New York, Florida and Oklahoma elections

Florida gubernatorial candidate Rep. Charlie Crist speaks to the media before casting his vote in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Tuesday.

Rep. Charlie Crist will win the Democratic nomination for Florida governor, CNN projects, and face incumbent Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in November.  

Crist defeated Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried in the primary. He is a former Republican governor of the Sunshine State who switched parties and now serves in Congress as a Democrat.  

Crist was elected governor as a Republican in 2006, and then ran for Senate as an independent in 2010, losing to Republican Marco Rubio. Crist then ran for governor in 2014 as a Democrat and lost to now-Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican. Crist won his House seat as a Democrat in 2016. 

Abortion emerged as a major issue in the Democratic primary, with Fried’s campaign attacking Crist’s record on the issue and Crist responding with a TV ad. The two Democrats spent much of the race taking shots at DeSantis. 

Rep. Val Demings delivers a campaign speech at an event in St. Petersburg, Florida, in June.

Rep. Val Demings will win the Democratic nomination for Senate in Florida, CNN projects, and will face incumbent Republican Sen. Marco Rubio in November.

Demings is a former Orlando police chief who served as an impeachment manager in former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial.

Then-State Attorney Aramis Ayala speaks at a news conference in 2019 in Orlando, Florida.

Aramis Ayala will win the Democratic primary for Florida attorney general, CNN projects.

Ayala, after defeating two other challengers on Tuesday, will now face Republican incumbent Ashley B. Moody in November. Moody is seeking a second term.

It’s 8 p.m. ET and final polls are closing across Florida and Oklahoma.

Here’s what to know about the key races we are tracking in both states:

Rep. Jerry Nadler speaks to the press after voting in New York on Tuesday.

Rep. Jerry Nadler was campaigning and talking with New York voters at the West 72nd street subway station a few hours before polls are set to close as he fights to hang on to his seat in Congress.

The state’s new congressional map pits Nadler against Rep. Carolyn Maloney in the 12th Congressional District. They both have held their respective seats for nearly 30 years and currently represent the west and east sides of Manhattan, respectively. The city will now be separated into north and south. 

At the subway station, Nadler said he believes he’ll win. He attributes his expected success to the endorsements he’s received. 

Nadler also cited his campaign’s strong absentee voter program, saying, “We’ve had a big operation to send absentee ballot operations to people.”

Nadler’s campaign has sent dozens of mailers, many of them making appeals to people to vote absentee if they were going to be out of town on Election Day. They even sent ballots that were entirely filled out with the recipient’s information that just had to signed and dropped in the mail.

With many similar positions, the contest between the former longtime allies has turned personal, with both candidates saying they asked the other to stand down and run in a different district.

Polls are closing in Florida, and some results for Florida’s congressional primary races are coming in.

Here are the Republican House winners:

Follow live results as they continue to come in here.

Polls in Florida are closing and some projections are coming in for congressional races across the state.

Here are some of the Democrats CNN projects will win their House races:

You can see the full results as they come in here.

A campaign worker places a sign at outside of a polling place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on August 21.

The tail-end of the August primary season arrived on Tuesday, with elections in New York, Florida and Oklahoma.

Here are some key things to watch for tonight:

Florida Democrats to choose a challenger to DeSantis: The Florida Democratic Party has wandered lost through the Sunshine State ever since Republican Ron DeSantis narrowly defeated their 2018 nominee for governor, Andrew Gillum. They have no power in Tallahassee as the perpetual minority party in the state legislature, they squandered their sizable voter registration advantage, they lost the 2020 presidential election to Donald Trump here by a healthy margin and have struggled lately to convince donors that Florida is still a battleground worth investing in.

Meanwhile, DeSantis has become one of the most recognizable Republicans in the country and a potential GOP nominee for the White House in 2024.

On Tuesday, Democratic voters in the state will choose a nominee for governor who they hope can lead their turnaround and maybe slow DeSantis’ meteoric rise. The choice is between Rep. Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor who Democrats made their gubernatorial nominee in 2014, and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the Florida’s only statewide elected Democrat.

Abortion rights — and bail reform — dominate upstate New York House special election: Abortion rights are on the ballot in this special election between Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, the Democrat, and Republican Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro — at least, that is what Ryan (and his lawn signs) are saying.

Ryan, an Iraq War veteran, has sought to channel anger over the Supreme Court ruling ending federal abortion rights into an electoral advantage over Molinaro, a moderate Republican who says, despite being “personally pro-life,” he would not vote for a national ban. (At the same time, Molinaro refused to state whether he would support legislation to legalize abortion nationwide.)

An Uptown power struggle meets call for “generational change”: Redistricting upset a lot of New York’s status quo, but perhaps nowhere more than in a big piece of Upper Manhattan, which for decades had been politically dominated by Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler, on the West Side, and Carolyn Maloney, on the East Side.

