Daily Kickoff
👋 Good Tuesday morning!
It’s Primary Day in New York and Florida. Here’s what we’ll be watching for tonight when polls close:
At least one decades-long congressional career will soon come to an end in New York’s 12th Congressional District, which saw a bitter primary fight between Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). Nadler picked up steam in the final weeks of the campaign, earning backing from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and The New York Times editorial board. Also in the race is attorney Suraj Patel, who is hoping that his argument for generational change will bring about new leadership in the district. Patel, for his part, picked up support from one of the most prominent New Yorkers: former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that he voted for the former Obama administration staffer.
In the crowded field in New York’s 10th Congressional District, former House impeachment counsel Dan Goldman, also bolstered by a recent New York Times endorsement, has a slight lead in polling over state Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, City Councilmember Carlina Rivera and Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY). The race has become the latest flashpoint in the debate among Democrats over their party’s future, with Niou, Jones, Rivera and former Rep. Liz Holtzman (D-NY), who trails far behind, all working to win over progressive voters in deep-blue Brooklyn, despite calls — including from some of the candidates themselves — to consolidate behind one candidate. Niou has stoked controversy among Jewish constituents for her position on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which she told JI in July that she supports, but has since vacillated on the issue.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), who pulled his backing for a bill supporting the Abraham Accords amid tension over Israel policy with far-left activists, faces two more mainstream primary challengers in New York’s 16th District, Westchester County legislators Vedat Gashi and Catherine Parker. J Street has spent $100,000 backing Bowman. Gashi has outraised Parker and boasts endorsements from former Reps. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Nita Lowey (D-NY), but the two run the risk of kneecapping each others’ chances of ousting the incumbent.
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), who leads House Democrats’ campaign organization, faces a primary challenge from progressive state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi in the 17th District. Biaggi had originally planned to run for a Long Island-area seat, but switched to the Hudson Valley district after a new redistricting map was released in the spring.
On Long Island, former Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen is favored to win the Democratic primary in New York’s 4th Congressional District to replace Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY), in what’s become a head-to-head race with Malverne Mayor Keith Corbett.
In the special election to replace now-Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado in New York’s 19th District, it’s the battle of the county executives as Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, a Democrat, faces off against Republican nominee Marc Molinaro, the county executive across the river in Dutchess County. The two are vying to represent a district that will fail to exist at the end of this year following the redrawing of district lines. Ryan and Molinaro are each on the ballot a second time today — though not in the same district. Ryan is running in the primary in the new 18th Congressional District, while Molinaro is running in the redrawn 19th to the north.
In Western New York, in the 23rd District GOP primary, state Republican Party Chairman Nick Langworthy faces scandal-plagued far-right candidate Carl Paladino, known for a decade’s worth of outlandish and offensive comments, including describing Adolf Hitler as “the kind of leader we need today.” Paladino has been endorsed by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the third-ranking House Republican.
Read on for the Florida races we’re watching.
sunshine races
Florida voters head to the polls

Maxwell Frost
Who will replace Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL)? That is the question in Florida’s 23rd Congressional District — though Deutch, who is leaving Congress to helm the American Jewish Committee, currently represents the 22nd District, new congressional maps drew large parts of his South Florida district into the 23rd. Former Florida Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz is favored to beat Fort Lauderdale Vice Mayor Ben Sorensen and former Florida Anti-Defamation League Director Hava Holzhauer in the blue district.
In Florida’s 10th District, Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who is hoping to become the youngest member of the House, is competing in an open race in a blue district against state Sen. Randolph Bracy, former Reps. Alan Grayson (D-FL) and Corrine Brown (D-FL), and a range of other candidates. Grayson’s candidacy has raised concerns among some House Democrats, worried over his colorful electoral history — he has served three House terms, with a two-year gap after the first, and run two failed Senate bids — and reputation as an agitator on Capitol Hill.
In the 27th District, state Sen. Annette Taddeo is among the candidates vying for the chance to challenge Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) in November. If elected, Taddeo says she’d be the first Hispanic Jew in Congress.
Laura Loomer, the far-right conspiracy theorist and anti-Muslim provocateur, is making her second congressional bid, this time challenging longtime Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) in the state’s 11th District, after a crushing defeat by Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL) in the 2020 general election in a different district. Loomer has outraised Webster and has been hitting him from his right.
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) faces a bitter rematch against former Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness, whom she beat by just five votes in a special election primary in 2021.
In the Florida Democratic gubernatorial primary, Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL) held a wide lead in a final poll released Sunday over Nikki Fried, the Democratic commissioner of agriculture.
And in Florida’s 32nd state Senate District, state Sen. Lauren Book faces former Broward County Commissioner Barbara Sharief in a race marked by heated pointed attacks from both camps.