Primaries to Watch This Tuesday
Spencer Brown
Posted: Aug 23, 2022 11:00 AM
We're now in the final stretch of primaries for the 2022 midterm elections that will prove consequential for the second half of President Joe Biden's first term, with voters in Florida and New York deciding contests within their own parties ahead of the general election that's now just over 10 weeks away. There's also the Republican U.S. Senate runoff in Oklahoma to finalize the GOP candidate who will seek to finish the remainder of retiring U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe's term. Townhall is tracking the vicious Dem vs. Dem matchups playing out in New York following a messy redistricting process as well as the Florida races that will settle the Democrat challengers looking to take on Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio.
Here's what we're watching and, as always, stay with Townhall throughout Tuesday evening for live results from the Sunshine, Empire, and Sooner States as polls close and votes are tallied.
FLORIDA PRIMARIES — Polls close at 7:00 p.m. ET
Sunshine State Democrats will choose their candidates to take on Republican incumbents in November including Governor Ron DeSantis and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio.
In the Democrat gubernatorial primary, former GOP Governor Charlie Christ switched parties and is now a Democrat U.S. Representative seeking to win his new party's nomination to challenge Ron DeSantis in November. Christ will take on Nikki Fried, Florida's agriculture commissioner, who has run her campaign to the left of Christ, politically. While Christ has been favored to win, some recent polls have shown the race tightening.
In the U.S. Senate primary, Democrat Rep. Val Demings is expected to win the night to challenge GOP Sen. Marco Rubio in November. Demings, whose security apparently roughed up a campaign tracker at a recent event, has struggled to find her place in the Democratic Party as a former police chief who has since called Minneapolis radicals' plan to defund the police a "thoughtful proposal." She was, for a time, considered as a potential VP candidate for Joe Biden in 2020, but her law enforcement background didn't pass muster with radical Democrats' anti-police positions.
When it comes to U.S. House races, Republicans are seeking to capitalize on the newly-notched lead in registered voters and an unfavorable cycle for Democrats to expand their number of seats in Florida. In the Sunshine State's 7th Congressional District, eight GOP candidates are competing to replace retiring Democrat Rep. Stephanie Murphy. Among the Republicans running in the primary are state Rep. Anthony Sabatini and businessman Cory Mills.
On the Democrats' side, the primary to replace current Rep. Val Demings — who hopes to be the Democrat candidate challenging GOP Senator Marco Rubio in November — in the state's blue 10th Congressional District might see 25-year-old progressive activist Maxwell Alejandro Frost come out on top, setting him up to be the first Gen-Z member of Congress.
In Florida's 13th Congressional District, another that turned more favorable for the GOP after redistricting, the Republican primary features Trump-endorsed U.S. Air Force veteran Anna Paulina Luna leading the pack to challenge Democrat Eric Lynn, an Obama administration official, in November.
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https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2022/08/23/primary-preview-n2612060
