Category Archives: Democrat

The release of the commissions maps will not be the final step in the process. The lines would still need to be approved by the Democratic-dominated state Legislature. Legislators had not seen the maps or begun to discuss them yet, but several members believe they have a shot at winning approval after a laborious process in 2022 that led a court master to draw the states 26 House districts.

The most significant change, according to the state officials briefed on the plans, would be to the Central New York district held by freshman Republican Rep. Brandon Williams.

Democrats attempted to draw that as a solidly blue seat two years ago, joining Syracuse with college towns that included Ithaca, Cortland and Auburn. But after the lines were scrapped by the courts, the new maps merged Syracuse with more moderate communities like Utica, creating a swing district that Williams won by only 2 percentage points.

The lines that are currently expected would be somewhere in between these two plans Auburn, but not Ithaca, is likely to join Syracuse. That would allow for a 4-point shift toward Democrats, according to the officials.

Further east, the borders between the swing seats held by freshmen Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan and Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro are also expected to shift. The changes might include moving the Hudson Valleys Columbia County from Molinaros district to Ryans and Orange County from Ryans to Molinaros.

Those tweaks would result in modest boosts for both incumbents tradeoffs that would help Democrats solidify Ryan and boost their chances of beating Williams, but also make it harder to knock off Molinaro who is in a rematch against Democrat Josh Riley.

Other than that, officials familiar with the lines, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the lines havent been released, said they do not expect any significant changes in the rest of the state.

That would mean that freshman Republican Rep. Mike Lawlers swing district in the Hudson Valley would not see the shift toward Democrats that the party had hoped for.

And Long Island where Republicans won each of the four seats in 2022 but Democrat Tom Suozzi won a special election on Tuesday would stay mainly unchanged.

Commissioners of both parties said earlier this week that they were hopeful for a two-way deal at the meeting Thursday afternoon.

A bipartisan agreement would bolster the standing of the new commission that flopped in its first attempt at drawing lines two years ago, reduce the chances of another lengthy court fight and prevent a delay in the June primaries which were pushed to August in 2022 because of the legal battles.

The states top court in December ordered a new set of lines for this year and the remainder of the 10-year cycle because of the failure of the commission to follow its rules.

Once the commission approves the lines, they would need to be approved by both houses of the state Legislature. Democrats have narrow supermajorities in each of them.

Its really a question for all 150 of us, said Assemblymember Ken Zebrowski, who leads Democrats redistricting efforts in his 150-seat chamber. I think everybody will be looking for fairness. Hopefully everybodys version of fairness isnt different from each others.

There has been a general sense in recent weeks that legislators are eager to put the years of legal drama over redistricting to a close, and they might be willing to sign off on maps even if theyre not as aggressively gerrymandered in districts like Lawlers as some national Democrats would like.

One unknown has been whether specific members would be pressured by national leaders to reject any bipartisan lines in favor of a more Democratic-friendly map. But there are few signs they have felt that pressure yet.

And Suozzis victory limits the urgency to reshape his Long Island district winning the special election boosts his chances of keeping the seat in November when there is higher turnout in a presidential year in heavily blue New York.

Tom Suozzi won a race on the map that is currently in place, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in Washington on Wednesday morning. And were preparing to win the races that we need to win on the map that is currently in place.

Democratic state Sen. John Mannion, who has a vote on the lines, is running in a Democratic primary for Williams seat. Asked about the possible changes earlier in the week, he said he was fine with whatever happens.

Im advocating for Central New York already, he said. So wherever the lines are, Ill be proud to run in that district because I believe we have a lot of shared interests in whatever directions the maps go.

One remaining unknown is just when the Legislature will finalize the lines, and there is some urgency. Members arent scheduled to hold session again until Monday, Feb. 27 which is the day that congressional candidates are due to start collection petitions, potentially creating some logistical headaches.

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said earlier this week that she was open to calling a special session next week. But the Assembly has not yet had those discussions, and members think its highly unlikely there will be an early return.

If Democrats unite behind the lines, then Republican votes wont be needed. But two top Republicans said on Wednesday that they would be content with the lines that they expect to be approved by the commission.

So theres a chance that after years of bitter legislative and legal battles over the maps, the whole process just might wrap up in a moment of bipartisan unity.

It can and it should, and I hope it does, said Sen. Jack Martins, who led the Republicans on the redistricting commission two years ago. Because I think the integrity of the process is only bettered by both sides showing they can work together.

