George Santos' replacement: What you need to know about the New York election today

Tuesday’s special election to replace gay Republican and serial liar George Santos in the U.S. House of Representatives looks to be a close race between Democrat Tom Suozzi and Republican Mazi Pilip.

The seat in New York’s Third Congressional District became vacant when the House voted December 1 to expel Santos, who was in his first term. Santos has been caught in or admitted to numerous lies about his education, experience, and more, and he has been charged with a variety of crimes, including fraud and identity theft, to which he has pleaded not guilty. The district covers portions of Long Island and New York City’s borough of Queens. Flipping it to Democratic control would cut further into the Republicans’ House majority; they currently have 219 seats, the Democrats 212, with four vacancies, including Santos’s seat.

Who are the politicians running to replace George Santos?

Suozzi held the seat for three terms before leaving to run for governor of New York in 2022; he lost the Democratic primary to Kathy Hochul, the incumbent. He had beaten Santos in 2020. He has also been mayor of Glen Cove, N.Y., and county executive of Nassau County. Pilip is a member of the Nassau County Legislature. She would be the second Black Republican woman in Congress; the first was Mia Love, who represented a Utah district from 2015 to 2019.

What are Suozzi's and Pilip's views on LGBTQ+ rights?

Suozzi has been endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign’s political action committee. In his previous three terms, he consistently scored a perfect 100 on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard. “Tom Suozzi is an experienced leader with a proven record of successfully serving the people of Long Island and Queens,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in announcing the endorsement in December.

There was a blip in his LGBTQ-friendly record in 2022, during the governor’s race, when he said on a conservative radio show that Florida’s infamous “don’t say gay” law, which bans instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, sounded “reasonable.” He quickly backtracked.

In a press conference, he said he was responding specifically to a question about whether kindergarteners should be taught about sex and genitalia. “I said, ‘I think that would be reasonable not to do that,’” Suozzi said, according to Politics NY.“So I was very inartful in the way that I spoke. I should have recognized that I should have said very firmly that what that law did do was inappropriate. But he was saying, you know, I think that most people think that we shouldn’t talk to kids about sex in kindergarten and first grade. I think that common sense says that. And existing law says that in most states, that you don’t talk about sex education till fifth grade. But the law does much more than that. And I should have talked about the overall law, not just the issue of talking about sex and genitalia.”

At the press conference, he also pointed out his perfect score from HRC and the fact that he was an early supporter of marriage equality.

There’s little information available about where Pilip stands on LGBTQ+ issues. One of the few clues comes from her campaign website, which says she “supports the right of parents to make critical decisions for their children in areas such as education, faith, and family values.” Much recent anti-LGBTQ+ legislation has been promoted in the name of “parental rights,” including the Florida “don’t say gay” law.

Where do the candidates stand on abortion access, immigration, and gun control?

Suozzi is a strong supporter of abortion rights and has received perfect ratings from reproductive rights groups. His campaign ads have said Pilip supports a national abortion ban, but she has said this is not true, although she is personally opposed to abortion. In a debate last week, she said she was “pro-life” but added, “I’m not going to force my own beliefs to any woman, therefore I’m not going to support [a] national abortion ban.” She did not answer questions from Suozzi or the moderator when they pressed her for more specifics.

The race has seen the two spar over immigration by undocumented people. Pilip, herself an immigrant from Ethiopia with a stop in Israel, has accused Suozzi of favoring open borders, which he denies. He has said he is for better border security but also expedited processing of asylum applications and humane treatment of migrants.

Suozzi is for stricter regulation of guns. Pilip said in the debate that she doesn’t support possession of automatic weapons, which civilians can’t legally possess anyway, and wouldn’t go into detail about her gun control stances. On other issues, her website lists typical Republican talking points about lowering taxes and getting tough on crime, while Suozzi’s talks about expanding health care.

Who's going to win?

Whoever wins Tuesday — and the race is considered a toss-up — district voters will have to go back to the polls in November, as the special election’s winner will serve only the remainder of Santos’s term, which ends next January.