The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has released its first advertisement targeting “radical” Democrat Tom Suozzi, who is running to replace expelled former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) in February’s special election.
The 30-second ad slams former Rep. Suozzi on immigration themes and his voting record from his initial tenure as U.S. representative as he vies for the office of New York’s Third Congressional District.
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“Another murder committed, another illegal immigrant arrested because of open border radicals like Hochul’s hand-picked candidate Tom Suozzi,” a narrator says at the top of the ad.
“Suozzi opposed penalizing sanctuary cities, voted against notifying authorities when an illegal immigrant attempted to purchase a firearm, and Suozzi even bragged that he kicked ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] out of Nassau County,” the narrator continued.
Notably, Suozzi voted against the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act of 2017, which would have penalized sanctuary cities and illegal aliens. The bill passed the House 228-195 along party lines, with 225 Republicans voting for it and 188 Democrats voting against it.
He also voted with 207 other Democrats in 2019 against a motion to recommit in the so-called “Bipartisan Background Checks Act” that, per Vox, would have forced authorities “to report undocumented immigrants to ICE if they tried to buy a firearm.”
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Suozzi, who ran for governor of New York in 2022, said during a debate that year that he “kicked ICE out of Nassau County” while serving as the county executive years ago, as Newsday noted.
“He did that after what he called a ‘botched’ ICE raid in 2007 that caught only six of 96 fugitives,” wrote Newsday’s Tom Brune.
The 30-second video comes on the heels of an ad from the Suozzi campaign, where he says he would “work across the aisle… to secure our border,” as the New York Post noted.
Suozzi is running against a registered Democrat, Mazi Melesa Pilip, on the Republican side of the ticket. Pilip, who was born in Ethiopia and served as a paratrooper in the Israeli Defense Forces, is a member of the Nassau County Legislature and “holds her current position as a Republican,” the Associated Press noted.
Rep. George Santos (R-NY) leaves the Capitol Hill Club as members of the press follow him on January 31, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Former Rep. Peter King (R-NY), who helped nominate Pilip, spoke very highly of her in December.
“She is the American success story,” King said, as UPI noted. “Some people have superstar capacity. She walks into the room, people notice her, they listen to her.”
The special election has great implications for House Republicans and the margin of their majority. Currently, Republicans have a mere seven-seat edge over Democrats at 220-213 following Santos’s ousting and Speaker Emeritus Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) departure.
Santos, who has not been convicted of crime though he faces serious federal allegations, was expelled in an unprecedented vote. No member in the history of Congress, to that point, had been expelled based on accusations without a subsequent conviction, and 105 Republicans joined all but 2 Democrats to break centuries of precedence.
The New York Board of Elections notes the special election to replace Santos will be on February 13, with early voting running from February 3-11.