Democrats pick up seat in US House as Suozzi wins in New York
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[February 14, 2024]
By Joseph Ax and Makini Brice
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Democratic former congressman Tom Suozzi won a
special U.S. House of Representatives election in New York on Tuesday,
narrowing an already razor-thin Republican majority that has struggled
to pass legislation.
The seat became available after the House took the extraordinary step of
expelling Republican George Santos, whose dizzying array of lies about
his biography led to his indictment on fraud charges.
Suozzi, who had held the seat before stepping down to run for governor,
defeated Mazi Pilip, an Ethiopian-born Republican county legislator who
served in the Israeli military. The district includes a small corner of
New York City and some of its eastern suburbs.
The win reduces House Speaker Mike Johnson's majority to 219-213, making
his job of managing an unruly caucus a bit more difficult. His
challenges were on full display last week, when the chamber failed to
pass a measure to impeach President Joe Biden's top border official,
Alejandro Mayorkas, in an embarrassing setback.
The House approved the measure in a second attempt on Tuesday, after No.
2 Republican Steve Scalise returned from cancer treatment to cast a
decisive vote.
More challenges await as Johnson decides whether to take up a Ukraine
aid bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday and Congress faces a deadline
to avoid another government shutdown early next month.
The New York district, which supported Biden in 2020 before flipping to
Republicans in the 2022 mid-term elections, has served as a testing
ground for both parties' messaging ahead of the November election, when
the presidency and control of both chambers of Congress will be at
stake.
A moderate Democrat, Suozzi had vowed to work with Republicans to solve
difficult problems, including the migrant crisis at the southern U.S.
border.
"The people of Queens and Long Island are sick and tired of political
bickering," he said during a victory speech. "They want us to come
together and solve problems."
He was briefly interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters accusing him of
supporting "genocide," a reminder of how the Israel-Gaza conflict has
divided Democrats.
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Democratic congressional candidate for New York's 3rd district, Tom
Suozzi, delivers his victory speech during his election night party,
following a special election to fill the vacancy created by
Republican George Santos' ouster from Congress, in Woodbury, New
York, U.S., February 13, 2024. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Immigration was a central issue, as it has been elsewhere in the
country ahead of an expected rematch between Biden and former
President Donald Trump in November.
Pilip hammered Suozzi and the Democratic Party on immigration,
accusing them of failing to control crossings at the border with
Mexico. Pilip was endorsed by a labor union for Border Patrol
officers.
Suozzi called Pilip's attacks against him misleading and said she
has been short of specifics on how she would address border
security.
He agreed that stricter controls are needed and criticized
Republicans for rejecting a border security deal negotiated in the
Senate, which collapsed after Trump urged Republicans to spurn it.
He also attacked Pilip on abortion, an issue that Democrats have put
front and center since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated a
nationwide right in 2022. Pilip said she is personally against
abortion but did not support a federal ban.
Turnout, already expected to be light for a special election in
February, was further depressed by a winter storm that blanketed the
region on Tuesday morning with several inches of heavy snow,
prompting both campaigns to offer free rides to polling places in
the afternoon.
(Reporting by Makini Brice and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone,
Jonathan Oatis, Leslie Adler, Christian Schmollinger, Lincoln Feast
and Kim Coghill)
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