Nick Reisman and Jeff Coltin contributed to this report.

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New House lines in New York would boost 2 Democrats and a Republican - POLITICO

The special election was a nail-biter heading into Tuesday, underscoring just how much the district has shifted to the right since Suozzi was last elected in 2020.

The results allow Democrats to claim momentum in a crucial election year when control of the House and the presidency are on the ballot. The race featured themes Republicans have centered in their 2024 campaigns, including immigration and crime.

Suozzi campaigned on a platform of compromise and common-sense governance assailing both Republicans and members of his own party who refuse to work together during an era of hyper-partisanship.

Its time to move beyond the petty, partisan bickering and the finger-pointing. Its time to focus on how to solve the problems, he told a jubilant crowd Tuesday night at the Crest Hollow Country Club.

The diverse group of supporters in attendance included younger organizers who knocked on doors in Queens, where voters turned out big for Suozzi and gave him an early lead. A cheer went up for labor unions when the candidate expressed gratitude from the stage.

Thank God, Suozzi said at the top of his remarks, taking a moment to soak in his victory.

Despite all the attacks, despite all the lies about Tom Suozzi and the squad, about Tom Suozzi being the godfather of the migrant crisis, about sanctuary Suozzi, despite the vaunted Nassau County Republican machine, we won, he said. We, you won this race because we addressed the issues and we found a way to bind our divisions.

Suozzis remarks were briefly interpreted by pro-Palestinian protesters, one of whom shouted, You support genocide.

Solidarity with Israel amid the Israel-Hamas war played a role in the race. Both Pilip and Suozzi are staunch supporters of Israel, with Suozzi saying he wants no conditions on U.S. aid to the Jewish state.

Suozzi also positioned himself as an ardent endorser of the bipartisan Senate border bill, knocking Pilip and Republicans who called it a nonstarter as being beholden to former President Donald Trump and prioritizing political gain over the countrys best interests.

Suozzis victory means Democrats have flipped the swing seat held until last December by Santos, a Republican who was expelled from Congress amid being criminally indicted on fraud charges. And it puts to rest for now anxieties the party had that President Joe Biden, who remains unpopular in the area, would be a drag on his party down ballot.

The 3rd Congressional District in Nassau County and Queens is one of about six New York House seats expected to be determined by close margins this year a tally that stands to determine which party controls the House in 2025. Though Biden won the district by 8 points in 2020, a Newsday/Siena College poll last Thursday showed Trump was now leading Biden by five points there. The district may be redrawn in the coming days by a commission tasked with designing congressional district lines in New York.

A potential rematch or at least another close race between Democrats and Republicans looms for this seat in November. Even though Suozzi is a centrist and oftentimes conservative Democrat, he remains a Democrat, a brand toxic in some corners of Long Island where the well-tuned Nassau County Republican apparatus has flipped several local seats over the years.

Suozzis apparent defeat of Pilip came after the Democrats spent big on the airwaves, his campaign outraising hers by millions. Suozzi may have had the benefit of a bigger campaign war chest and name recognition after 30 years serving the area in elected office, but Pilip and the Republicans had the advantage of staking out a hardline position on border security.

The Nassau County legislator held very few news conferences during her campaign, but hosted two outside the sprawling Creedmoor Psychiatric Center migrant shelter in Queens to denounce Democratic policies that she said encourage illegal immigration.

We did a great job. We are the fighters, Pilip said at her party in East Meadow, just outside the district. Yes we lost. But it doesnt mean were going to end here.

It wasnt clear if shell be the partys nominee again in November. Well have to wait and see, Nassau County Republican Chair Joe Cairo told POLITICO after Pilips brief concession speech.

Republican Reps. Anthony DEsposito, Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino and former Rep. Peter King joined Pilip on stage. Her fellow Long Islanders have been a constant presence on the campaign trail, often speaking at events more than the candidate herself.

While border politics and support for Israel were prevailing themes in the race, preserving abortion access and restoring the state and local tax deduction, or SALT, were other key issues.

Pilip is an enrolled Democrat but she campaigned in the special election with the full backing of Long Island Republicans. DEsposito, as an example, was omnipresent at Pilips events.

By contrast, Suozzi ran without party leaders like Gov. Kathy Hochul or New York City Mayor Eric Adams by his side.

