George Santos' Vacant New York Seat Finally Decided With Democrat Tom Souzzi's Victory

The vacant seat left by disgraced New York Republican George Santos has finally been filled after Democrat Tom Souzzi won a special election. This spells some bad news for Republicans, as it narrows their already slim lead on the House floor.

George Santos left the US House of Representatives in disgrace after various scandals, including scamming a veteran and his dying dog, him being a drag queen despite adopting anti-drag rhetoric, being a wanted man in Brazil, scamming the Amish, and many more. However, what brought him down was the discovery that he used campaign funds to fund his lavish lifestyle and scammed his own donors.

As the BBC noted, George Santos was ousted last December after a Republican-led effort to kick him out of Congress. This happened after a House Ethics Committee found him liable for defrauding his own backers and violating several election laws.

As for Tom Souzzi, he defeated Republican Mazi Pilip with 54% of the vote, as opposed to Pilip's 46%. Experts believe that the result was not very surprising, as the New York district Santos previously represented has more registered Democrats and used to be a blue district before Santos flipped it. However, Santos was found to have lied about his credentials, making the residents of the district turn to Republicans.

Souzzi is a moderate Democrat, and he is expected to finish Santos' term, which ends in November. Once it ends, he is expected to run for re-election and defend his now-blue seat.

Election for Vacant George Santos Seat Was Closer Than Expected

The NY-3 district was trying to move on from George Santos, with former Congressman Tom Souzzi taking on a relatively unknown who is also an Ethiopian-Jewish immigrant for the seat. Souzzi was widely expected to win, given his extensive record as a lawmaker and the unpopularity of the Republicans in the district, given that the last Republican who represented it was George Santos.

However, it was a lot closer than what the Democrats would have liked. MSNBC noted that Souzzi ran on the abortion rights issue, while Pilip ran on immigration despite being an immigrant herself. However, as the election reached the final stretch, it was subverted by a viral video of migrants beating up two New York City police officers, with Republicans hammering in the fear-mongering rhetoric against immigrants.

Democrats Flipping George Santos Seat Presents More Problems for Republicans

Meanwhile, over in Washington, the number of problems Speaker Mike Johnson is having just increased with the George Santos seat flipping blue. He is currently overseeing one of the smallest House majorities in history, and that majority will sink even further with the Tom Souzzi win in New York.

According to CNN, the New York flip will now give Republicans a much more narrow 219 seats against the Democrats' 213 seats. With the current fracturing of the Republican Party into various factions, House Republicans can only afford to lose two votes to pass legislation on party-line votes should all members be present.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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