Rep. Jerry Nadler will win the Democratic nomination for New York's 12th District

Democrats in Florida on Tuesday picked Rep. Charlie Crist, left, to take on Gov. Ron DeSantis in the fall, CNN projected. (Getty Images)

The final pieces of the midterm puzzle are coming into focus as Tuesday primaries in New York, Florida and Oklahoma lock in key parts of the November election slate.

Democrats in Florida on Tuesday picked Rep. Charlie Crist to take on Gov. Ron DeSantis in the fall, CNN projected. Crist's challenge comes as DeSantis seeks both a second term and a boost ahead of a rumored presidential bid in 2024. CNN also projected that Democratic Rep. Val Demings would take on Republican Sen. Marco Rubio in November.

Here are the some of the key takeaways so far:

Crist looks to derail DeSantis in the fall

For the second time in eight years, Democratic voters elected Crist as their nominee for governor, choosing the seasoned veteran over Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who was vying to become the state's first female governor. Crist now has just 11 weeks to unite his party, energize the Democratic base and convince independent voters that the state needs a new direction.

The stakes for Democrats are high, and not just in Florida, where DeSantis has already pushed through an aggressively conservative agenda, vowing that a second term will bring new action to further restrict abortion and to make it easier to carry a gun in public. But national Democrats are also now looking for Crist to slow DeSantis' rise before an anticipated campaign for the White House in 2024. 

Florida's latest contentious Senate race formally takes shape

The Senate race between Rubio and Demings is on.

Demings won her primary on Tuesday and Rubio was unopposed, setting up a race that Republicans believe they should easily win but one that offers Democrats yet another chance to show they can win statewide in a place that has crept right for years.

The two have been focused on each other for months — their primaries were not competitive — but on Tuesday night, the contours of the race were clear: Rubio plans to brand Demings a "Pelosi Puppet" who is inextricably linked to President Joe Biden, while Demings plans to attack Rubio as ineffective, selfish and wedded to a Republican Party dominated by Trump.

Read more takeaways.

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Jerry Nadler beats Carolyn Maloney in NY House Democratic primary

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., Democratic candidate for New Yorks 12th Congressional District, campaigns at the 79th St. Greenmarket on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, on Sunday, August 21, 2022. Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

Rep. Jerry Nadler will defeat his colleague Rep. Carolyn Maloney in a vicious House primary that locked the longtime New York Democrats in a battle for the heart of Manhattan, NBC News projected. The two lawmakers were pitted against each other after a redrawn district map spurred them to compete for a single seat in Congress. Nadler, 75, and Maloney, 76, have represented adjacent chunks of the island for about three decades. Both hold powerful seats in Congress: Nadler chairs the House Judiciary Committee, while Maloney leads the House Oversight Committee. Nadler's congressional district had included the Upper West Side, while Maloney's covered much of the eastern half of Manhattan. But their separate districts were combined in May, the result of a messy and highly controversial redistricting process. Both Nadler and Maloney announced they would run for the newly formed 12th Congressional District. Suraj Patel, who has challenged Maloney in two previous primary elections, was also on the ballot. Despite their long history, the primary fight between Nadler and Maloney was anything but neighborly. "He said, 'Step aside, I'm running.' And I said, 'Well, I'm running too. I'm not leaving,'" Maloney said in a New York Magazine profile of the race. "He said, 'I'm gonna win.' I said, 'I'm gonna win.' We haven't spoken since," she said. Maloney has also fanned rumors that Nadler won't serve out his full term if elected and that he's senile and unfit for office — charges Nadler's campaign has denied. Nadler has highlighted the differences in their voting records, saying Maloney has been "wrong on very major issues" including her "cowardly" vote for the Patriot Act, New York Magazine reported. Nadler has also made his Jewish faith a central part of his pitch to voters. Maloney, meanwhile, has sought to center her experiences as a woman in politics while touting her record on social issues — including abortion, a galvanizing topic in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to strike down Roe v. Wade. She has been endorsed by famed attorney and feminist activist Gloria Steinem. "You cannot send a man to do a woman's job," Maloney said in a recent television ad.

Correction: This report has been updated to correctly describe the area of Maloney's former congressional district.

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Democratic committee aims to stick to issues, says GOP 'tying themselves into knots' defending Trump over raid

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FIRST ON FOX: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), a national group working to elect Democratic candidates to the House, insists Republicans are putting their midterm election chances at risk as they tie "themselves into knots defending" former President Donald Trump after his Mar-a-Lago estate was raided by the FBI on Monday.

In a statement shared first with Fox News Digital, Chris Taylor, a spokesperson for the DCCC, insisted that "voters will see the difference" between Republicans' defense of Trump and the agenda Democrats have prioritized in recent days.

"This week House Democrats are lowering prescription drug costs, tackling climate change, protecting our veterans, and expanding American manufacturing," Taylor said. "Republicans are tying themselves into knots defending a president who allegedly stole classified information from the White House. Voters will see the difference."

Aside from the DCCC, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) have remained largely silent on the raid of Trump's estate as they attempt to keep Americans' focus on what they consider to be legislative victories for the party and the Biden administration.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS TO MEET WITH TRUMP AT BEDMINSTER, FOLLOWING MAR-A-LAGO FBI RAID

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Hilton Anatole on August 06, 2022 in Dallas, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

On Tuesday, one day after the raid took place, the DNC promoted a clip from chairman Jaime Harrison's appearance on MSNBC's Zerlina on Peacock where he touted the party's "historic record" and the "Democrats’ tireless work to pass the Inflation Reduction Act."

Other DNC priorities on Tuesday, according to press releases from the committee's website, included the CHIPS bill being signed into law by President Biden, GOP South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott's new book, and Republicans who "voted to side with China over the American people" against the CHIPS bill.

