New York is holding a special election to determine which of the candidates will take over former GOP Rep. George Santos' seat, starting a face-off between Thomas Suozzi and Mazi Pilip.
The special election is being held in the state's 3rd Congressional District and comes after Santos was expelled from the House over ethics violations. Suozzi held an earlier version of the seat before vacating it for an unsuccessful 2022 campaign for governor.
His GOP opponent, Pilip, is a county legislator and an Israeli immigrant who was born in Ethiopia and served in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The outcome of New York's special election will be closely watched for clues about how the national elections in November could play out.
Democratic lawmakers are eager to flip the seat and cut into Republican lawmakers' razor-thin majority in the House. If Pilip wins, it could be a jolt for the GOP and give the party back a playbook to replicate in swing districts and states across the United States, as per CNN.
Suozzi has chosen to keep his distance from United States President Joe Biden in a clear sign of the latter's deep unpopularity in the polls. This comes as the former congressman has the delicate balancing act of not turning off Biden's supporters but also winning over the people who are unhappy about the president's recent accomplishments.
When he was asked whether or not he would support Biden in 2024, Suozzi responded by saying, "If he ends up being the Democratic candidate, I'm likely to support him, yes." Similar to other Democratic candidates and officeholders across the nation, Suozzi has had to answer voters' concerns regarding the president's age.
The Biden campaign, for its part, hardly sees New York's special election as a perfect bellwether for the November general elections. There are several reasons that could make the state's contest a flawed predictor of what could be expected in the elections later this year.
Taking George Santos' Seat
The special election also forces New Yorkers to vote through a snowstorm on Tuesday in what is considered a hotly contested race for Santos' seat. The two candidates have fought since last year to represent New York's 3rd Congressional District, which is a suburban area in Long Island that favored Biden in 2020 by eight points, according to the Washington Post.
The campaign has been dominated by national issues, which made Tuesday's vote the first high-profile test for this year of the two parties' messages on various issues. These include abortion, the economy, and immigration.
New York has recently struggled to absorb more than 100,000 migrants who have arrived from the southern border over the past year. New York City Mayor Eric Adams at one point said that the influx would "destroy" the city.
Pilip is seen as the one being at the disadvantage in the race as voters tend to penalize the party whose controversy forces a special election. On average, the candidate from the scandal-tarred party performs nine points worse than the preceding general election, said Politico.
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