Comment Democratic efforts to reshape the midterms around the abortion debate gathered steam, with the party winning a special U.S. House election in an evenly divided Upstate New York district on Tuesday, where their candidate made the theme central point of his campaign. And in New York and Florida, Democratic primary voters nominated established gubernatorial and congressional candidates in several closely watched in-party contests, overwhelmingly choosing well-known incumbents aligned with party leadership over challengers trying to steer the party in a different direction. direction. Overall, the results were a welcome sign for Democratic leaders seeking to rally the party’s base behind its incumbents and find ways to sway voters to vote against Republicans, who have long felt in a position to make big gains. profits in November. Tuesday’s vote came after Democrats introduced sweeping legislation to fight global warming and lower prescription drug costs for seniors, among other things, boosting their hopes of averting a red wave in the fall. In Florida, Rep. Charlie Crist, who was endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, beat a more liberal female candidate in the Democratic primary for governor. In New York, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who won a last-minute endorsement from Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, beat an experienced woman and a younger candidate of color. And Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, easily triumphed over an insurgent liberal challenger. “Tonight, the mainstream won,” Maloney said in his victory speech. “Common sense won out. Democrats want candidates who will get results and win.” Democratic leaders were also encouraged by the special election in New York’s 19th Congressional District, where Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, the Democratic nominee, made abortion rights a cornerstone of his victorious campaign against the Republican. Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro. “We entered this fight because the foundations of our democracy were and remain under immediate threat,” Ryan told supporters in Kingston shortly before midnight. “When the Supreme Court took away reproductive rights, access to abortion rights, we said: This is not what America stands for.” Tuesday’s vote in Florida, New York and Oklahoma marked the conclusion of some of the final major contests of the year before both parties begin the full sprint to the Nov. 8 election. That pivot is already underway, with Democrats trying to capitalize on anger over the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as a means of overcoming voter dissatisfaction with Biden and his party leadership in Washington. Republicans have suffered greatly from rising prices and crime under Democratic watch. They were also deciding intra-party showdowns on Tuesday, many of which featured election naysayers and candidates who embraced the divisive rhetoric and false claims of Donald Trump. Some in the party have expressed concerns that the former president’s presence and his polarizing positions could complicate the GOP’s push to regain control of Congress. While Democrats say they have reason for more optimism, historical trends point to a difficult November for Biden and his party. And the president’s job approval rating continues to be low in public polls, even as Democrats say they have gained traction on other fronts. Each is a potentially troubling sign for Democratic candidates in battleground races. Crist, the one-time Republican governor of Florida who is now running for his old job as a Democrat, beat state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who ran to his left and criticized Crist for his once anti-abortion positions. Crist will now turn his attention to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has emerged as a leading figure in his party and a possible 2024 presidential contender. DeSantis, who has positioned himself as a culture warrior who embraces battles with media and the way schools teach children about gender and sexual orientation, he did not oppose the GOP primary. Both sides discussed their strategies for the general election. “The stakes could not be higher for this election. Our fundamental freedoms are literally on the ballot, a woman’s right to choose, democracy is on the ballot, your rights as minorities are on that ballot,” Crist said in his victory speech Tuesday night. DeSantis “is not could care less about your liberties,” added Crist. Republican Governors Association Executive Director Dave Rexrod said in a statement that DeSantis “has been a champion of liberty” and sought to connect Crist with President Biden, who has struggled with low approval ratings. Also in Florida, Democratic Rep. Val Demings won her party’s nomination to take on Republican Sen. Marco Rubio in November. The race is expected to be one of the most heated Senate contests this fall. Demings, who if she wins in November will be Florida’s first black senator and only the second woman to represent the state in the Senate, has signaled that she plans to make abortion access a central issue of her campaign. In New York, Republicans hoped the 19th district, which Biden won by less than two points in 2020, would be an opportunity to show they have momentum heading into the fall. But in two recent special elections in Nebraska and Minnesota, Democrats lost districts won by Trump by single digits, toughing out the Supreme Court’s decision to end the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy. These results emboldened Democrats to continue campaigning on abortion. Some voters in the district expressed strong views on the issue in interviews. “I don’t believe in taking away rights that existed as a precedent in New York state,” said Mary Louise Sharp, 70, a retired nurse, who voted for Ryan over Molinaro. “That’s how things have been for 50 years. I’m 70. I was 20 when abortion came into force.’ But Ben Wagar, who said he supports abortion rights, voted for Molinaro because he said other economic issues were more important to him. “You can’t keep printing money and sending it out,” said Wagar, 71, a onetime Democrat who supported Trump. Elsewhere in New York, Democratic incumbents battled bitter primaries that revealed ideological, generational and racial divisions in the party. Many of these bruising contests were the result of new congressional districts. In Manhattan, Nadler of the Upper West Side prevailed over Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney of the Upper East Side, two Democratic powerhouses forced into a bitter primary after a chaotic redistricting process merged their districts into one. After serving side by side for 30 years and climbing the seniority ladder to lead two powerful commissions, their relationship soured as both desperately tried to save their jobs. In the final weeks of the campaign, Nadler sought to emphasize his ties to the region’s Jewish community and emphasize a slightly more liberal background, while Maloney campaigned hard on the idea that this political moment called for strong women. A third candidate, Suraj Patel, told voters it was time for Manhattan to be represented by someone new. At a polling place on Manhattan’s Upper East Side that Maloney has long represented, Dorothy Lang, 100, showed up to vote for Nadler after the two elders clashed. A recent newspaper endorsement sealed her decision. “I think he’s done a lot of good things,” she said, “and when the New York Times chose him, that was good enough for me.” New York Democrats, who control all of state government, had hoped this year’s redistricting would win them a few extra seats to offset Republican gains elsewhere. But a state court struck down the map drawn by Democrats on procedural issues and appointed an independent special master to redraw the lines. In the Democrats’ version, they could have won as many as three additional seats. now they risk losing up to five. The late redrawing of the map also complicated the state’s primary schedule, splitting the election so that the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate primaries were held in June and the U.S. House and state Senate primaries in August. One of the biggest challenges for candidates, especially in New York, has been reaching voters in a month when many are away on vacation. New York’s redistricting prompted Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones, the first of two openly gay black members of Congress, to run in a new district that includes Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn — no part of his former district. That put him in a crowded primary against attorney Dan Goldman, who won Tuesday, beating state Assemblyman Yuh-Line Niou, Jones and others. Jones slammed Goldman from the left, including for his personal views on abortion. Like Nadler, Goldman was boosted by an endorsement from the New York Times. Sean Patrick Maloney defeated state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, who was endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — the young liberal icon who unseated a member of the Democratic Party leadership in a primary four years ago. While New York Democrats’ redistricting plans were thwarted, DeSantis successfully created a new Florida map that created more conservative districts, overcoming a court challenge that argued the lines amounted to illegal partisan gerrymandering. DeSantis’ map redrawn three Democratic-held districts into GOP-leaning seats — the 4th District around Jacksonville, the 7th District around Orlando and the 13th District in Pinellas County, which Crist is leaving to run governor. With little need to chase down swing voters, every race has become a race to the right and embrace Trump and his platform. DeSantis accused one of the losing 4th District candidates, Eric Aguilar, of “fraud” for…
