NEW YORK (AP) – Early and in-person voting began Saturday in New York’s congressional party primaries, which will set the final field for a series of competitive contests in this fall’s general election.
Voters in two parts of the state are also choosing new members of Congress in special elections to replace members of the US House who resigned.
Some of the tightest contests will be an early test of where the Democratic and Republican parties are headed in the midterm elections.
In a special election in the Hudson Valley and Catskills, Ulster County Executive Patrick Ryan, a Democrat, has campaigned on a promise to protect access to abortion, while Republican Marc Molinaro , the Dutchess County executive, has focused on inflation, gas prices and crime.
Both want to fill the seat previously held by Antonio Delgado, the Democrat who resigned this summer to become New York’s lieutenant governor.
In counties bordering Pennsylvania in western New York, Democrat Max Della Pia faces Republican Joseph Sempolinski in a contest to serve out the remainder of the term of former U.S. Rep. Tom Reed, a Republican who resigned this summer.
Meanwhile, in New York City, the most-watched race in the Democratic primary features a battle between two heavyweight incumbents who were forced to run against each other when a judge redrawn district boundaries in the State Congress.
U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler and U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney are facing off, along with newcomer Suraj Patel, a Democrat who has run for office twice before.
And in western New York, state Republican Party Chairman Nick Langworthy is in a tight primary fight with Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino, who was once the party’s nominee for governor, but who has a history of making outrageous comments and explaining or conveying. racist jokes
A limited number of polling places will be open for early voting until August 21st. Then there’s a one-day break before the full range of polling places open for the final day of the primary on August 23.