He had taken care to distance himself from Biden, who came last week to New York City for three fundraisers but did not campaign for Suozzi.

In the final stretch of the race, after saying no one is above the law in a PIX11 interview, Pilip appealed to Trump during a CNN interview for help in her campaign. Additionally, House Speaker Mike Johnson visited the district for a fundraiser and rally centered in their 2024 campaigns, including immigration and crime.

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Democrats win back George Santos seat in hotly contested election - POLITICO

In the end, it wasn't particularly close: Democrat Tom Suozzi defeated Republican Mazi Melesa Pilip 54%-46% in the hotly contested Long Island special election to replace disgraced former Rep. George Santos. Now, the House is closer than ever: the flip puts Democrats at 213 seats to Republicans' 219, with one Democratic and two GOP vacancies. That means Democrats only need to net four more seats in November to retake the majority.

The outcome fits a pattern of Democrats excelling in recent special and low-turnout elections. About 175,000 voters appear to have cast ballots in NY-03 only about 64% of the total that showed up in 2022 and 44% of the total that showed up in 2020. Amid a snowy Election Day nor'easter, one GOP Super PAC even hired snowplows to roam Nassau County's reddest precincts while Democrats had banked a large mail and early vote lead.

But Suozzi's margin was convincing enough that it can't be explained by turnout alone. Voters were simply more comfortable with Suozzi than Pilip, and it's doubtful a fuller turnout would have reversed the

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NY-03 Special: Four Takeaways from Suozzi and Democrats' Decisive Win - The Cook Political Report

The first major congressional race of the 2024 cycle was decided on New Yorks Long Island Tuesday night, with Democrat Tom Suozzi flipping the seat once held by disgraced Republican George Santos.

In some sense, this congressional district, New Yorks 3rd, was a true bellwether; its an actual toss-up swing district, and this victory for Democrats will narrow the slim Republican House majority even further. But the temptation to nationalize the outcome here is a misleading one. Suozzis triumph, while great for Democrats, has little to say about Bidens fate; Pilips victory would have said little about Trump. The race did show us, however, just how much money and effort will be necessary to win toss-up districts in 2024and on a more local level, how far national Democrats are going to have to go to make up for the ineptitude of New Yorks state Democratic Party.

From the outside, this race should have been a slam-dunk. Running to replace Santos, who became one of just six representatives ever to be expelled from Congressand just the third since the Civil Warmade for a dream opportunity for Democrats.

Republicans, already wounded by their affiliation with the serial fabulist and accused campaign finance fraudster par excellence, chose a somewhat Santos-like candidate: Ethiopian-born Israeli Mazi Pilip, a young, not-entirely-vetted politician of color with a penchant for exaggeration. Pilip claimed to have been a paratrooper for the Israel Defense Forces. It turns out she did weapons maintenance for a paratroopers brigade and never faced combat, one of a handful of glaring holes in her record.

And yet, up until election day, polling showed a race so tight it was within the margin of error. This, despite massive name recognition advantage for the Democratic candidate, Suozzi, who has already represented this district in Congress and who had a 2-to-1 spending advantage to boot. Good thing for Democrats that a rare election day snowstorm broke in their favor!

The New York State Democratic Party had a lot to prove. Its poor showing in a blue state during the 2022 midterms cost the House a national Democratic majority. Democrats lost this seat to Santos after Suozzi left Congress to try his hand at the New York governors race, challenging center-right gubernatorial candidate Kathy Hochul from the center right. Once Suozzi buried the hatchet with Hochul and promised to be less anti-choicehis record on abortion has been mixed, to put it charitablyhe could return to his district. There was no primary: New York Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs hand-picked him.

A right-leaning Democratic congressman with a record of warring with Democrats and siding with Republicans, Suozzi is an exemplar of Jacobs Long Island Strategy: running the most conservative possible Democrats in Long Island districts and hoping to fool conservative voters by using their very same slogans.

Its a mixed strategy, at best. Suozzi positioned himself as tough on crime, anti-immigrant, and pro-tax cuts. His foils were the progressive members of the Squad; he trumpeted his bona fides as an unrivaled devotee of the Republican-funded Israel lobby. Suozzi is one of the co-founders of the Problem Solvers Caucus, a group stood up by the Republican-aligned No Labels, which has sabotaged Biden repeatedly through three years of his presidency. (One of Suozzis closing messages to the campaign was the stunning and arguably racist assessment that if Pilip were to win, were gonna end up with more migrants coming to New York; and on top of that, theyre gonna have access to AR-15s.)

