By Mark Levine
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
It is impossible to overstate the significance of last night’s decisive victory by Democrats on Long Island–where Tom Suozzi beat Mazi Pilip, in a special election to decide who would replace former scandal-plagued Republican Congressman George Santos.
The Third Congressional District, covering parts of Nassau and eastern Queens, was the epicenter of the Red Wave that hit New York City’s suburbs in 2022. That year, George Santos won the seat, and the Republicans held control of the House.
In the special election to replace Santos, Republicans bet their campaign on one issue: demagoguing on immigration, the border, and migrants. The Republican candidate, following orders from Trump, announced she would have voted opposed to the bi-partisan border reform deal negotiated in the Senate.
Many pundits predicted that hostility to immigration would be a potent, winning issue for Republicans. They predicted that Nassau was now solidly in Republican control.
But then the actual voters of NY-3 voted. And they proved the pundits so incredibly wrong. The district which Santos won by 8 points just 15 months ago has now flipped, with Democrat Tom Suozzi winning comfortably by 8 points in the other direction.
Last night proved that the MAGA agenda is not invincible. But we don’t have time to rest on our laurels.
We need to hold this seat and flip five more in New York in November, and we need to put up the fight of our lives to beat back the threat to our republic that a second Trump presidency will represent.