Their parallel dominions were fused by the hand of a “special master” who drew up the new districts, provoking one the most ferocious campaigns of the cycle in a hot summer chock full of them. On Saturday, Maloney — on camera — recommended an editorial in the New York Post. “They call him senile,” she said. Nadler, meanwhile, has accused his rival of exaggerating her record in the House, to which they both were elected in 1992.

Could a moderate emerge from one of NY’s most liberal new districts? Thirteen candidates are on the ballot in open-seat primary, though one, former Mayor Bill de Blasio, dropped out in late July. Of the remaining dozen, four appear to have a realistic chance of emerging to represent Lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn – in what will be one of the country’s most liberal districts

But a pile-up of progressives, led by state Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, City Council Member Carlina Rivera, and Rep. Mondaire Jones, an incumbent member who moved to the city from the suburbs, risks splintering the more left-leaning vote and paving the way for Daniel Goldman, the moderate former federal prosecutor who served as lead counsel for the Democrats at former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial.

A voter enters a polling location in Saint Petersburg, Florida, on Tuesday.

It’s 7 p.m. ET, and most polls in Florida are closing. While voters cast their ballots, there are some races that won’t start seeing results come in until 8 p.m. ET.

How votes are counted: Florida is split between the Eastern and Central Time Zones, and polls across the state close at 7 p.m. local time. All mail ballots and early in-person ballots must be reported to the Florida department of State within 30 minutes after polls close at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. The first results reported out of Florida will be early and mail ballots.  

Key races to keep an eye on:

Voters cast ballots at a polling location in Miami Beach, Florida, on Tuesday.

A jam-packed month of primaries comes to a close today, with voters in Florida, Oklahoma and New York heading to the polls to set key Senate, House and gubernatorial contests for the fall.

After Tuesday, just two more primary days are left on the calendar before November. Below is a guide to help you follow along with the results as they roll in tonight, put together with a major assist from our friends in the CNN Political Unit.

 8 p.m. ET: Final polls close in Florida and Oklahoma

In Florida, Democrats will select their nominees to take on a past presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, and a possible future one, Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

The more competitive primary is to face DeSantis, featuring Rep. Charlie Crist, who previously served as a Republican governor of the state, and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who is vying to be the first female governor in the state. Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the final stretch of the primary has largely been centered on the abortion issue.  

In the Democratic Senate primary, Rep. Val Demings, once a member of Joe Biden’s vice-presidential shortlist, is the heavy favorite and has already been spending big on TV ads. Both Democratic nominees will start as underdogs against DeSantis and Rubio in a state that has trended red in recent elections. 

Oklahoma is hosting several primary runoffs tonight, with the special election for the seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Jim Inhofe serving as the main attraction. Rep. Markwayne Mullin and former state House Speaker T.W. Shannon are in a head-to-head battle to become the Republican nominee in the solidly conservative state. Mullin led in the voting from the initial primary election in June, has raised more money than Shannon, and secured former President Donald Trump’s endorsement. 

 9 p.m. ET: Final polls close in New York

The decennial redistricting process resulted in several contentious Democratic House primaries in New York that will reach their conclusion Tuesday. In the state’s newly drawn 12th District, Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney — both 30-year veterans of Congress and powerful committee chairs — will face off in a contest that also includes attorney Suraj Patel. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has endorsed Nadler.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who chairs the House Democrats’ campaign committee, caused an uproar when he decided to run in the 17th District under the state’s new map, territory that had largely been represented by Rep. Mondaire Jones, a first-term Black lawmaker. Jones decided to run in the newly open 10th District instead. But Maloney now faces a primary challenge from progressive state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, who was endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Maloney still has the backing of the party establishment, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Jones now faces a crowded field in the Democratic primary in the 10th District, including Dan Goldman, one of the House’s impeachment lawyers in Trump’s first impeachment hearing, and former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, who served on the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate investigation. 

Finally, a special House election in New York could serve as a useful barometer for the broader political environment 11 weeks out from the general election. Democrat Pat Ryan and Republican Marc Molinaro are squaring off in the 19th District — which went for Joe Biden in 2020, Trump in 2016 and Barack Obama in 2012 — to complete the term of former Rep. Antonio Delgado, a Democrat who stepped down to become New York’s lieutenant governor. 

If Ryan, who has campaigned heavily on abortion rights, wins the race, it will further bolster Democrats’ confidence they can use the issue to their advantage in battlegrounds across the country. 

Subscribe to CNN’s The Point newsletter here.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis takes a question during a news conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on August 18.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis predicted that Rep. Charlie Crist will be his Democratic opponent in the general election — even though he didn’t even mention the congressman by name.

Rather, DeSantis was casting aspersions on Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who has served as the Republican leader’s nemesis on the Florida Cabinet.

DeSantis added that he thinks Fried will “come up not just short but significantly short” when all the ballots are counted in tonight’s Democratic primary.

Whoever the winner is, DeSantis said Democrats are nominating someone who “opposed every decision I’ve made to keep this state open” during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I think that we’re in great shape and I look forward to the last few months of this,” he said.

