New York Republicans have nominated Nassau County legislator Mazi Melesa Pilip in the special election to succeed recently expelled GOP Rep. George Santos in the state’s 3rd Congressional District.
Pilip, an Israeli immigrant who was born in Ethiopia and served in the Israel Defense Forces, will face former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, whom New York Democrats announced as their nominee last week.
“Mazi’s incredible life stands in stark contrast to career politician Tom Suozzi,” North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, the chair of the House GOP campaign arm, said in a statement Thursday. “With Mazi in Congress, Long Islanders will have a representative who stands up to the extreme Hochul-Suozzi agenda, making New York less safe and more expensive.”
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has scheduled the special election for February 13. Under the state’s special election rules, nominees are selected by the county party leaders in the district.
The race to succeed Santos will take on added significance next year, given Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House – which will only get thinner, at least temporarily, with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy leaving the chamber at the end of this year. Already, the race for the 3rd District, which covers parts of Nassau and Queens counties, is being discussed as a key bellwether ahead of the November 2024 general election.
Last week, Santos became only the sixth lawmaker to be expelled from Congress after an Ethics Committee report concluded he had “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.” Santos has also pleaded not guilty to 23 federal charges, including allegations of fraud related to Covid-19 unemployment benefits, misusing campaign funds and lying about his personal finances on House disclosure reports.
Pilip’s political career has been short so far. She first won election to the Nassau County legislature in 2021 and won reelection last month. Although Pilip was elected on the Republican line, she is a registered Democrat, according to reporting from The New York Times.
A spokesperson for the Nassau County Republican Party did not immediately return a request for comment. New York GOP Chairman Ed Cox declined to comment.
The Republican Jewish Coalition, the largest GOP-aligned Jewish political organization, endorsed Pilip’s candidacy on Thursday.
“Winning this battleground seat is critical to maintaining the GOP majority in the House of Representatives, and as antisemitism continues to spike across the country, electing candidates like Mazi Pilip is more important than ever,” coalition CEO Matt Brooks said in a statement.
The fate of the current boundaries of the 3rd District is currently up in the air after New York’s highest court ordered the state earlier this week to redraw its congressional district lines. But February’s special election will be held under the district’s current boundaries.
Democrats will hope that the backlash to Santos’ many scandals will endanger recent Republican momentum in the area. In a statement Thursday, Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene, who chairs House Democrats’ campaign arm, described Pilip as “serial fraudster George Santos’ close friend” and a “MAGA extremist.”
While President Joe Biden would have carried the 3rd District under its current lines by 8 points in 2020, the GOP has made gains in elections on Long Island since then, largely around concerns about crime, immigration and inflation, including the high cost of housing.
CNN’s Elizabeth Hartfield, Jack Forrest, Gregory Krieg and Renée Rigdon contributed to this report.