He won, yes. But more broadly, Republicans have gored Democrats down-ballot in Long Island. And the key to this race was the money. Democrats spent nearly $14 million, almost double the GOPs $8 million investment in the race. According to AdImpact, the total ad spend for just this Long Island district totaled an eyewatering $21.4 million. Thats more than quadruple the outlay of the 2022 race that yielded Santos.

Plus, Democrats of all stripes rallied around to cinch this win. Progressive grassroots groups were campaigning on Suozzis behalf, despite their major policy disagreements with the candidate; Suozzis campaign, meanwhile, was accessible and played nice with them. National groups spent exorbitantly. The only group that seemed lax about flipping the district back was the state and local Democratic Party: According to Rachel Klein, founder of Engage Long Island, a local progressive grassroots organization, the state party repeatedly spurned her groups volunteer efforts to get Suozzi across the finish line.

We have been working so hard. Weve never worked this hard for a single campaign in this concentrated amount of time, Klein said via phone call before the race on Tuesday. But the state party doesnt reach out to us or try at all to bring us in. Its not okay.

So while the New York state Republican apparatus was humming, the New York state Democratic machine was, once again, leaving something to be desired. Jacobs Republican equivalent, Joseph G. Cairo Jr., who hand-picked Pilip, campaigned heavily, serving as her chief strategist, fund-raiser and surrogate, according to the New York Timeseven traveling to Washington to wring more support out of national Republicans, to complement the on-the-ground blitz.

Jacobs will claim this as a win for his dubious, do-nothing strategy, but the real triumph belongs to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who put up the cash, showed up in the district, and helped build an infrastructure to work around the New York Dems.

Waiting for the national party to airdrop a spending advantage of millions of dollars is not a sustainable way to win elections. The difficulty of this win and the price tag show the cost of the New York State Democratic Partys refusal to reconcile with the failures of the party apparatus after the 2022 midterms. This district will also have to go back to the polls for this same race in November. How many millions will that cost?

It could be a problem for Biden too. He may be old. He may be unpopular. But New York Democrats are a millstone around his neck, not the other way around.This should not be a close race, said Klein, the progressive organizer, on election day. It makes me very nervous for November.

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New York special election results: The Democrats flipped George Santos' old seat. But here's the real story. - Slate

Hey, Tom Suozzi beat Mazi Pilip. Are you excited?

OK, I know it was only a congressional race in the New York suburbs. But he stomped her! The Democrats had been truly afraid that voters would be too cranky about the border and Biden Boredom to rally around a career politician whose greatest claim to fame was quite possibly his time as Nassau County executive.

Suozzi hardly super-embraced President Biden. (The bottom line is hes old.) But he was certainly less standoffish about his partys leader than Pilip, a Republican who spent most of the campaign declining to say who she voted for in 2020.

And this was, truly, a big Biden win. Congressional races are mainly about the party and its leaders. The candidates are sometimes very, very colorful. Or very, very scary. But the only thing that really matters is which side has the most votes. Thanks to the folks in New Yorks Third Congressional District, the Republican edge in the House is now even itsy-bitsier a mere three irritable members are enough to ruin any plan.

Feel free to dwell on this. Weve got nine months of presidential politics to get through. Nine months of Joe Bidens age and Donald Trumps well, you pick your favorite. For now lets go with his comments on NATO encouraging Russia to do whatever the hell they want to member states that dont pay up. Or his recent insistence that Taylor Swift is bound to come over to his side because he made her a lot of money. Or OK, I know you really dont want to go on.

Suozzi is not exactly a romantic figure. Hes a career politician who chose to not seek re-election to run unsuccessfully for governor in 2022, a decision that very temporarily gave America an unexpected gift: Representative George Santos.

Remember that? It was the first time Republicans elected an openly gay nonincumbent to the House. Very exciting for a minute or two, until we discovered Santos had lied about pretty much everything else: education, jobs, criminal history, kindness to animals. He did, however, make history on one front, becoming only the sixth member of the House to be kicked out of office by his comrades since the founding of the Republic.

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Opinion | Tom Suozzi Makes the Democrats Look Good for a New York Minute - The New York Times

Vice President Harris takes photos with young voters at South Carolina State University after a campaign rally ahead of the South Carolina Democratic primary earlier this month. Keren Carrin/NPR hide caption

Vice President Harris takes photos with young voters at South Carolina State University after a campaign rally ahead of the South Carolina Democratic primary earlier this month.

