Democrats flip US House seat of disgraced congressman George Santos, eroding Republican majority
- Democrat Tom Suozzi wins US House seat in a special election in New York
- Victory means the Republican Party’s thin majority in the House is now smaller
Voters in suburban New York picked a Democrat to replace expelled Republican congressman George Santos on Tuesday, after President Joe Biden’s party poured cash into TV ads to flip the seat in an election year.
CNN and NBC News both called the race in favour of Tom Suozzi, forecasting that he had defeated Republican Mazi Pilip in the election, which was marked by a heavy snowstorm across the district.
Suozzi, a veteran politician who previously held the seat and quit to unsuccessfully run for New York state governor, will serve out the remaining 11 months of the scandal-plagued Santos’ term in the House of Representatives.
The win chips away at the Republicans’ narrow majority in the lower chamber of Congress.
“Thank God,” Suozzi said in a victory speech in Woodbury after the race was called. A crowd of supporters began chanting his name as protesters holding Palestinian flags briefly stormed the stage, shouting “genocide”.