The remarks came during a brief news conference after the Florida Cabinet — a body composed of the state’s elected constitutional officers — met in Tallahassee. In a bit of political gamesmanship, DeSantis chose to summon the Cabinet on Tuesday, forcing Fried to abandon her Election Day plans and return to the state capital. 

Making the meeting posed no trouble for DeSantis, he noted, because he was not on the ballot. 

“It’s always best to run unopposed, and so we’re happy that worked out for me,” DeSantis said.

Campaign signs are seen outside of a polling station in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday.

Primary voters in Florida are heading to the polls today to decide who will challenge Gov. Ron DeSantis in November. Two Democrats — Rep. Charlie Crist and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried — are facing off for the chance to take on the Republican incumbent.

CNN spoke to some voters outside a polling place just north of downtown St. Petersburg, Florida:  

Ken Smith, a 60-year-old Black man and registered Democrat, said he voted for Crist. “He’s been governor before. He has name recognition,” he said.

Smith called Crist a “bridge builder.”

“Even though he was at one time a Republican, he has worked with Democrats to get things done,” he added.

Rep Charlie Crist speaks to the media before voting in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Tuesday.

Smith told CNN he was unsure if Crist “has that great of a chance” against DeSantis because the governor “has such a war chest.”

“DeSantis is really running for president,” Smith added.

He told CNN that the big issue for him in this election is “climate,” adding, “and that’s for my daughter who is 17.”

“The impacts of climate change are going to be felt more by her,” he said.

Stephen Simon, a 79-year-old White man and registered Republican, said of the Democrats in the race, Crist has the best chance against DeSantis.

“Charlie Crist has a great reputation. He’s the only one that I see,” Simon said.

Asked what he thinks the impact of the Mar-a-Lago search and seizure of classified documents from former President Donald Trump will be on the midterms, Simon said, “It’s going to piss off the Republicans. That’s for damn sure.”

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried visits a restaurant in Miami on Monday.

If he had to choose between Trump or DeSantis, Simon said he would back the former President.

“I would vote for Trump. I mean, I love DeSantis, but look at what he (Trump) did…best economy we’ve ever had. Judge a person by their accomplishments,” Simon said.

He added: “Democrats destroyed the border. They’re destroying the country.”

Rachel, a 35-year-old White Democrat woman, who declined to provide her last name, said she voted for Crist.

On the issues that she and her friends discussed related to the race, she said, “We’ve talked about climate. We talk about abortion.”

“I’m definitely pro-choice, so that played a big role in my decision (to vote),” she added.

Rep. Elise Stefanik is seen at an event at the US Capitol in May.

On the eve of the New York primary, House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik held a telephone rally for controversial congressional candidate Carl Paladino, which drew more than 4,000 people, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.

In another sign of Stefanik’s investment in the race, two aides from her political operation are on the ground in Buffalo, New York, advising Paladino on communications and strategy, the source said.

Stefanik endorsed Paladino, a wealthy businessman with a long history of controversial comments, for NY-23, a solidly Republican district. He is facing off against Nick Langworthy, the chairman of the New York GOP.

Donald Trump and Carl Paladino speak during a pro-gun rally in Albany, New York, in 2014.

Paladino most recently came under fire for saying Attorney General Merrick Garland “probably should be executed,” a comment that he later walked back and said was facetious.

Despite his rhetoric, Stefanik has stood firmly by her endorsement by Paladino, as evidenced by her stumping for him on the eve of the primary.  

Tuesday’s high-profile races include the Democratic primary in Florida to take on Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and a GOP Senate primary runoff in Oklahoma, the winner of which is likely to be the state’s next junior senator. But it’s the House races that take center stage, with several competitive contests in Florida and especially New York that could be key to determining control of the chamber next year.

New congressional maps have scrambled races in both states.

In Florida, DeSantis unexpectedly seized control of the state’s redistricting process earlier this year and pushed through a more partisan redrawing of the state’s congressional boundaries that likely gives Republicans an advantage in at least 18 of 28 districts. The state gained a seat in reappointment following the 2020 census.

New York’s highest court in April blocked the state’s Democratic-drawn congressional map and ordered new lines that were drawn by a lower court-appointed “special master.” The decision postponed the House primaries from late June to August. While Democrats had initially hoped to gain up to 22 seats (out of 26), they are favored in 15 seats under the new map, with around half a dozen competitive seats. The state lost a seat in reapportionment.

In addition to the regular primaries, New York is also hosting two special House elections Tuesday for the remaining terms of congressmen who resigned earlier this year. These elections will be held under the current congressional lines.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma is holding runoffs Tuesday for races where no candidate took more than 50% of the vote in the June primaries. One of them is the GOP primary runoff for the open 2nd Congressional District. Unlike Florida and New York, Oklahoma saw no changes to its congressional seat count after reapportionment, and Republicans are favored to retain all of the state’s five seats under a GOP-drawn map.

