Democrat Tom Suozzi scored a victory in the special election for New York’s 3rd Congressional District to replace serial fabulist and former Rep. George Santos.
The Associated Press projected that Suozzi triumphed over Republican Mazi Pilip 58% to 41%, with 52 percent of the total votes counted.
The result is a strong signal for Democrats heading into the 2024 elections in November, when they will try to take back the House after a term in the Republican-led Congress marred by chaos.
Suozzi defeated Republican Mazi Pilip, further reducing the Republican majority in the House. Republicans have only 219 seats and Democrats will have a total of 213 seats with the addition of Suozzi.
His victory could paralyze the Republican agenda due to his slim majority. Once sworn in, the House GOP can only afford to lose two votes to pass measures on which all Democrats vote “no.”
Santos, a serial liar, was expelled from Congress after serving only 11 months in office following an ethics report revealing that he improperly diverted campaign contributions to pay botox treatments, Hermes bags, Fans and cash withdrawals at a casino.
Fearing defeat in New York, Republicans rushed to push for the removal of the Secretary of Homeland Security. Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday after he failed last week.
Democrat Tom Suozzi scored a victory in the special election for New York’s 10th congressional district to replace Rep. George Santos.
Suozzi, a former three-term congressman and Nassau County executive, left his former seat in Congress to run for governor, but lost in the primary to New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
New York’s special election on February 13 will be held in the Third District, which includes parts of Long Island and Queens.
With Majority Leader Steve Scalise returning from his recovery from cancer treatment and Suozzi not yet sworn in, they were able to lose three Republican votes and still pass the measure.
The vote also came just as a nor’easter slammed New York with snow and threatened to impact voter turnout.
Pilip and Suozzi encouraged voters to get out and cast their ballots despite a winter storm warning through Tuesday night as up to a foot of snow fell in parts of the region on Easter Easter.
Suozzi, a former three-term congressman and Nassau County executive, left his former seat in Congress to run for governor, but lost in the primary to New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
Polls showed Suozzi, 61, had a slight lead over Pilip, a member of the Nassau County Legislature, after Santos’ calamitous ouster.
President Biden himself stayed out of the race, with Suozzi telling CNN that a visit from the president would not be “helpful.”
Speaker Mike Johnson seemed stumped by Pilip in the district earlier this month.
Pilip has said he will support Donald Trump if he is the Republican nominee, but not if he is convicted of a crime.
“No one is above the law,” said the Ethiopian-born former Israeli paratrooper. “If you are convicted of a crime, you cannot represent us.”
The candidates made their final digs in the days before the race. “The bottom line is that my opponent, Mazi Pilip, is George Santos 2.0,” Suozzi called the Republican while visiting Plainview, New York, over the weekend.
Meanwhile, Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman torched Suozzi on Pilip’s behalf.
“Mazi stood shoulder to shoulder with me when we hired 200 additional police officers over the last two years,” Blakeman said on Cats Roundtable WABC 770 AM radio.
“When Tom Suozzi was county executive, he wanted to defund the police,” he continued. ‘He increased taxes. He made Nassau County a sanctuary county.
Both candidates put Israel and immigration front and center in their careers.
Suozzi has criticized House Republicans for refusing to negotiate on the border and has taken aim at his opponent’s opposition to the bipartisan immigration and foreign aid bill introduced in the Senate.
The $95 billion relief package passed the Senate Tuesday morning, but faces an uncertain fate in the House.
Pilip has criticized the bipartisan agreement, stating that it “legalizes the invasion” of the United States on the southern border.
Suozzi told reporters on Sunday that if Republicans blocked the bipartisan deal, ‘we will end up with more immigrants coming to New York; and on top of that, they will have access to AR-15.
Pilip, a self-described “pro-life” mother of seven, has said she would not support a national abortion ban and that every woman should be able to make her own decision, but has expressed support for the Dobbs decision in which The Supreme Court returned abortion law to the states.
She touted support from leaders of the police and border patrol union, which also backed the Senate deal on immigration and foreign aid.
Pilip is an Ethiopian-born former Israeli paratrooper and mother of seven children.
The vote came just as a nor’easter slammed New York with snow and threatened to impact voter turnout.
Perhaps where the candidates have been most closely aligned is in their stance on Israel. Both have been actively engaging the New York Jewish community as Israel wages war in Gaza following the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7.
Suozzi stood out from some Democrats by announcing his support for the standalone Republican-led Israel aid bill.
He said that while he would prefer a comprehensive bipartisan package, he is committed to doing whatever is necessary to support Israel. That bill failed in the House.
Suozzi was especially critical of Biden’s age on the eve of the election.
“The bottom line is that it’s old,” Suozzi told a local news anchor. ‘I know 81-year-olds who are in good shape and I know 81-year-olds who are not in good shape. He is old and there is no doubt about it.
There is a “debate about whether (Biden) is going to hold out or not,” he added.
Suozzi was noncommittal when asked if he would support President Biden in the 2024 election, saying he would “probably” support the president but would wait to “see what happens.”