Ex-Republican Crist wins Democratic nod to oppose DeSantis for Florida governor

Tuesday's primaries in Florida, New York and Oklahoma are among the last scheduled before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, which will determine the balance of power in the House and Senate in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. New York is also holding the first competitive congressional election since the Supreme Court overturned national abortion rights.

U.S. Representative Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor of Florida, emerged on Tuesday as the Democrat who will try to unseat sitting Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in the November general election. Meanwhile, Val Demings, a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives, will square off against Republican Senator Marco Rubio, after defeating three rivals in the state's Democratic primary election, according to a projection by Edison Research. With 65% of the vote in, Demings had around 85% of the vote.

DeSantis, widely viewed as a potential 2024 presidential candidate, and Rubio, a former presidential hopeful, had no primary opponents. Tuesday's primaries in Florida, New York and Oklahoma are among the last scheduled before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, which will determine the balance of power in the House and Senate in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.

New York is also holding the first competitive congressional election since the Supreme Court overturned national abortion rights. Democrats have been widely seen as the underdog party up to now, with their prospects weighed down by historical trends, inflation, and President Joe Biden's low job approval numbers.

Republicans are favored to take control of the House, putting them in a position to scupper Biden's legislative agenda. But their chances of capturing the Senate have been cast into doubt by the weakness of Trump-endorsed candidates in the key swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Crist, 66, who drew endorsements from Democratic leaders including U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, bested state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, Edison Research projected. With 65% of the vote counted, Crist had 59.3% of the vote, vs. 35.3% for Fried.

A longtime DeSantis critic in state politics, Fried had sought to rally support as a candidate intent on protecting abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. Crist, who served a single term as a Republican Florida governor, attracted support from top Democrats. He portrayed himself as a candidate ready to unify the state after DeSantis' focus on culture war issues, including LGBTQ rights.

Recent polling data shows DeSantis leading Crist by several percentage points. The Florida primary also served as the starting gun for a Senate showdown between the Republican incumbent, Rubio, and Demings, a former Orlando police chief who played a vocal role in former President Donald Trump's two impeachments as a member of the House Judiciary Committee.

Most polls show Rubio leading Demings by several points to double digits, according to the tracking website FiveThirtyEight.com. The Senate is also center stage in Oklahoma on Tuesday. A run-off primary will determine whether U.S. Representative Markwayne Mullin or former state House Speaker T.W. Shannon gets the Republican nomination to replace retiring Senator Jim Inhofe.

Mullin and Shannon are both loyalists of former President Donald Trump and the winner will likely succeed to office in November. In New York, Democrat Pat Ryan and Republican Marc Molinaro are vying for an open U.S. House seat in a special election that could give both parties a preview of the November midterms.

Ryan and Molinaro are contending for New York's 19th Congressional District, which includes the Catskill Mountains and part of the Hudson Valley. Their showdown offers a test of whether Democrats can use the abortion issue to deflect Republican criticism over the economy. Democratic hopes were raised earlier this month when voters in Republican-dominated Kansas rejected a constitutional amendment to remove abortion protections.

Ryan, an Army combat veteran and the executive of Ulster County, has campaigned on the message that the loss of national abortion rights amounts to an "existential threat" to U.S. democracy. Molinaro, the executive of Dutchess County, opposes abortion and has downplayed the issue to focus his message on high inflation and crime rates.

The two men are battling for the seat left vacant when Democrat Antonio Delgado became the state's lieutenant governor. New York's primaries include unusual intraparty contests for Democrats, including a New York City battle between longtime House incumbents Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler, who are both in their 70s. The race includes a third Democratic contender, 38-year-old Suraj Patel.

U.S. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, a five-term Democratic incumbent, faces challenger Alessandra Biaggi in a suburban New York primary contest, seen as a proxy battle between the party establishment and its progressive wing. Biaggi is endorsed by Democratic Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, a leading House progressive.