The end of the August primary season came on Tuesday, with the elections in New York, Florida and Oklahoma.
Here are some keys things to see for tonight:
Florida Democrats to choose DeSantis challenger: Florida Democrats have lost their way through the Sunshine State since Republican Ron DeSantis narrowly defeated their 2018 gubernatorial candidate, Andrew Gillum. They have no power in Tallahassee as the permanent minority party in the state legislature, they squandered their substantial voter registration advantage, they lost the 2020 presidential election to their hands. Donald Trump is here on favorable odds and has recently struggled to convince donors that Florida is still a battleground worth investing in.
Meanwhile, DeSantis has become one of the most popular Republicans in the country and a potential GOP candidate for the White House in 2024.
On Tuesday, Democratic voters in the state will choose a candidate for governor who they hope can lead their change and possibly slow DeSantis’ outgrowth . The choice was between Representative Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor, for whom the Democrats were nominated for their governorship in 2014, and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the Democrat. Florida’s only statewide election.
Abortion rights – and bail reform – prevailed in special election in the New York House of Representatives: Abortion rights are on the ballot in this special election between Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, Democrat, and Republican Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro — at least, that’s what Ryan does. (and his lawn signs) are talking.
Ryan, a veteran of the Iraq War, has sought to channel anger over the Supreme Court’s ruling ending federal abortion rights into an electoral advantage over Molinaro, a moderate Republican. Peace said that, despite being “in favor of personal life”, he would not vote for a national citizen to ban. (Also, Molinaro declined to say whether he would support legislation to legalize abortion nationally.)
An Uptown power struggle responds to a call for “generational change”: Redistricting has greatly upset the status quo of New York, but perhaps nowhere more so than in a large swath of Upper Manhattan, which for decades has been politically dominated by Democratic representative. Jerry Nadler, in the West, and Carolyn Maloney, in the East.
Their parallel dominions were united by the hand of a “special master” who drew up new districts, sparking one of the cycle’s most devastating campaigns in a hot summer. full of them. On Saturday, Maloney – on camera – suggested an editorial in the New York Post. “They called him old man,” she said. Nadler, meanwhile, has accused her opponent of exaggerating her record in the House of Representatives, where both were elected in 1992.
Can a moderation emerge from one of NY’s most liberal new boroughs? Thirteen candidates are voting in the open primaries, although one, former Mayor Bill de Blasio, voted in late July. Of the dozen remaining, four seem to have a realistic chance of emerging to represent Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn in brownstone – what will be one of the country’s most liberal boroughs.
But a series of advances, led by State Representative Yuh-Line Niou, City Councilmember Carlina Rivera, and Representative Mondaire Jones, an incumbent member who moved to the city from the suburbs, risks disrupting the more leftist vote and pave the way for Daniel Goldman, a former moderate federal prosecutor who served as a key adviser to Democrats at former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial. .