Read about the House primaries we’re watching Tuesday here.

When it came time to decide who to support in Florida’s hotly contested Democratic primary for governor, Darla Price of St. Petersburg didn’t hesitate to fill in the bubble next to Charlie Crist’s name on her ballot.

“I’ve known him. I’ve met him. I trust him,” Price, a retiree who first moved to the area in 1977, told CNN after voting at the Roberts Recreation Center.

This is Crist’s home turf. Voters in St. Petersburg elected Crist to the state legislature in the 1990s. Some have supported him for governor when he was a Republican and again in 2014 when he ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat. He currently represents them in Congress. It’s where he headquartered his campaign, and it will be the backdrop for his watch party tonight.

St. Petersburg, along with Tampa and Clearwater, make up the Tampa Bay region, a voter-rich area on the western end of the vaunted Interstate 4 corridor that political strategists have long considered a bellwether for the state — and even the country. If Crist pulls off a victory Tuesday over Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and becomes the party’s nominee to take on Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, his deep ties to this region will likely be a factor.

But voter John Chaplin is hoping this time St. Petersburg goes another direction and helps nominate Fried.

Chaplin said he finds it hard to trust Crist after all his party switches and job changes. He’s worried about reproductive rights in Florida, and though Crist has been a reliable vote for Democrats on abortion issues, Chaplin isn’t convinced that someone who once called himself “pro-life” will fight for abortion access as passionately as Fried.

“I can’t imagine he has the same opinions as me on important issues I care about,” Chaplin said.

But Price said Crist’s past life as a Republican doesn’t bother her.

“It’s what he believes now that I care about,” she said. 

New York state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi high fives a volunteer during a canvass launch event for her campaign on August 13 in Sleepy Hollow, New York.

Progressive state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi is no stranger to campaign clashes with powerful, entrenched incumbents. In 2018, she unseated longtime state Sen. Jeff Klein, who led a faction of Democrats who for years caucused with state Republicans — helping to deny Democratic control of the body.

But Biaggi has a steeper hill to climb on Tuesday, when she takes on Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney in the new 17th District, north of the city. Maloney, the moderate chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s House election arm, has outraised and outspent Biaggi, who decided to relocate to the district after the initial redistricting lines were tossed and rewritten.

Maloney lives inside the new borders, but in choosing to run in the 17th, left behind a big part of his old electorate in what will soon be the old 18th District. That decision also effectively nudged Jones off his home turf. (Jones ultimately chose to move to the city and run for the open seat in New York’s 10th District.)

The campaign has also riven Democrats in more familiar ways. Biaggi has denounced Maloney as a “corporate Democrat,” while Maloney has sought to tie his challenger to the party’s far-left, all but rolling his eyes at the mention of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement of Biaggi during a recent interview.

“It knocks the legs out of the argument that Democrats aren’t getting it done,” he said

Biaggi says she is quick to acknowledge the party’s success when talking to voters, but argued that it wasn’t enough — and that “a lot of people, even if they’re happy with what the Democratic Party has done in the last few weeks, which they should be … They also want to see different kinds of leaders in Congress.”

Maxwell Frost

Among the crowded field of Democrats in Florida’s 10th Congressional District looking to replace Rep. Val Demings — who is vacating her seat to run for Senate — Maxwell Frost is an outlier.

Frost, a 25-year-old community organizer and gun violence prevention activist, is one of the first members of Generation Z to run for Congress.

“We have the momentum on our side,” said Frost, who has the support of leading progressives including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. He had raised $1.5 million through Aug. 3, more than any other candidate in the field, according to Federal Election Commission filings. 

A drummer himself, Frost said he is listening to a lot of different music to help hype him up Tuesday with tunes that “run the gamut” from jazz and classical to country music and EDM. 

“I actually have a playlist that I’m going to release today. It’s called ‘A Better World,’ and it is the soundtrack of the campaign, at least for me,” he said. 

Frost has leaned into his youth on the campaign trail and says that if elected to Congress, he would bring the fervor of Gen Z with him. 

“Look, I’m not here saying I represent the values and thoughts of every single member of Gen Z. We’re like any other generation… many different ideologies and everything like that. But I think I do holistically represent our lived experience as young people,” he said.

In addition to fighting for gun safety, Frost has advocated for abortion rights and voting rights with the ACLU of Florida.

He described growing up as part of the “mass shooting generation” and said, “we’re a generation that goes through more school shooting drills than fire drills.”

“We’ve seen these things and been wondering our whole lives as young people, in high school, middle school and elementary school, why? Why is this happening? Why have we not fixed this? And now we’re at a place where we can vote and we can run, and we’re going to do it,” Frost said.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, left, and Rep. Jerry Nadler

In Washington, Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler are two powerful committee chairs: Oversight and Judiciary. Back home in New York, they’re two politicians in their mid-70s trying to avoid much attention as they try not to be the one forced to leave Congress.