Young Black voters were a key part of the coalition that sent Joe Biden to the White House in 2020. Yet recent polls suggest that some of that support has eroded, with months to go until November's general election.

NPR traveled to South Carolina as Democrats kicked off their primary process and spoke with Black voters under age 35 about their views.

Several themes kept coming up: student debt and college affordability; abortion access; and affordable health care. Among union members, workers' rights were top of mind.

An SCSU drum line performs ahead of the vice president's campaign event on campus. Keren Carrin/NPR hide caption

An SCSU drum line performs ahead of the vice president's campaign event on campus.

The Biden campaign points to success in many of these areas, and Vice President Harris held an event at a historically Black college just before the primary, where she touted wins for voters, including lowering the price of insulin and college debt forgiveness.

But is that message winning people over? Here's what four young Black voters told us mattered to them and how they were thinking about politics in the year ahead.

Growing up in Columbia, S.C., Tarmon-Dre Robinson's family didn't talk a lot about politics. He's from a military family, and the few political conversations he remembers involved health care and the military's insurance system.

Robinson joined the South Carolina National Guard to fund his education, then enrolled at a technical college with plans to transfer to a four-year institution.

Tarmon-Dre Robinson, 24, is a student at Midlands Technical College in Columbia, S.C. Keren Carrin/NPR hide caption

Tarmon-Dre Robinson, 24, is a student at Midlands Technical College in Columbia, S.C.

"I think people should be able to wake up and say, 'Hey, I want to be educated,'" he said. "Having such a high price tag on education, it really knocks some people out of the bucket from ever being able to have that as a possibility for themselves."

These days, Robinson said he tried to stay away from politics as much as possible, and he didn't vote in 2020. He said he doesn't care for the negativity, and while he planned to vote this year, he hadn't decided who he was going to support in South Carolina's primaries.

"This is one of the first times ever in my life that I'm in the middle," he said, adding that he had not decided whether he would participate in the Democratic or the Republican primary.

"When you come to the Black community and you speak to us and you say, 'Hey, it's our vote that you want,' you should come with things that are going to impact and change our lives," he said. "I think the problem is saying you're going to do a thing for us and then nothing changes."

For Dalaisha Pickens, funding for historically Black colleges is a pressing issue. She is a freshman at Claflin University in Orangeburg.

"HBCUs are the heart of America," she said. "A lot of great talents and creativity and brilliance comes from HBCUs, public and private."

The Biden campaign has been running ads touting its funding for historically Black colleges, and Harris is an alumna of Howard University.

The vice president spoke the day before South Carolina's primary at South Carolina State University the state's only public HBCU and detailed her connections to the HBCU community in a way that seemed to resonate with the students.

"Having the vice president come from an HBCU herself, she knows the stories and the challenges we go through," Pickens said, adding that she planned to support Biden in the primary.

Naomi Harris, who teaches at a vocational school in Cayce, said she has been inundated with political information already this election season.

She is a member of the Union of Southern Service Workers and is particularly focused on workers' rights. She said former Gov. Nikki Haley and current South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster have been speaking "so bad and ill on unions."

"If you're running for presidency or, like, governor or something, you should be uplifting the people that you need your vote from, instead of down-talking all of them. I don't respect that," she said.

Naomi Harris, 22, is a teacher in Columbia, S.C., and is also part of the Union of Southern Service Workers. Keren Carrin/NPR hide caption

Naomi Harris, 22, is a teacher in Columbia, S.C., and is also part of the Union of Southern Service Workers.

Harris is a self-described socialist, and she declined to say who she was supporting in South Carolina's Democratic primary.

"I don't want to say exactly who I'm voting for, but I love how pro-union they are, and how their campaign is focused on putting the power back with the working class, and so I'm happy that she's running," she said.

The only woman who appeared on the ballot in South Carolina's Democratic primary was author Marianne Williamson.

Harris said that many of her peers were not excited about a potential rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump.

"I don't know anybody in my circle who wants to vote. People feel like if these are the options, they don't want no parts," she said, adding that she felt that was a mistake.

"Our votes count, whether people want to say it or not, our votes actually matter. So you don't go vote, you might as well vote for the person that we don't want in office."

