Florida voters went to the polls Tuesday to choose the Democrats who will take on powerful Republicans Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio, while some of the nastiest congressional battles in New York will finally be decided.
In Florida, CBS News projects Rep. Val Demings has won the Democratic nomination for Senate.
Although incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio is the favorite to win in November, Demings, a former police chief who was discussed as a possible vice-presidential contender, has outraised Rubio by almost $11 million so far, and has spent $20 million more on advertisements than Rubio.
Demings gave a passionate but brief victory speech Tuesday night in Orlando, where she campaigned on pledges to lower the cost of health care, protect Social Security and Medicare, abortion rights, voting rights and bring down gun violence.
“Tonight, we come looking forward,” she said. “It is about holding America to its promise.”
“I dream tonight of an America where every vote matters. My friend and former colleague John Lewis said that the right to vote is precious,” Demigs said. “That is almost sacred. And we have to do everything in our power to protect the right to vote, and when we protect the right to vote, we have to get out and exercise our right to vote. I believe and dream of that America.”
CBS News projects Rep. Charlie Crist has won the Democratic nomination for governor. Crist, who served as governor of Florida as a Republican from 2007 until 2011.
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But it will be an uphill battle for Crist. Incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is frequently talked about as a 2024 presidential contender, has a massive war chest of $160 million and enjoys widespread popularity.
Crist wasted no time after his primary victory before launching an offensive against DeSantis on Tuesday.
“Governor DeSantis only cares about the White House, he doesn’t care about your house — so don’t be fooled by the DeSantis propaganda machine,” Crist said in his victory speech in St. Petersburg. “He doesn’t promote freedom; he takes freedom away.”
Crist, who used to be a Republican, and used to be the GOP governor of the state, vowed to unite Democrats, Republicans, and independents to stop DeSantis, whom he referred to as “a wannabe dictator.”
“If we work together, stand up to this bully, we will defeat him in November,” Crist said. “Everyone who wants to protect freedom and protect democracy. Who is tired of getting screwed by powerful special interests? We need your help.”
Crist called the governor an “abusive bully” who is playing a “dangerous” political game to appeal to “extremists” in the Republican Party as he seeks the 2024 nomination. “He imitates the worst authoritarian leaders on the globe,” Crist said, adding, “this governor couldn’t care less about your freedom.”
Crist said if he’s elected, he will “restore” freedoms that DeSantis is taking away and promised to sign an executive order on Day 1 protecting a woman’s right to choose.
DeSantis and Rubio did not face primary challengers.
The battle over New York’s new congressional maps caused the primaries for U.S. House and state Senate to be pushed back until August. The final version of the map put several incumbents in the same districts.
The most notable is in New York City, where the Upper West Side and Upper East Side were joined into one district, pitting two members of Congress with 30 years experience each against each other, Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler.
The two powerful Democrats have extremely similar voting records, which has turned the race into a nasty personality battle. Also on the ballot in the district is 38-year-old Suraj Patel, a former Obama administration official hoping to bank on younger votes in the district.
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Nadler’s longtime district, NY-10, had snaked from where he lived on the Upper West Side through Manhattan and a huge chunk in Brooklyn. He chose not to run in the redrawn district, which has more conventional boundaries in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn but excludes his home neighborhood. Instead, he’s facing Maloney in NY-12.
That left NY-10 as a rare open seat in New York City, leading to a crowded primary that at one point even included former Mayor Bill de Blasio, although he has since dropped out. Polls show Dan Goldman, one of the Democrats’ impeachment lawyers, leading the pack.
Redistricting also led to another nasty battle in Hudson Valley, with current Reps. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of the House Democrats’ campaign arm, and Mondaire Jones living in the 17th District. Although Maloney currently represents the 18th District, one-third of his district is the new 17th – which is more friendly to Democrats than the new 18th District.
After Maloney announced he would be running in the 17th District, Jones resettled on the 10th District in Brooklyn. But Maloney picked up another challenger from the left, state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi.
In the reverse of New York, Florida has also gained a congressional seat. DeSantis pushed hard for an aggressively gerrymandered map — even more so than the Republican-leaning map by Florida’s legislature, which he vetoed. Under his map, Republicans could gain as many as four seats, with Democratic-leaning seats in the 5th, 7th and 13th Districts likely to flip red, and a new version of the 15th District that is solidly Republican.
Florida’s courts were asked to throw out the map, after one state judge found the elimination of the 5th District unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court decided to not hear a challenge on the maps before the midterm elections.
See below for a list of Tuesday’s races and candidates, which will be updated with the winners.
Musadiq Bidar, Lauren Peller, Fritz Farrow and Sarah Ewall-Wice contributed to this report.
