Former Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) has gained the particular election for New York’s Third Congressional District in a blow to House Republicans’ already skinny majority.
As of 10:06 p.m. ET, the Associated Press press called the race for Suozzi, who beat out Republican Mazi Melesa Pilip, a member of the Nassau County legislature who served as a paratrooper within the Israeli Defense Forces. As of 10:11 p.m. ET, the New York Times election outcomes showed Suozzi secured 58.7 p.c of the vote to Pilip’s 41.3 p.c with an estimated 52 p.c of the vote reporting.
Suozzi will fill the seat that was vacated when embattled former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was expelled from Congress in December. Once Suozzi is sworn in, Republicans will solely have a six-seat benefit over Democrats, at 219 seats to 213, amid key spending battles with the Democrat-controlled Senate and the Biden administration.
For reference as to how fragile the Republican majority is, the impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas passed by one vote on Tuesday at 214-213. Had Suozzi been in Congress, the vote seemingly would have been 214-214.
Suozzi beforehand served in Congress from 2017-2023 and didn’t search reelection in 2022 in favor of a failed gubernatorial bid.
One GOP strategist centered on House races told Axios that Republicans confronted an “uphill fight” heading into the election, whereas a Republican consultant talking anonymously predicted the “weather may cause a problem” within the district, which incorporates elements of Queens and Nassau County.
U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-NY) leaves the Capitol Hill Club as members of the press comply with him on January 31, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Biden gained the district in 2020 by eight factors over former President Donald Trump, as a Democrat operative famous to the outlet. Santos carried it in 2022 by almost eight factors, with then-Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin on the high of the ticket.
Congress voted 311-114 on December 1 to expel Santos from the House after he was federally charged with 23 counts in October, starting from conspiracy to commit offenses towards the United States to counts of wire fraud to counts of constructing materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and extra.
As Breitbart News noted, an Investigative Subcommittee (ISC) report on Santos launched by the House Ethics Committee on November 16 discovered that the Santos marketing campaign used donations for botox remedies, OnlyFans, and lodging in Atlantic City and Las Vegas.
However, the expulsion broke with a whole lot of years of precedent. Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) noted that of the 5 members of Congress expelled earlier than Santos was, three “fought for the Confederacy” throughout the Civil War whereas the opposite two had been truly convicted of prison wrongdoing.
Republicans’ majority was additional wounded when former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who was ousted from the speakership by means of a movement to vacate in October, left Congress on the finish of December.
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