Tom Suozzi, a former Democratic congressman, won a closely watched special House election in New York on Tuesday, narrowing the Republican majority in Washington and offering his party a potential playbook to run in key suburban swing areas in November.
His victory in the Queens and Long Island district avenged a year of humiliation unleashed by the seat’s former occupant, George Santos, and stanched a trend that had seen Republicans capture nearly every major election on Long Island since 2021.
Mr. Suozzi, 61, fended off the Republican nominee, Mazi Pilip, in a race that became an expensive preview of many of the fights expected to dominate November’s general election, especially over the influx of migrants at the border and in New York City.
A well-known centrist, Mr. Suozzi distanced himself from his party, calling for harsher policies at the border and vowing to work with Republicans to fix a broken immigration system. Polls suggested the independent approach helped narrow Ms. Pilip’s advantage on the issue, as Democratic super PACs deluged her with ads attacking her as anti-abortion.
In the end, the race also became an old-fashioned local contest over turnout as a rare Election Day snowstorm blanketed Long Island. The 11th-hour twist most likely helped Democrats, who had turned out in larger numbers during early voting despite Republicans’ vaunted Nassau County machine.
With 85 percent of votes counted, Mr. Suozzi had won 54 percent of the vote compared with 46 percent for Ms. Pilip, according to The Associated Press. The margin was expected to narrow as counting continues.
Mr. Suozzi’s comeback will have an immediate impact in Washington. After he is seated, Speaker Mike Johnson can afford to lose only two votes on any partisan bill, an unwieldy margin that could limit Republicans’ election-year legislative agenda.
Addressing supporters in Woodbury, N.Y., on Long Island, Mr. Suozzi said his victory was an endorsement of the moderate approach he has championed for decades as a mayor, county executive and congressman.
“This race was fought amidst a closely divided electorate, much like our whole country,” Mr. Suozzi said. “We won because we addressed the issues and we found a way to bind our divisions.”
It was also a personal vindication for Mr. Suozzi, an ambitious career politician who has watched his fortune rise and fall over three decades in office. He gave up his House seat after three terms in 2022 to run for governor of New York, only to finish in a distant third place in the Democratic primary.
The cost of that decision became more clear as Mr. Santos was exposed as a serial liar and was ultimately charged by federal prosecutors with 23 criminal counts of campaign fraud and other charges. The House expelled him in December, after he had served nearly a year.
“Thank God,” Mr. Suozzi reveled at his victory party, boasting that he had overcome “all the lies about Tom Suozzi and the Squad, about Tom Suozzi being the godfather of the migrant crisis, about ‘Sanctuary Suozzi,’” and despite the Republican machine’s best efforts.
Republicans in New York and Washington always knew that retaining the seat vacated by Mr. Santos would be somewhat challenging given the Democrats’ modest advantage in registered voters and Mr. Suozzi’s name recognition. But party leaders were confident that they could prevail in a district that includes some of the nation’s wealthiest suburban enclaves.
But barely an hour after the polls had closed, they were conceding. Ms. Pilip, a 44-year-old county legislator, did not directly say whether she would run again against Mr. Suozzi in the fall, but implied she was not ready to step off the political stage.
“Yes we lost, but it doesn’t mean we’re going to end here,” Ms. Pilip told supporters at a watch party. “We’re going to continue the fight.”
There was little reason to believe the outcome would alter former President Donald J. Trump’s…
This article was originally published by a www.nytimes.com . Read the Original article here. .