Primary Updates: Crist to Face DeSantis in Florida, Nadler Defeats Maloney in New York

Primary Updates: Crist to Face DeSantis in Florida, Nadler Defeats Maloney in New York
(Left) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a primary election night event in Hialeah, Fla., on Aug. 23, 2022. (Right) Florida Gubernatorial candidate Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) gives a victory speech in the primary election at the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Aug. 23, 2022. (Chandan Khanna, Octavio Jones/Getty Images)

The latest on the Aug. 23 primaries in Florida, New York, and Oklahoma.

Nadler, Molinaro Among Winners in New York Congressional Primaries

In a hotly contended special election to occupy a vacant House seat for the last four months of the current Congressional session, Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro defeated Democrat Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan.

Both Molinaro, New York’s Republican 2018 gubernatorial nominee, and Ryan also won Aug. 23 primaries in different congressional districts and will be on November ballots seeking full terms in Congress.

Among losers in the state’s preliminary nominations for November general election berths is Democratic incumbent Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) who lost to Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) in a showdown between veteran congressional reps with more than 60 years of combined experience in Washington, D.C.

New Yorkers cast Aug. 23 ballots in primaries for 63 state senate and 26 U.S. House seats. It is the state’s second round primaries after state senate and congressional district maps approved by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly had to be redrawn under court order by a special master.

Read the full article here

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Charlie Crist Wins Florida Primary to Face Gov. DeSantis

Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) bested three other Florida Democrats gunning for the state’s top executive in the gubernatorial primary Tuesday.

Crist won nearly 60 percent of the vote with more than 95 percent of the results reported at 9:06 p.m. ET, according to Decision Desk HQ. Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried drew 35 percent of the vote.

Crist will face Gov. Ron DeSantis, three write-in candidates, a Libertarian, and two others with no party affiliation in the fall.

Read the full article here

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Maloney’s 30-Year Career Ends in Loss to Nadler

New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney’s three-decade career in the U.S. House is coming to a close after she lost Tuesday to her longtime colleague-turned-rival Jerry Nadler, a Democratic congressman who has served just as long as she has.

Nadler and Maloney each chair powerful committees and had spent 30 years representing Manhattan’s Upper West Side and Upper East Side, respectively. But they ended up in the same race after new redistricting maps merged much of their longtime congressional districts.

In other races Tuesday, Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of the House Democrats’ campaign arm, survived a primary challenge. He was among the incumbents facing an unexpected fight after redrawn political maps led to a scramble in the second-largest blue state in the country.

There was an added degree of uncertainty to how New York’s congressional primary contests would shake out as voter turnout was expected to be low. It was the second primary election day in New York this summer after statewide and state assembly primaries were held two months ago. New York voters are not accustomed to casting primary ballots this late in the summer—and certainly not used to casting them twice—and many were finding their longtime district lines had shifted, adding to confusion.

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Democratic Senate Candidates Launch ‘Flippable Five Fund’ to Increase Majority

Democratic Senate candidates from Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have joined forces to pool donations in the “Flippable Five Fund” in a bid to win seats in November.

The 50–50 split between Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate “is not cutting it,” according to Democratic Senate candidate Cheri Beasley, North Carolina’s former Supreme Court chief justice.

The tiebreaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris currently gives Democrats a slim majority in the Senate. But Beasley and her colleagues want to win more seats, and they say the joint fund is “Democrats’ best chance” come the November midterms.

Beasley is joined by Reps. Val Demings (D-Fla.) and Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, and Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, all Democrats, in the joint fund.

Read the full article here

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Gaetz Wins Florida Primary

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) won his primary in Florida.

He was facing a challenge from Mark Lombardo, a former Marine and executive at FedEx.

Rebekah Jones, a former Department of Health employee who questioned the state’s COVID-19 data, won the Democratic primary for the seat in the heavily Republican district. A state inspector general’s report concluded Jones’s allegations were unfounded, but in her race for Congress, she tapped into national support for fundraising, bringing in more than $500,000.

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Brecheen Wins Oklahoma GOP Congressional Runoff to Replace Markwayne Mullin

In the race to replace Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), former Oklahoma state Sen. Josh Brecheen won Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District Republican primary runoff over Oklahoma state Rep. Avery Frix.

With 95 percent of the vote counted on Aug. 23, Brecheen gained 52.2 percent compared to 47.8 percent for Frix, according to the Associated Press.

Brecheen will face Democrat Naomi Andrews and independent Ben Robinson in November’s general election.

Read the full article here

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Sabatini Rejected, Trump-Backed Luna Wins in GOP Bids for Open Congressional Seats in Central Florida

A Trumpian firebrand, a former Florida secretary of state, and an Iraq/Afghanistan war veteran running in his first election are among Republicans advancing to likely victories in November elections for open seats in three central Florida congressional districts.

Air Force veteran Anna Paulina Luna, endorsed by former President Donald Trump, edged two challengers to win the party’s nod in Tampa Bay-area Congressional District 13 while Cody Mills, a Trump-appointed Department of Defense (DOD) adviser, defeated seven rivals to win the Republican primary in suburban Orlando-area CD 7 in Florida’s Aug. 23 primaries.

CD 7 is now represented by three-term Democrat Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), a former defense analyst and moderate who co-chairs the Blue Dog caucus, a bipartisan fiscal accountability group.

Murphy, however, announced in December she was not seeking reelection in a district that is dramatically different than the one she has represented since 2016.

With 95 percent of the Aug. 23 CD 7 Republican primary tallied, Mills was the front-runner in the eight-candidate pack, garnering 38.1 percent of ballots cast, easily outpacing second-place finisher, state Rep. Anthony Sabatini (R-Howey-in-the-Hills).

Read the full article here

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Rep. Mullin Wins Oklahoma Republican US Senate Primary Runoff

Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) took another step toward replacing retiring Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe on Aug. 23 by defeating T.W. Shannon in Oklahoma’s GOP U.S. Senate election primary runoff.

With 74 percent of the votes tallied at 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 23, Mullin won with 66 percent compared to 34 percent for Shannon, according to Decision Desk HQ.

In the first round of the primary in late June, Mullin received 43.6 percent of the vote and Shannon finished second at 17.5 percent in a field of 13 candidates. Since neither surpassed 50 percent, a runoff was required to determine the Republican nominee.

Inhofe, 87, took office in 1994 and was elected to a fifth term in 2020 before announcing in February that he will retire, effective Jan. 3, 2023. That prompted the special election.

Read the full article here

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Muskogee Is Front and Center in Oklahoma’s GOP Primary Runoffs

Standing outside the Greater Muskogee Area Chamber of Commerce, Dice Dawson leaned against his pick-up truck and talked about how his hometown is generating regional attention for its role in the Aug. 23 Oklahoma Republican primary runoff.

Nestled along the Arkansas River around 50 miles southeast of Tulsa, Muskogee is part of Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District.

Rep. Markwayne Mullin has represented the region in Congress over the last decade. He is running against former Oklahoma Speaker of the House T.W. Shannon in the GOP U.S. Senate primary runoff.

Muskogee native and resident Avery Frix, a 28-year-old Oklahoma state representative who was first elected to that seat in 2017, is leading in the polls over former Oklahoma state Sen. Josh Brecheen in the race to replace Mullin.

Read the full article here

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John Haughey, Nanette Holt, Jeff Louderback, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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