Democratic strategists and activists in the state stress how important the messengers and the medium are in reaching voters like Harris' peers.

Brandon Upson, the executive director of the South Carolina Progressive Network, emphasized the importance of connecting with young voters in a way that makes sense to them.

"There's a lot more engagement, connection and intentionality that needs to happen to drill deep into our grassroots," he said.

Taleeya Jones was not old enough to participate when voters sent Trump to the White House in 2016. Now, she says she's enthusiastic to vote for the first time, and she's supporting Biden.

"When Donald Trump was elected the first time, I was shaking in my boots. At my age, I couldn't do anything about it," Jones said. "But now that I'm old enough, and I'm able to do something, I'm happy that I can."

Taleeya Jones, 20, and Symia Williamson, 21, students at South Carolina State University, cheer during Vice President Harris' speech in Orangeburg earlier this month. Keren Carrin/NPR hide caption

Taleeya Jones, 20, and Symia Williamson, 21, students at South Carolina State University, cheer during Vice President Harris' speech in Orangeburg earlier this month.

Jones, a student at South Carolina State University, described herself as "comfortable" with the Biden administration's record, particularly on the issue of college affordability.

Biden's initial student debt forgiveness plan was struck down by the Supreme Court. Then the administration developed a repayment plan that has been popular with many borrowers.

Biden's promise to forgive student loans is key for some voting groups, especially young people and Black borrowers. Black women, in particular, are disproportionately burdened by student debt.

"Now that they've paved the way for us to possibly have loan forgiveness, it can help us get through school knowing that whenever we graduate, we don't have to worry about how we're going to do this and do that," she said. "It makes me feel relief."

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We asked young Black voters about Biden and the Democrats. Here's what we learned - NPR

Tom Suozzi, a former Democratic congressman, won a closely watched special House election in New York on Tuesday, narrowing the Republican majority in Washington and offering his party a potential playbook to run in key suburban swing areas in November.

His larger than expected victory in the Queens and Long Island district avenged a year of humiliation unleashed by the seats former occupant, George Santos, and stanched a trend that had seen Republicans capture nearly every major election on Long Island since 2021.

Mr. Suozzi, 61, fended off the Republican nominee, Mazi Pilip, in a race that became an expensive preview of many of the fights expected to dominate Novembers general election, especially over the influx of migrants at the border and in New York City.

A well-known centrist, Mr. Suozzi distanced himself from his party, calling for harsher policies at the border and vowing to work with Republicans to fix a broken immigration system. Polls suggested the independent approach helped cut into Ms. Pilips advantage on the issue, as Democratic super PACs deluged her with ads attacking her as anti-abortion.

In the end, the race also became an old-fashioned local contest over turnout as a rare Election Day snowstorm blanketed Long Island. The 11th-hour twist most likely helped Democrats, who had turned out in larger numbers during early voting despite Republicans vaunted Nassau County machine.

With 93 percent of votes counted, Mr. Suozzi had won 54 percent of the vote compared with 46 percent for Ms. Pilip, according to The Associated Press.

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New York Special Election: Tom Suozzi Wins House Seat Vacated by George Santos - The New York Times

Tom Suozzi, the Democrat in New Yorks 3rd congressional race, is well-known on Long Island.

Twenty years ago, he was a mayor and rising star in the Democratic Party. Now, at 61, Suozzi is in a neck-and-neck race with little-known Republican Mazi Pilip, and barely mentions in his ads that he is a Democrat.

And a clip from one of his ill-fated runs for governor purporting to show him soft on immigration is now a staple of Republican attack ads against him.

In 1993, Suozzi was elected mayor of Glen Cove, a small city on Long Island, one of the few bright spots for Democrats at the time. In 2001, he won a hard-fought primary for Nassau County executive, and defeated the Republican candidate in the general election, capturing a seat that had been held by Republicans for years. As a certified public accountant, Suozzi billed himself as a technocrat who could lower taxes and crime while boosting the economy and local services.

From the countys executive office, Suozzi aimed higher and waged a primary campaign for governor against the partys preferred candidate, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Suozzi got crushed in that 2006 primary, and in 2009, he narrowly lost his bid for a third term as county executive. In 2013, Suozzi lost a race to recapture the county executive seat.

After a few years in the private sector, Suozzi returned to electoral politics, winning a congressional seat that included parts of Nassau County and Queens. Suozzi held the seat for three terms, casting himself as a moderate.

