Democrat Tom Suozzi has taken revenge by reclaiming the seat of a New York state district that was taken from them in 2021 by the fabled and corrupt Republican George Santos, whom many of his co-religionists, allied with progressives , forced him out of the Lower House in December.
This victory in a special call, which has been attributed to him as a national key, is a balloon of oxygen for the Democrats at a time of anxiety about the vulnerability in which he finds himself President Joe Biden. It also represents an injection of energy to improve prospects in the presidential elections in November.
The result has the virtue of questioning the polls and showing the way to get the so-called “hinge districts”, which they lost in 2022, which would allow them to regain control of the House of Representatives. This Lower House now has 219 Republican legislators and 213 Democrats.
Suozzi, 61, defeated Republican nominee Mazi Pilip by nearly 10 points in the Third District, which includes a small portion of the New York City Council of Queens (heavily Democratic) and Nassau County on Long Island, with a more conservative trend.
The democrat had already represented this demarcation on three occasions (then the territorial division was more favorable to him). In 2021, he resigned to run for governor, where he finished third in the primaries.
Pilip, mother of seven children, was a debutante in this contention. An Ethiopian Jew, she served in the Israeli army before emigrating with her family to the United States. She obtained citizenship in 2009. She had the detail to accept defeat with dignity and without speculating. “I have already called the other candidate to congratulate him”, he said immediately.
Despite the radically opposite positions (for example, Suozzi is pro-abortion and Pilip is radically anti-abortion), they have agreed on a common denominator. Both have marked differences with the leaders of their respective parties, and have avoided drawing both Biden and Trump into the dispute. For the former president, this is a stronger blow because this means losing the support of the liar Santos, one of his most fervent spokesmen.
Trump reacted quickly and blamed Philip for not claiming his support by assuring that those who are blessed by him emerge victorious, another of his falsehoods. Defeats of their favorites have been common, as demonstrated in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 elections.