That has led to relationships fully breaking down between the longtime colleagues in the closing days of a campaign prompted by a newly redistricted congressional map, which combined their political fiefdoms on the Upper West and East sides of Manhattan and pitted them against each other.

Maloney has told people privately that Nadler is “half dead” and insinuated he won’t be healthy enough to finish another term if he wins, and people associated with her campaign have suggested that Nadler secretly briefly lost consciousness at a campaign stop last week. (His campaign has said that rather than losing consciousness, he tripped on a subway grate.)

She’s also urged voters to read a New York Post editorial that called Nadler “senile” and questioned his grip on reality. A Maloney spokesperson declined comment about her various remarks other than to argue she was just quoting the Post editorial rather than using the words herself.

Maloney has dodged questions about her comments and her aides have refused to give almost any information about her whereabouts in the closing days of the campaign, arguing that she changes her mind too much to keep track of her. When a CNN reporter tracked her down on Monday at a campaign stop on the Upper West Side to ask her about her comments, she began running down the sidewalk to a waiting car, while one of her daughters repeatedly positioned herself with her hands and legs out in an attempt to block any further questions.

Read the full story here.

Rep. Charlie Crist and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried

On this, the Democratic candidates for Florida governor agree: New restrictions on abortion in the Sunshine State and uncertainty about the future of women’s health across America have reinvigorated their voters and elevated the urgency to their effort to knock off Gov. Ron DeSantis this fall.

But the question of who is best suited to take that fight to DeSantis — seasoned Rep. Charlie Crist or Nikki Fried, the state agriculture commissioner vying to become Florida’s first female governor — has sparked a bitter war of words between the two candidates.

The Democratic race for governor has come to exemplify how the changing abortion landscape following the fall of Roe v. Wade this summer is animating politics on the left and giving Democrats renewed optimism for their chances in key battlegrounds.

With a significant fundraising advantage and overwhelming support from elected Democrats, Crist seemed well positioned to capture the nomination a few months ago. Limited reliable polling has made it difficult to determine where the race stands heading into Election Day, or how much voter sentiment has shifted since the US Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade.

For Fried, who stumbled out of the gates as a candidate and was slow to recover, the abortion decision brought new purpose to her campaign, and she has carried that momentum into the home stretch. She has hammered Crist, a former Republican governor before becoming an independent and then a Democrat, over his complicated record on abortion issues. She frequently reminds voters that Crist once considered himself “pro-life” and that he appointed a pair of justices who ruled to uphold abortion restrictions.

Some context: The fall of Roe, while maligned by Democrats, has nevertheless provided much-needed tailwinds here for a party that has been floundering ever since it lost the governor’s race to DeSantis by 32,000 votes four years ago. They have watched as DeSantis has used the office to push through an aggressively conservative agenda and catapult himself into the upper stratosphere of GOP presidential contenders. Along the way, Republicans for the first time surpassed Democrats in the state’s registered voters and now boast a 200,000-voter advantage

Democratic lawmakers, in the minority in both chambers, were powerless as the legislature passed and DeSantis signed a ban on abortion after 15 weeks with no exceptions for rape and incest. The new law took effect July 1 and it remains in place amid a legal challenge.

Democrat Pat Ryan and Republican Marc Molinaro

As Democrat and Republican leaders search for clues about what lies ahead in November, the special election in New York’s 19th Congressional District on Tuesday has emerged as a national barometer of the political energy unleashed by the high court’s decision to end the nationwide right to abortion. It’s a test of whether Democrats can translate the anger of their base, and concerns over the implications of the ruling that cut across party lines, into a potent midterm message.

Democrat Pat Ryan and Republican counterpart Marc Molinaro are running to replace Antonio Delgado, a Democrat who left to become lieutenant governor. Whoever wins the special election will finish Delgado’s term before the district is split up by the redistricting process that was only resolved in late May.

No matter the result in Tuesday’s special election, both candidates could be on the ballot — in separate races — come November. In addition to the special election, Ryan on Tuesday is vying for the Democratic nomination in the new 18th District. Molinaro already secured the GOP’s in a redrawn version of the 19th.

On abortion: Ryan has cast the contest as a referendum on abortion rights. He has talked about the abortion fight in broader terms — and a language more typically associated with conservative or libertarian political arguments.

But Molinaro has a political brand that stretches back decades, to when he was elected mayor of Tivoli as teenager and, years later, in 2018, ran a credible campaign against then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He is, many Republicans believe, an ideal candidate to run for this seat — a conservative who has, at least until now, largely side-stepped any close association with the Trump-era GOP’s divisive national brand.

He also affirmed, as he’s promised in the past, that he would not support a nationwide ban on abortion if elected to Congress. But Molinaro demurred on the question of whether, if the tables were turned, he would vote to codify abortion rights. The 46-year-old, who describes himself as “personally pro-life,” argued that following the Dobbs decision, the decision rests with the states.

“It is now a new settled paradigm, and the states under this Constitution have the right to establish their policy,” said Molinaro, who had previously described abortion as a “settled constitutional right” during his run for governor.

