NEW YORK—Democrat Tom Suozzi defeated Republican Mazi Pilip in a New York special Congressional election viewed as a bellwether for the 2024 contests and a referendum on how the illegal immigration crisis and crime can impact close races.
Suozzi will fill the seat vacated by former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who was expelled from Congress following a months-long scandal over the veracity of his statements on the campaign trail and a federal indictment. New York’s governor Kathy Hochul scheduled a special election days after the expulsion.
Santos represented Congressional District 3, which encompasses Nassau County and parts of Eastern Queens, including Whitestone, Beechhurst, Douglaston, and Little Neck.
“We are fighters. Yes we lost, but it doesn’t mean we are going to end here,” Pilip said in a concession speech to supporters. “I did call my opponent. I congratulated him.”
Spirits were high among the two candidates ahead of the special election, despite a Nor’easter dumping 10 inches of snow in New York and Long Island overnight.
Democratic candidate Tom Suozzi was awake early in the morning, campaigning at the UPS Customer Center in Uniondale, while Republican Mazi Pilip was up late last night at a politically star-studded North Valley Stream GOP Club rally, motivating her supporters with barbeque hamburgers, sausages, and hotdogs.
“Washington DC is broken, and everything’s about partisanship and fighting and fighting and fighting,” Mr. Suozzi said on Tuesday at a press conference in front of Robert Finley Middle School in Glen Cove, where people were voting.
Ms. Pilip hosted an election eve rally yesterday alongside top state Republicans: New York GOP party chair Ed Cox, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, House Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik, former New York Reps. Lee Zeldin and Peter King, and current Reps. Anthony D’Esposito, Andrew Garbarino, and Nick LaLota.
“Expelling one of our members wasn’t the plan that we had,” Mr. D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) told The Epoch Times. “It wasn’t what any of us went to DC to do, but it was something that we needed to address. I’m confident that we found the right candidate in Mazi. She’s been working hard.”
Balance of Power
The election further defines the balance of power in Congress for the next nine months. There were 212 Democrat members of Congress and 219 Republicans before the Mazi-Suozzi race was decided.
“Every election the stakes are very high, but when it’s a special election with such a slim majority, the stakes are very, very high,” Ms. Stefanik told The Epoch Times. “This is the smallest majority in the history of modern Congress. So every vote matters.”
A Newsday/Siena College poll conducted between Feb. 3 and Feb. 6 found that 49 percent of respondents believe Ms. Pilip will do a better job “addressing the migrant influx” compared to Mr. Suozzi’s 40 percent. However, when asked who would do better at “protecting our democracy,” 49 percent named Mr. Suozzi, compared to 40 percent who named Ms. Pilip.
If early voting results were any indication ahead of election day, Democrats were leading.
More than 57,000 voters cast ballots in Nassau County during the early voting period, according to the Nassau County Board of Elections. Of the total, 42 percent were Democrats, 34 percent were Republicans, and 20 percent were unaffiliated with a major party.
Failures in border security, crime, and aid to Israel were the top issues in the election, which have put Mr. Suozzi at a disadvantage because President Joe Biden and his appointee Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are being blamed. House Republicans impeached Mayorkas over his handling of the border crisis in the hours before the polls closed in New York.
He failed to protect American people,” Ms. Pilip said about Mr. Mayorkas at a press conference on Tuesday in front of McKenna Elementary School in Massapequa. “He failed to protect our border. The reason we have this migrant crisis is because of him. Therefore, we have to hold him accountable and he has to go.”
“I already had voted to impeach him in committee and once on the floor,” Mr. Garbarino told The Epoch Times yesterday.
Mudslinging TV and Internet Advertising
Federal Election Commission (FEC) data shows that Democrats paid $9.6 million for advertising and campaign messaging that benefited Mr. Suozzi, compared to $6.8 million paid by the GOP on behalf of Ms. Pilip.
The Suozzi for Congress campaign released a digital ad on Feb. 11, the same day a TV commercial aired during the NFL’s Super Bowl show promoting Ms. Pilip.
In his YouTube video titled “Working On It,” Mr. Suozzi blasted Ms. Pilip and the Long Island Republican representatives for failing to take action for eleven months to lift the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction limit.
Last week, Congressman Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) introduced a SALT bill, which would double the cap for married couples to $20,000.
“The Lawler bill was brought through the speaker’s office by Lawler, myself, D’Esposito, Garbarino, and a few other house Republicans on the SALT Caucus,” Mr. LaLota told The Epoch Times.
Mr. D’Esposito and Mr. LaLota are members of the House’s bipartisan Salt Caucus, which Mr. Garbarino co-chairs.
Millions in Fundraising
Between Dec. 1, 2023, and Jan. 24, 2024, Ms. Pilip reported $1.3 million in total receipts and $628,561 in cash on hand compared to Mr. Suozzi’s $4.5 million in total receipts and $2.2 million in cash on hand, according to FEC data.
District 3 appears to be predominantly Democratic with Mr. Biden garnering 54.7 percent of the 2020 presidential election votes compared with the 44.3 percent for President Donald Trump.
But the Nassau County Republican Party is also a formidable foe. They hold the county executive seat, the county clerk’s seat, and the district attorney’s seat.
Joe Cairo, Nassau County GOP chair, is the guru behind it all, according to other Republicans.
The special election is Mr. Cairo’s 54th campaign, which he says was challenging because of the short time frame. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that there would be a special election on Dec. 5, 2023.
However, he was convinced Ms. Pilip will win despite Mr. Suozzi’s overwhelming name recognition.
“Mazi was probably barely known outside her legislative district but she has such a compelling story,” Mr. Cairo told The Epoch Times. “She’s such a nice person. She works so very hard that we think we overcame those obstacles.”
From The Epoch Times