Florida and New York primaries put Democratic candidates’ abortion trump card to the test | International

The results of the primaries that are held this Tuesday in Florida and New York offer one more brushstroke on the course of the mid-term elections, in November, and especially about the correlation of forces in the Democratic ranks. The party faced tough decisions: in Florida, who among them will face Ron DeSantis, the potential Republican presidential candidate in 2024; in New York, which of the souls of the party, the one who represents the establishment and the progressive, will impose its candidate for Congress in November. In both States, the debate on the right to abortion has been very present in the campaign and has been used as an asset by the candidates.

The name of Ron de Santis, the current governor of Florida, sounds strongly as a possible Republican candidate for the White House in 2024, although for that he would have to be re-elected today. A hypothetical rival of weight for Trump, if the tycoon, surrounded by investigations and judicial processes, finally decides to run for the presidency; At the moment, he plays behind the scenes, with his support of more than 200 Republican candidates in the country. Against DeSantis, Democrats Charlie Crist, who was governor between 2007 and 2011, and Nikki Fried, responsible for State Agriculture, have been measured in the fight for the Democratic nomination. The winner, veteran Crist, has also championed the Supreme Court ruling that revoked the right to abortion. During the campaign, Fried criticized his co-religionist and at the same time his rival for changing his jacket on this and other issues, recalling that in the past Crist, in addition to being a member of the Republican ranks before joining the Democrats, held anti-abortion positions.

DeSantis has received colossal sums of money for his re-election campaign as governor and, according to most polls, he will beat Crist in the decisive mid-term elections, which could give control of Congress to Republicans and that Democrats they face by listing President Joe Biden’s successes in recent weeks, such as the Inflation Reduction Act. They also rely on the mobilization of voters, especially women, against the Supreme Court’s ruling. With his ambivalent political profile, the moderate Crist, who comfortably beat Fried today, could appeal in November to independent and Republican voters fed up with DeSantis’ aggressive right-wing policies.

In this Tuesday’s vote, the candidates for federal and state Congress are decided, as in the case of New York. The Democratic primaries are expected to confirm the candidacy of Congresswoman Val Demings to contest in November for the Senate seat now held by Republican Marco Rubio, an old acquaintance on the national political scene. In addition, one of the most controversial members of the House, Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, is competing in the primaries against Mark Lombardo, a former Marine who has based his campaign on the sex trafficking and child abuse scandal that Gaetz starred in last year. investigated but not charged.

New electoral map in New York

Voters in New York have been the first to demonstrate in a congressional election since the Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion, so the race may provide clues heading into November as to whether the abortion hitch pennant will succeed in deflecting the voters’ attention to the uncertain economic situation or the increase in citizen insecurity, as the Republicans denounce. Some districts, such as the 19th, which includes much of the Hudson Valley, are cited as examples. The rejection by the voters of Kansas, a state dominated by Republicans, of a constitutional amendment that sought to eliminate the freedom to terminate pregnancy has spurred Democratic hopes of reversing conservative criticism of Biden’s economic performance. Democrat Pat Ryan, an Army veteran, has campaigned on the message that the loss of that right amounts to an “existential threat” to American democracy. His Republican opponent, Marc Molinaro, who opposes abortion, has downplayed the speech and emphasized high inflation and rising crime. Recent polls show a slight Republican lead.

Aside from this House race, there’s also a rare primary dedicated to the city’s newly drawn constituencies taking place this Tuesday. A judge paralyzed the reconfiguration of the electoral map, which benefited the Democrats, and for that reason the primaries have involved unusual battles in the Democratic ranks, such as the one between veteran representatives Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, both septuagenarians, in Manhattan. The third in contention was the young Suraj Patel, 38 years old. In the end, the fireproof Nadler easily prevailed over Maloney. A residue of bitterness hung over the polls: the reconfiguration of the electoral districts, ordered by the electoral board, has pitted two colleagues who were competing today for the same seat against each other. Maloney lost the one she had held for decades, when her district and Nadler’s, a weighty figure in the party and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, merged into one.

Another representative also surnamed Maloney, Sean Patrick Maloney, a heavyweight on the Democratic campaign committee, faces Alessandra Biaggi in a New York suburb, in a fight considered a new chapter in the power struggle between the establishment and the progressive wing. Biaggi has the support of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the leading progressives in the House.

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