Keep reading.

New York 17th Congressional District Democratic primary candidate state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi speaks to the press during a canvass launch event for her campaign in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022.

Progressive state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi is running against five-term Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of the House Democrats’ campaign arm, in the 17th Congressional District which includes Rockland and Putnam counties, along with parts of Westchester and Dutchess counties.

Both candidates made decisions to change districts after the sate’s newly-drawn congressional map emerged. Biaggi had earlier been running for a gerrymandered seat that linked parts of Long Island, Queens, the Bronx and Westchester County. Maloney drew heat, especially from the left, for choosing to leave the majority of his current constituents, who are now in the new 18th, to run in redrawn 17th, where he lives.

In an interview on Thursday, Maloney defended his choice of district, arguing that he picked the best of a tough lot and would have faced a tough race in November no matter where he ran. But, he added, “I could have handled it better.”

Biaggi, while acknowledging Maloney’s argument about living in the district, called his move “very self-serving” — largely because he would have been such a strong candidate in the neighboring 18th, where he is more familiar to many voters. And that, as chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, “his job is really to maximize the number of seats we’ve got in Congress.”

The infighting over map-driven maneuvering, though, flows from a deeper divide between the pair.

Biaggi, who worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and is the granddaughter of the late New York Rep. Mario Biaggi, rose to prominence in 2018 when she unseated the leader of a group of Democrats in the state Senate that had joined ranks with Republicans as part of a power grab blessed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. While Hillary Clinton has not taken sides in the race, former President Bill Clinton endorsed Maloney, who worked on his presidential campaigns and later in his White House.

From left, Kari Lake, Doug Mastriano and Tudor Dixon

A Republican nominee in at least 21 of this year’s 36 gubernatorial races is someone who has rejected, declined to affirm, raised doubts about, or tried to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

And the list will almost certainly get longer when the last batch of Republican primaries is completed over the coming weeks.

The 21 candidates on the list so far have expressed varying views about the 2020 election. Some have falsely proclaimed the election stolen; some others have been evasive when asked if Biden’s victory was legitimate. Some incumbents endorsed a 2020 lawsuit that sought to overturn Biden’s win but have said little about the election since; some first-time candidates made false election claims a focus of their successful 2022 primary campaigns.

Regardless, the presence of a large number of 2020 deniers, deceivers and skeptics on general election ballots in November raises the prospect of a crisis of democracy in the 2024 presidential election in which former President Donald Trump is widely expected to run again. Governors play a major role in elections — signing or vetoing legislation about election rules, sometimes unilaterally changing those rules, appointing key election officials, and — critically — certifying election results.

It is possible that some swing states will have their 2024 elections run by both a governor and elections chief who have vehemently rejected Biden’s victory.

In Arizona, for example, both Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake and secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem are conspiracy theorists who want to overturn Biden’s 2020 win in the state. In Pennsylvania, where the governor gets to nominate the election chief, the Republican gubernatorial nominee is Doug Mastriano, a fervent election denier who has taken various steps to try to reverse the 2020 result. Both Republican nominees in Michigan — Tudor Dixon for governor and Kristina Karamo for secretary of state — have falsely claimed Trump won the state in 2020.

Learn more about these candidates and their claims here.

A voting sign is seen at a polling place in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, on August 20.

In New York’s 10th Congressional District, the Democratic ticket began with a flood of entrants, including former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who would drop out after less than two months. In total, 13 candidates, including de Blasio, are on the Democratic ballot Tuesday.

Dan Goldman is joined by his family as he votes early in the Democratic primary election on August 17.

Dan Goldman, a moderate former federal prosecutor who served as Democrats’ lead counsel at former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, has poured millions from his personal fortune into the race and has appeared to move to the front of the pack.

But he has come under criticism for remarks that he “would not object” to a state law barring abortion at the point of fetal viability. Some voters also raised concerns about his decision to leave the city with his family to live for months in a second home in the Hamptons, on Long Island’s East End, during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.

New York State Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, second from right, talks to voters while campaigning in Tompkins Square Park in New York on August 21.

State Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, who is also on the ballot, described her experience during that same period, recounting the story of an elderly woman who suffered a stroke. Because her home care worker caught Covid-19 she was stuck in her home for days without help. By the time Niou was alerted to the situation the woman was “sitting in her own urine and own feces.”

New York City Council Member Carlina Rivera, left, campaigns with Rep. Nydia Velázquez, center, and State Sen. Jessica Ramos, right, in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, on August 21.

Another candidate, Carlina Rivera, a native of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, worked in the area as an advocate and community board member until she was elected in 2018 to the city council. She has been endorsed by US Rep. Nydia Velazquez, the borough presidents of Manhattan and Brooklyn, numerous labor unions and council colleagues.

Rep. Mondaire Jones, center, campaigns in Brooklyn, New York, on August 21.

