Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) arrives to speak about the House Ethics Committee report and potential expulsion from Congress this week during a press conference outside on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023, in Washington, DC.
Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty Images
The House voted Friday to expel Rep. George Santos from Congress over his abundant campaign lies and alleged finance crimes, shrinking the GOP’s already slim majority.
The removal of the embattled New Yorker lowers the number of House Republicans to 221, making it more difficult for the majority to pass legislation without Democratic support.
Democrats see his seat as a prime pickup opportunity. New York law gives Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul 10 days to announce a special election to fill his seat, with a vote coming sometime in late February.
Former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, who left the seat in New York’s 3rd congressional district to run for governor, has already launched a campaign to take it back.
Santos is the sixth House member in U.S. history to be booted from Congress, and the third since the Civil War.
House Republican leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Whip Steve Scalise, were wary of ousting one of their colleagues and had opposed the expulsion resolution.
The resolution, brought by Santos’ fellow New York Republicans, was just the latest effort to boot the embattled 35-year-old freshman lawmaker. So far, none of the motions passed.
But the calculus for Republicans changed following the release of a scathing House Ethics report in mid-November about Santos.
The GOP-led panel concluded that Santos “blatantly stole from his campaign” and spent the donors’ money shopping at places like Ferragamo and Hermes, getting Botox and visiting the adult website OnlyFans.com.
Scandals have defined the New York Republican’s brief time in office. Shortly after winning the seat in 2022, Santos admitted lying about his professional and educational background. But he denied…
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