Democrat Tom Suozzi wins New York race to succeed George Santos in Congress
Democrat Tom Suozzi has won a special election in New York for the U.S. House seat that was left vacant when Republican George Santos was expelled from Congress.
Suozzi defeated Republican Mazi Pilip to retake a seat he held for three terms before giving it up to run, unsuccessfully, for governor.
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The victory narrows the slim Republican majority in the House and gives Democrats a much-needed win in New York City’s Long Island suburbs, where the GOP showed surprising strength in recent elections.
On the campaign trail, Suozzi, a political centrist, leaned into some of the same issues that Republicans have used to bash Democrats, calling for tougher U.S. border policies and a rollback of New York laws that made it tougher for judges to detain criminal suspects awaiting trial. His will will likely reassure Democrats that they can perform well in suburban communities across the nation, which will be critical to the party’s efforts to retake control of the U.S. House and reelect President Joe Biden.
The unusual midwinter election became necessary after Santos was ousted by his colleagues in December, partway through his first term.
Santos won office in what had been a reliably Democratic district partly by falsely portraying himself as an American success story — a son of working class immigrants who made himself into a wealthy Wall Street dealmaker.