Freshman Rep. Mondaire Jones, who was effectively pushed out of a suburban seat he won two years ago, decided to move into the city and join the race in the 10th District. He has been the most willing to express frustration over the traffic in the race’s left lane creating an opening for Goldman.

“It’s clear that if this were a one-on-one between me and Dan Goldman, it wouldn’t even be close. I’d be running away with it,” he said after a news conference.

In at least 11 states, the Republican nominee for the job of overseeing future elections is someone who has questioned, rejected or tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Secretaries of state will play a critical role in managing and certifying the presidential election in 2024. The distinct possibility that some of these secretaries will be people with a history of election denial is a major challenge for American democracy — especially because former President Donald Trump, who is widely expected to run again in 2024, continues to pressure state officials to discard the will of voters.

The Republican nominees for secretary of state in the November 2022 midterm elections include three swing-state candidates who have made efforts to overturn 2020 results in their states: Mark Finchem of Arizona, Kristina Karamo of Michigan and Jim Marchant of Nevada.

The Republican nominee in Republican-dominated Alabama, Wes Allen, expressed support for a 2020 lawsuit that sought to get the Supreme Court to toss out Joe Biden’s victory. The Republican nominee in Republican-dominated Indiana, Diego Morales, has called the 2020 election a “scam,” the vote “tainted” and the outcome “questionable.”

The Republican nominee in Democratic-leaning but regularly competitive Minnesota, Kim Crockett, has described the 2020 election in her state as “lawless.” The Republican nominee in the Democratic-dominated Connecticut, Dominic Rapini, is the former chair of a group that has made baseless complaints of 2020 fraud.

The Republican nominee in Democratic-leaning but sometimes competitive New Mexico, Audrey Trujillo, has called the 2020 election stolen. So have the Republican candidates in Massachusetts and Vermont, both obscure figures who face long odds of winning their liberal states in November.

There are some significant differences in the intensity with which these 11 nominees have committed to election rejection. For example, Morales acknowledged in June that Biden “legitimately occupies” the presidency, while Finchem — a serial promoter of wild conspiracy theories about the election — has persisted this year in his impossible quest to reverse Biden’s victory in Arizona.

Read more about the candidates here.

Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler

New York’s newly drawn 12th Congressional District is pitting two long-time incumbents against each other — and generational change has been at the forefront of the race.

There, Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler, who both chair powerful House committees, have held dominion for decades. They were both elected to the House in 1992 and hold committee gavels earned through seniority. But their power has, by definition, invited questions about age and the party’s future.

A third candidate in the primary, Suraj Patel, who is 38 years old, has sought to make the contrast, treading carefully in a district with a traditionally older electorate. Maloney and Nadler, by the simple fact of their combined six decades in the House, are removed from the “urgency” of the moment, Patel said.

“We don’t need rookies who don’t know what they’re doing in Congress,” Maloney said in a phone interview earlier that day. “We need our most experienced, strong, effective, accomplished, I would say, women, who know how to fight and how to overturn the attack on (Roe v. Wade) and on our rights.”

Suraj Patel speaks during New York's 12th Congressional District Democratic primary debate on August 2 in New York.

With little to separate them ideologically, Maloney and Nadler have turned back the clock, touting their shinier accomplishments — and highlighting the other’s lowlights. Maloney has also pointed out that, should she lose, Manhattan would be without a woman representing any of its congressional districts, assuming a woman does not win in the 10th District.

Nadler has noted that, if he were to fall, the city’s delegation in Capitol Hill would lose its only Jewish member — a remarkable fact, given the vibrancy, population and political power of its Jewish community. Patel, though he has been less keen to discuss it, would be the first Indian American to represent New York in Congress if he scored an upset victory.

“One of us is going to lose — hopefully Carolyn — but one of us is going to lose,” Nadler said. “That’s very unfortunate for New York. Two of us losing would be catastrophic for New York.”

New York Judge Patrick McAllister approved the new congressional map drawn by a court-appointed special master. The map most likely gives Democrats an advantage in 19 districts. Under a blocked map the Democratic-controlled legislature drew earlier this year, Democrats had hoped to gain a path to about 22 seats.

New York will have a member-versus-member House primary as longtime Manhattan-based Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney were placed in the new 12th Congressional District.

Shifts in voting power: New York loses one of its 27 seats in the House after the 2020 census. Under the new map, there is an additional Hispanic-majority district in New York City, for a total of three. There are also two fewer White-majority districts.

CNN’s Melissa DePalo, Eleanor Stubbs and Christopher Hickey contributed to this report.

Before polls even opened in Florida earlier today, more than 1 million Democrats had already cast ballots by mail or at early voting sites, according to the Florida Department of State.

The count as of Tuesday morning represents a 17% increase in pre-Election Day voting compared to the party’s 2018 gubernatorial primary, and that number will only grow as more ballots arrive in county election offices throughout the day. In 2018, Andrew Gillum won a five-way primary for the party’s nomination in a race decided by 1.5 million ballots.

