
Daily Kickoff: Packed primary day + New map upends New York politics
👋 Good Tuesday morning!
It’s primary day in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Idaho and Kentucky. We’re keeping an eye on a number of races as results come in tonight. Some of the races we’re watching:
PA Senate (GOP): What had previously been a two-man race between businessman David McCormick and Dr. Mehmet Oz in the state’s Republican primary has turned into an unexpected free-for-all in the final days of the campaign, with polls showing an 11th-hour surge in support for little-known political commentator Kathy Barnette, who has endorsed and campaigned alongside Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, a state senator endorsed by former President Donald Trump. McCormick and Oz have attacked each other relentlessly on the airwaves, seeing their favorables plummet, providing a potential pathway for Barnette.
PA Senate (Dem.): Experts suggest that the race is Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s to lose, with the former mayor besting Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA) in both fundraising and in the polls. The progressive Fetterman — who told JI last month that the U.S.-Israel relationship needs “to be safeguarded, protected, supported and nurtured through legislation and all available diplomatic efforts in the region” — has repeatedly said his views do not align with those of members of the Squad, despite his positioning to Lamb’s left. Lamb, for his part, has called for a “delicate balance” on the part of the U.S. when it comes to supporting Israel while criticizing some of its policies on settlements.
NC-04: In the crowded Democratic primary to succeed longtime Rep. David Price (D-NC), three candidates — Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam, state Sen. Valerie Foushee and “American Idol” star Clay Aiken — have bolted to the front of the pack. Foushee has drummed up endorsements from the Democratic establishment in the state, as well as financial backing from pro-Israel groups, including the AIPAC-affiliated super PAC United Democracy Project, which spent close to $300,000 in the district this year.
NC-11: Facing a deluge of controversies that have turned many Republican leaders against him in recent months, Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), the increasingly embattled freshman congressman from western North Carolina, has found his political future in question as he prepares to go up against more than a half-dozen primary challengers. His most formidable opponent, state Sen. Chuck Edwards, has earned backing from a number of high-profile elected officials across the state who believe that Cawthorn, at 26, has already overstayed his welcome in Congress. While a polling memo obtained by JI in late March suggested that Cawthorn may be “in danger,” it remains to be seen if he has maintained a sufficient level of goodwill among voters in the district to clinch the nomination. If no candidate secures more than 30% of the vote, the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff.
Read the full run-down of races we’ll be tracking as polls close tonight.
The House passed the Nonprofit Security Grant Program Improvement Act — which proposes $500 million in annual funding for the NSGP from 2023 to 2028 and establishes a dedicated office to administer the grant program. The vote was 288 to 129; all of the “no” votes were Republicans.
Last weekend’s mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., perpetrated by an alleged shooter who espoused white supremacist ideas in a hate-filled screed, is prompting renewed calls on Capitol Hill to pass the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which has stalled amid opposition from Republicans and progressive Democrats.
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), the legislation’s lead sponsor, urged the House to vote on it this week, arguing that “government and law enforcement have failed to catch these signs” of the alleged shooter’s radicalization, “just as Congress has failed to appropriately combat domestic terrorism.” Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) urged attendees at yesterday’s National Council of Jewish Women conference in Washington to call their representatives to demand a vote.
Early unofficial results from Lebanon’s elections show that the terror group Hezbollah is likely to lose its parliamentary majority, in the country’s first elections since a political uprising and a financial collapse. But it is unclear whether that means Hezbollah’s opponents will actually gain power in a significant way.
“People forget that Hezbollah was in the minority in two back-to-back elections in 2005 and 2009,” said Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “It didn’t have the slightest impact on their dominance of the system and their ability to drive the agenda and the politics.” Hezbollah remains “the only coherent bloc,” while its opponents are fractious and fragmented.
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New congressional map upends 2022 plans for New York politicians

In the hours following the release yesterday of a draft of a new congressional map in New York created by a court-appointed special master, candidates and current members of Congress began to announce if — and where — they intend to run. The primary, originally scheduled for June, was pushed to August following a decision by a state Supreme Court judge that the original map, which gave Democrats a 22-4 advantage, was unconstitutional. The map proposed by Carnegie Mellon University’s Jonathan Cervas still needs to be signed off on by Judge Patrick McAllister, who ruled the initial maps unconstitutional. McAllister is expected to sign off on the new map by Friday. The new map would likely set up 16 safe Democratic seats, five safe Republican seats and five competitive seats. Veteran Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf described Monday as “the best day in New York State [that] Republicans have had for quite some time.” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod breaks down the races to watch in the coming days and weeks.
Will Max Rose mount a comeback? In the original map, New York Democrats had drawn the 11th District to give former Rep. Max Rose (D-NY) a stronger chance of regaining his Staten Island seat, which has been largely wiped out in the newly drawn map. The new Staten Island district leans slightly toward Republicans and favors Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY). “It can swing the other way, but it’s a tough climb,” New York Democratic strategist Ross Wallenstein told JI.
Who will represent Manhattan? In the 12th District, Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, who have served in Congress from 1992 and 1993, respectively, will face off in the newly drawn district representing Manhattan. “It’s very unfortunate for the city and for the state in terms of representation in Washington and certainly unfortunate for the caucus,” Democratic strategist and pollster Jake Dilemani said. If Nadler loses, it could mark the first time in more than a century that New York City has no Jewish member of Congress, New York Democratic strategist Stu Loeser noted.
What is happening in Westchester? Freshman Democratic Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones could square off in the new 16th District. Jones represents much of the new 17th District, but lives in White Plains, in the 16th. Jones has not yet announced a decision on where he will run. Meanwhile, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair, announced shortly after the release of the new map that he will run in the state’s 17th District, forcing Jones to pick between running against Maloney or Bowman. “Sean Patrick Maloney did not even give me a heads up before he went on Twitter to make that announcement. And I think that tells you everything you need [to] know about Sean Patrick Maloney,” Jones told Politico on Monday evening.
Riverdale remains with Ritchie: In the new map, Riverdale moves from the state’s 16th district to the 15th, which is represented by Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY). An earlier map — rejected by the courts — also had Riverdale in Torres’ district, which was drawn to expand northward. Earlier this year, Torres said the addition of Riverdale to his district felt “like a marriage made in heaven.”