Tom Suozzi said voters in northeast Queens and Nassau County deserve a fellow suburbanite to fight for their way of life as he made the first official campaign stop in his quest to win back his old seat, following former Rep. George Santos’ expulsion from Congress.
“My father was born in Italy. My mother came from Queens. I understand what it’s like to be here in suburbia, and to try and live that American dream,” Suozzi, the newly named Democratic candidate for New York’s third Congressional district, told a small crowd gathered in the backyard of a home in Levittown, Long Island.
Suozzi represented the district from 2017 to 2022 before embarking on a failed run for governor. Levittown was a thematic choice for the campaign as it’s considered the nation’s first official suburb; symbolic of the themes Suozzi plans to hammer during the race, with a focus on the concerns of suburban homeowners.
He said people were hurting over “real bread and butter issues,” like reconciling soaring house prices and healthcare and retirement costs with stagnant wages. The Nassau and Queens Democratic leaders picked Suozzi as their best bet to win back the once-blue seat that Santos turned red, with a special election set for Feb. 13.
“I’m always trying to say: I don’t care what your politics are,” Suozzi said at the Saturday event hosted at the home of a lifelong Republican and former NYPD officer, according to his campaign. “I’m a Democrat, I’ll always be a Democrat, I’ll never abandon my values. But I’ll work with anybody. I’ll work with anybody who wants to work together to actually solve the problems that people face.”
Santos was expelled from Congress this month over ethics violations. The move followed tow previous expulsion attempts and came roughly a year after a series of scandals began to plague the freshman Republican, who falsified parts of his personal biography and was indicted on a litany of fraud charges relating to his campaign.
While Republican…
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