The key race today: Democratic primary voters are picking who they want to take on Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in November, a choice between Rep. Charlie Crist and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.

It’s unclear if the uptick in early voting is predictive of a higher overall turnout — or if voting behaviors changed by the pandemic stuck — but it may suggest DeSantis’ contentious first term and growing urgency to protect abortion rights are is leading to an uptick of energy among Democrats here.

Nikki Fried speaks with members of the media during her bus tour on August 18 in Gainesville, Florida.

Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio is up for reelection this year, as is Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Democratic primary election for governor will be one of the most-watched primary races in the state.

Here’s what to know about the Democratic gubernatorial race:

The race to take on DeSantis in November has mainly narrowed between former Republican governor and now-Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.

While the Sunshine State has become more Republican over the years, Fried is hoping to cash in on being the most recent Democrat to win statewide in her bid for the governor’s mansion. Crist was first elected governor as a Republican in 2006 and then ran for Senate as an independent in 2010, losing to Republican Marco Rubio. Crist then ran for governor in 2014 as a Democrat and lost to now-Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican. He won his House seat as a Democrat in 2016. 

Abortion has emerged as a major issue in the race, with Fried’s campaign attacking Crist’s record on the issue and Crist responding with a TV ad. The two Democrats have spent much of the race taking shots at DeSantis, who will be favored in the fall regardless of who wins the Democratic primary.

Rep. Charlie Crist greets voters during a campaign event on August 17 in Pembroke Pines, Florida.

Poll times: Florida is split between the Eastern and Central time zones. Polls close at 7 p.m. local time.

Voter eligibility: In Florida, only voters affiliated with a political party can participate in that party’s primary. Voters in Florida are required to show a form of photo ID when voting. The first results reported will be early and mail ballots. 

Congressional map: Florida gained a seat thanks to population growth recorded in the 2020 census. Click here to see how the map, which was drawn by DeSantis, likely gives the GOP an advantage in at least 18 out of 28 districts. 

The Republican-controlled legislature drew Oklahoma’s new congressional map, which retains the GOP’s advantage in the state. The new map makes Oklahoma’s 5th District safer for Republicans by moving parts of Oklahoma City out of the district. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed the map into law in November 2021.

Oklahoma will continue to have five seats in the House. White voters represent the majority in all five.

CNN’s Melissa DePalo, Eleanor Stubbs and Christopher Hickey contributed to this report.

Markwayne Mullin, left, and T.W. Shannon, right.

Oklahoma is holding runoff elections for races where no candidate received a majority of the vote in the June primary.

What to watch: In the highest-profile contest, Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin and former Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon will compete in a runoff to be the GOP nominee for the special election to fill GOP Sen. Jim Inhofe’s seat.

The winner of the Republican runoff will likely win the general election this fall, then take office when Inhofe resigns in January and serve until 2027. Mullin led the first round with 44% of the vote, and that was before an endorsement from former President Trump. The winner will face former Democratic Rep. Kendra Horn, who was unopposed for her party’s nomination. 

There’s also a Democratic runoff for the regularly scheduled Senate seat and a GOP runoff for the 2nd District seat Mullin is vacating. 

Poll times: Polls close at 8 p.m. ET.

Voter eligibility: In Oklahoma, only voters registered with the Republican Party can participate in the GOP’s primaries. However, both registered Democrats and unaffiliated voters can participate in the Democratic Party’s primaries.

Florida gained a seat after the 2020 census. The new congressional map, drawn by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, likely gives the GOP an advantage in at least 18 out of 28 districts. Florida’s congressional delegation currently includes 16 Republicans.

A circuit court had previously blocked the map because the judge said it unconstitutionally disenfranchised minority voters by breaking up a north Florida district represented by Democrat Al Lawson, who is Black. The judge put in place a new court-ordered map that kept Lawson’s district intact. However, that decision was called unlawful by a state appeals court, and the DeSantis map was restored for the upcoming elections.

How it shifts voting power: There are two additional White-majority districts and one additional Hispanic-majority district under DeSantis’ map. The new map no longer includes a Black-majority district in the state, where Black residents represent 15% of the population.

Hispanic residents are still underrepresented under the new map: They represent the majority in 14% of districts but make up 26% of the state population overall. White residents are even more overrepresented than they had been under the previous lines. DeSantis’ new map sees White Floridians making up the majority in 68% of districts while representing 52% of the state population.

CNN’s Melissa DePalo, Eleanor Stubbs and Christopher Hickey contributed to this report.

New York will hold its second primary Election Day of the summer, with voters casting ballots in their congressional and state Senate primaries. The Empire State was supposed to hold all its primaries in June, but the congressional redistricting process pushed some elections to August.

The state held its Senate, gubernatorial and some local primaries in June.

Poll times: Polls will close at 9 p.m. ET.

Voter eligibility: New York does not require voters to provide ID at the polls. Only voters registered with a political party can participate in that party’s primary elections in New York.

These are the key races to watch:

Take a closer look at New York’s new congressional map.