After a special election in New York, Democrats took George Santos’ House seat from Republicans

Democrats wrested George Santos’ seat from Republicans on Tuesday in a special election to fill his vacant seat in New York, according to US media reports.

Former Democratic Congressman Tom Suozzi regained the seat he vacated in 2020 when he ran in the New York gubernatorial primary.

The race for New York’s 3rd District seat has been presented by both parties as a laboratory to test political strategies ahead of the November elections, with messages on immigration, abortion and public safety that they hope will appeal to suburban voters.

The victory reduces a slim Republican majority in the House and gives Democrats a much-needed win in New York City’s Long Island suburbs, where the GOP has shown surprising strength in recent elections.

His victory will likely reassure Democrats that they can perform well in suburban communities across the country, which will be critical to the party’s efforts to regain control of the US House of Representatives and re-elect President Joe Biden.

Still, forecasts for November could be complicated because the short race was already expected to result in low turnout, potentially hampered by a storm that dumped several inches of snow on the district on Election Day. In both campaigns voters were given free rides to the polls while snow plows cleared wet slush from roads.

George Santos was ousted from the House of Representatives in December, midway through his first term, after winning a district that was heavily Democratic, in part, by misrepresenting himself as a success story: the son of working-class immigrants he became. A wealthy Wall Street dealmaker.

But Santos’ biographies were later exposed as fake, and he was indicted on a number of charges, including allegations that he stole money from Republican donors, charges to which he pleaded not guilty.

During the special election campaign, Suozzi defended not knowing Santos’ history when he first ran in 2020, saying he was not a real candidate at the time, had barely raised any money and was rarely seen on the campaign trail. were Electoral.

“I only saw him once on Zoom and he was a weird guy,” Suozzi told PIX 11 News.

Instead, Republican candidate Philip, who supported Santos in 2022, now says she didn’t know him well and was one of the people he lied to.

“We didn’t know anything about him. As soon as we found out he was lying, I was one of the first people to ask him to resign,” the Republican said.