it is fundamentally a moral and legal issue.”

“The situation of migrants and refugees demands a response that focuses on people, addresses the causes that force them to leave and goes beyond the mere management of flows. From this arises a twofold requirement of social justice: offering safe and legal routes, a respectful welcome and real possibilities for integration; and at the same time promoting the right to remain in one’s own land,” he said.

The pope did not mention child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in his speech in Congress, although house speaker Francina Armengol reminded him that Congress commissioned an investigation into clerical sex abuse in 2022. Later the pope delivered an address to the Conference of Bishops in which he referred to abuse within the Church as a “plague” and asked the bishops to ensure that “every person who has been hurt” can find “a sincere ear, a welcoming environment, protection, and real changes that bring healing.” EL PAÍS has been investigating cases of abuse by the Spanish Church since 2018.

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The executive order issued by the White House on May 1 has shaken Cuba’s foundations. The United States decided to tighten the noose around an economy that was already in intensive care even before the new sanctions that took effect on Friday, or the oil blockade implemented earlier this year. Washington’s threat to freeze assets on U.S. territory of any foreign company or individual doing business with the Cuban regime — especially with the vast portfolio of businesses held by Gaesa, the military conglomerate that controls half of Cuba’s GDP — has produced its first effects. And once foreign companies withdraw, their replacement by U.S. firms appears to be the next step.

Within weeks, two large Spanish hotel chains (Meliá and Iberostar) were forced to abandon part of their operations, giving up management of 15 and 12 hotels respectively that were owned by the Armed Forces. That withdrawal, however, will not spare them from lawsuits by the Cuban government, which will demand compensation for unilaterally terminating their management contracts. Canada’s Blue Diamond and Indonesia’s Archipelago International have also exited their businesses entirely, while the shipping lines CMA CGM (France) and Hapag-Lloyd (Germany) have chosen to halt container deliveries. The exodus has not only hit tourism, the main pillar of Cuba’s economy. It has also struck mining, which accounts for a third of goods exports. Canadian company Sherritt International, which had a joint venture with the island’s government, disclosed a nonbinding agreement under which Gillon Capital, a firm linked to a former adviser to Donald Trump, would acquire a 55% stake.

Business sources close to the Cuban government summarized to EL PAÍS two weeks ago what they believe is the sole objective of the U.S. sanctions: “They want to take over the Galicians’ business” [referring to Spaniards who emigrated to Cuba at the end of the 19th century].

The first candidates could be Marriott, the world’s largest hotel company with 7,781 hotels, and Airbnb, the largest short-term rental platform, with nine million listings. Both have already operated or currently operate in Cuba under special licenses granted by the U.S. government during Barack Obama’s second term in the so-called “Cuban thaw.” They have never concealed their interest in continuing to expand on the island. Between 2016 and 2020, Marriott managed the Four Points by Sheraton Havana, becoming the only property operated there by a U.S. giant. Arne Sorenson, Marriott’s former CEO, was one of the business executives who accompanied President Obama on the March 16, 2016, flight that marked the start of that new phase.

Airbnb, for its part, landed in April 2015 with 1,000 listings, but was restricted to hosting only U.S. tourists. In its first year it welcomed 13,000 travelers and the number rose to 35,000 listings by 2019, once an exceptional permission was granted to host non-U.S. guests as well. From there the numbers fell sharply because of successive economic crises and the pandemic, despite relief measures approved during Joe Biden’s administration. The final blow came from a Department of State order dated January 31, 2025, which restricted Cuba’s access to international banking and forced hosts to find alternative payment methods abroad, collapsing the business.

A devastating outlook for Cuba

The picture painted by these initial moves, together with those that may follow soon, is, at best, devastating. For Max Meizlish, a former Treasury Department official from 2020 to 2024 and a researcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), this is unprecedented pressure. “Washington’s pressure aims to definitively turn the Caribbean country into a financial pariah, without external sources of financing. Right now, what we see is that all these strategic sectors of the Cuban economy that have touchpoints with foreign firms are being pressured for the first time,” he concludes in a Zoom call.

The onslaught arrives at a moment of extreme vulnerability. In recent years the Cuban government has implemented a severe austerity plan that includes cuts to public spending, a reduction of the bureaucratic apparatus, lower subsidies and an unprecedented increase in basic service fees, alongside a partial dollarization of the economy that operates with up to three different exchange rates. As an extraordinary measure, the regime decided to allocate budget resources month by month based on its revenues. Not to mention power outages that in large areas exceed 24 consecutive hours. “This is already worse than a wartime economy,” Cuban economist Omar Everleny Pérez says by phone.

Other experts point to two intertwined founding errors: betting everything on tourism and giving the military free rein through Gaesa, to concentrate economic power in accounts that cannot be audited by the state. In 2016, the military holding now targeted by Trump launched an ambitious hotel plan during the thaw with Obama in a bid to reach 100,000 rooms by 2030. “We cannot wait for the blockade [U.S. economic embargo] to end to build the hotel capacity,” President Miguel Díaz-Canel justified. For Pérez, those economic mistakes have put a noose around the country’s neck. Or, put another way, they have made Washington’s job of strangling the island easier.

The crux of the matter, says Max Meizlish, is that the executive order leaves the door open for the Trump administration to further expand economic pressure. Among the options available is pushing international banks to freeze funds of entities tied to the government and its military leadership. “What I would expect from any of these banks that want to comply with the terms of the executive order is that they block them. Make them feel trapped. And have those funds moved so they are inaccessible to the regime,” the former Treasury official says.

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