The official Twitter account for the Democratic Party on Tuesday prioritized the Inflation Reduction Act and "landmark legislation" like the CHIPS and Science Act, with no mention of the raid.

FLASHBACK: SOME DEMOCRATS WHGO PRAISED MAR-A-LAGO RAID PREVIOSULY SLAMMED TRUMP FOR TRYING TO ‘WEAPONIZE’ DOJ

Dozens of Trump supporters gather outside Mar-a-Lago to protest the FBI's raid. (Alon Skuy/Fox News Digital)

Similarly, an analysis across platforms operated by the DSCC, including the group's website and Twitter account, showed no mention of the raid and instead focused on a new election ad targeting Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, "lowering costs for working families," and President Biden's signing of the CHIPS Act on Tuesday.

"Democrats are putting the interests of working Americans first, and that’s exactly why voters will protect and expand our Senate majority in November," DSCC spokesperson Nora Keefe said in a statement following the signing of the CHIPS Act.

Fox News Digital reached out to the DNC and the DSCC for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed Tuesday that Biden "was not briefed" and "was not aware" of the raid before it took place.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks to reporters during the daily news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on August 09, 2022 (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

"No one at the White House was given a heads-up," she said. 

Jean-Pierre added: "We are not going to comment from here, from this White House, on a criminal investigation that is currently happening."

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Multiple sources tell Fox News the FBI's raid of Mar-a-Lago is related to the materials Trump allegedly brought to his private residence after his presidency concluded. That matter was referred to the Justice Department by the National Archives and Records Administration, which said it found classified material in 15 boxes at the residence.

Federal law bars the removal of classified documents to unauthorized locations, though it is possible that Trump could try to argue that, as president, he was the ultimate declassification authority.

Fox News' Kelly Laco and Brooke Singman contributed to this article.

Kyle Morris covers politics for Fox News. On Twitter: @RealKyleMorris.

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AOC-backed progressive group targets Democratic leadership over meddling in Republican primary

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A left-wing group dedicated to electing progressives that is backed by "Squad" member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is targeting the national Democratic Party's leadership following recent attempts to meddle in a Republican congressional primary in Michigan.

"Democratic Party leadership will literally support Republicans before they start supporting progressives," Justice Democrats wrote in a Wednesday morning tweet that included a report detailing spending by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to boost the Trump-backed challenger to incumbent Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich.

The DCCC told Fox News on Monday that it plans to spend $425,000 on a new ad buy to boost Republican challenger John Gibbs against Meijer, who was one of the 10 House Republicans that voted to impeach former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.

The ad buy appears to be an effort by national Democrats to help Gibbs win the primary in hopes of setting up a more favorable general election showdown for Democratic candidate Hillary Scholten, who is running unopposed in the primary.

HERITAGE ACTION AD CAMPAIGN PRESSES VULNERABLE DEMOCRATS TO OPPOSE ‘BUILD BACK BETTER’ AGENDA

The Justice Democrats' reaction to the DCCC's involvement in the race highlights the continued divide between progressives and moderates in the party that have consistently clashed over various policy points and campaign strategy each election cycle.

Moderate Democrats have, however, continued to largely defeat their progressive challengers in primaries across the country this year as the party fights to minimize what many expect to be a victory for Republicans in November.

Michigan's 3rd District Congressional Republican candidate Peter Meijer speaks at a campaign rally on Oct. 14, 2020, in Grand Rapids, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

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Fox News Digital reached out to the DCCC and Justice Democrats for comment but did not receive a response.

Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

Brandon Gillespie is an associate editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @brandon_cg.

Source https://www.globalcourant.com/aoc-backed-progressive-group-targets-democratic-leadership-over-meddling-in-republican-primary/?feed_id=2542&_unique_id=62e067cb75268

Burma executes four democratic activists, including ex-lawmaker

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Burma has carried out its first execution of political prisoners in decades following the country’s military takeover in 2021.  

The hanging of former lawmaker Phyo Zeya Thaw, Kyaw Min Yu, a democracy activist, and two other political prisoners, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Za, was first announced in the state-run Mirror Daily newspaper.

FILE: Phyo Zeya Thaw arrives at the Myanmar parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Aug. 19, 2015. (AP Photo)

The executions brought swift condemnation from world leaders, including U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres whose spokesman, Farhan Haq, decried them as "a further deterioration of the already dire human rights environment in Burma." 

The four men were executed "in accordance with legal procedures" for directing and organizing "violent and inhuman accomplice acts of terrorist killings," the Mirror Daily reported, without specifying when they were hanged.  

CHINA'S POPULATION EXPECTED TO DIP AHEAD OF 2025: OFFICIAL

The military government later issued a brief statement about the executions, while the prison where the men had been held and the prison department refused to comment.

The U.S. Embassy in Burma said it mourned the loss of the four men and offered condolences to their families while decrying the decision to execute them.

"We condemn the military regime's execution of pro-democracy leaders and elected officials for exercising their fundamental freedoms," the embassy said.

Anti-coup protesters display a party flag of the National League for Democracy (NLD) during a demonstration in Yangon, Burma, Friday, May 14, 2021.  (AP Photo)

Burma's Foreign Ministry had rejected the wave of criticism that followed its announcement in June, declaring that its judicial system is fair and that Phyo Zeya Thaw and the others were "proven to be masterminds of orchestrating full-scale terrorist attacks against innocent civilians to instill fear and disrupt peace and stability."

"They killed at least 50 people," military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said at a televised news conference last month. He said the decision to hang the prisoners conformed with the rule of law and the purpose was to prevent similar incidents in the future.

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The military's seizure of power from Suu Kyi's elected government triggered peaceful protests that soon escalated to armed resistance and then to widespread fighting that some U.N. experts characterize as a civil war. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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