In 2020, he fended off a little-known Republican challenger named George Santos. And in 2022, Suozzi chose not to seek reelection, opting instead to run another primary campaign for governor. This time, he ran against Kathy Hochul, who was elevated to the position in August 2021 when Andrew M. Cuomo resigned amid accusations he harassed several women.

Hochul defeated Suozzi and another primary challenger, but not before Suozzi bragged during a debate that he kicked ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] out of Nassau County.

That clip is now featured in a host of Republican attack ads in the congressional race.

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Who is Tom Suozzi, Democrat in New York's special election - The Washington Post

In a big win for House Democrats, Tom Suozzi won the special election in New York's 3rd Congressional District on Tuesday. His victory over Republican Mazi Pilip means he'll fill the House seat of disgraced former Republican Rep. George Santos.

Heres why the special election took place and why it matters beyond New York.

Santos was kicked out of the House of Representatives last December in a bipartisan vote following the release of a report from the House Ethics Committee that found there was substantial evidence he had violated campaign finance laws. Santos became the sixth House member ever to be expelled.

NY-03 includes the Long Island suburbs and a small portion of Queens. Voters decided Tuesday that Suozzi will fill Santoss seat to complete the 11 months remaining in his term.

Suozzi and Republican Mazi Pilip went head to head for Santoss seat.

At the time the Associated Press called the vote, Suozzi had 59% of the vote, while Pilip had 41%. Pilip conceded and congratulated Suozzi. Both candidates are likely to face off again this year in November since they have both committed to run for full congressional terms.

Suozzi, a moderate Democrat, had the benefit of name recognition since he previously represented NY-03 for six years. He gave up his seat when he ran for governor, but lost to Kathy Hochul, in 2022.

Pilip is a county lawmaker and Ethiopian immigrant who migrated to Israel when she was 12. She served in the Israel Defense Forces before moving to the U.S. While a registered Democrat, she was elected to the Nassau County Legislature as a Republican.

Since Suozzi flipped the seat for Democrats, Republicans now have an even thinner majority over Democrats in the House (219-213). That means Republicans can only afford two defections from their GOP colleagues on key votes at a time when they have struggled to maintain unity on key legislation.

House Democrats now gain even greater leverage and could force Republicans to work across the aisle in order to pass legislation.

On a national level, Suozzi's win in NY-03 could provide a messaging guide for Democrats competing in similar districts in the presidential election this November, especially when it comes to issues like immigration and border security. As New York deals with a massive influx of migrants, Suozzi held a firm line on the issue and even called on President Biden to temporarily close the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Democrat Tom Suozzi wins special election to fill George Santos's House seat. Here's why it matters beyond New York. - Yahoo News

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

On Tuesday,Democrat Tom Suozzi was elected to replace indicted former GOP Rep. George Santos of New York in a special House election widely viewed as a bellwether contestahead of the presidential election.

Suozzi, who represented New Yorks 3rd Congressional District for three terms before stepping down in 2022 to run for governor of the state, will reclaim his old House seat following Santos expulsion nearly two months ago. Santos brief career in Congress was filled with seemingly endless scandal: He now faces 23 federal criminal charges, including money laundering, wire fraud, and lying on congressional disclosure forms.

The lead-up to election night in the swing district was notably tense, with Suozzi holding a narrow lead in the polls against his opponent, Mazi Pilip, a Nassau County legislator whom Suozzi referred to as Santos 2.0. According to a recent poll from Emerson College, Pilipa former Israel Defense Forces paratrooperwas more popular among voters on issues like Israels war in Gaza and border security; Suozzi was more trusted on abortion and the Ukraine war.

The special election comes after significant Republican gains in New York, a state that traditionally votes blue. In recent years, several New York Republicanshave found success at the polls by taking a tough-on-crime stance. As my colleague Noah Lanard wrote in late 2022:

Nationally in this years midterms, Republicans mostly failed in efforts to weaponize rising crime rates. But in New York, they were remarkably successful. Heading into the election, 28 percent of New Yorkersrankedcrime as their top prioritymore than any other issuein contrast, only 5 percent of voters listed crime or guns as their top concerns in anational survey that month. The year before this election, Republicans had used the same crime messaging to great effect on Long Island, where moderate Democrats lost in races they were initially favored to win.

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Democrat Wins Special Election for George Santos' House Seat Mother Jones - Mother Jones