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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson administers the oath of office to Congressman Tom Suozzi as his wife Helen Suozzi looks on during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 28, 2024.
Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York was sworn into Congress Wednesday night after winning a special election earlier this month that drew national attention to fill ousted Republican Rep. George Santos’ U.S. House seat. .
Suozzi’s addition to Congress narrows the already slim Republican majority in Congress, which now stands at 219 Republicans and 213 Democrats. That means Republicans can lose just two votes to pass the bill, a task made more difficult by possible absenteeism and divisions across the House Republican conference.
There are currently three vacancies in Congress, one in a safe Democratic district and two in a safe Republican district.Former New York Democratic Congressman Brian Higgins resigned from Congress earlier this month., Former Ohio Republican Rep. Bill Johnson resigned last month, and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy resigned late last year. However, candidates to replace them will have to run in a special election, so those seats won’t be filled until later this year.
Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters
Tom Suozzi gives a victory speech at an election night party during the special election to fill the vacancy left by Republican George Santos’ ouster from Congress on Tuesday, February 13 in Woodbury, New York.
Mr. Suozzi is not a new member of Congress. He represented the previous version of New York’s 3rd Congressional District during his three terms. Suozzi, who is considered a moderate Democrat, has twice lost the party’s gubernatorial nomination. He finished third in last year’s Democratic primary against Gov. Kathy Hochul and lost to Eliot Spitzer in 2006.
This year, in a race largely defined by immigration, crime and voter confidence, Suozzi ended up trailing Republican candidate Mazi Pilip, an Ethiopian-born Israeli immigrant who served in the Israel Defense Forces, by nearly eight points. I won.
The seat Santos originally won was one of the Biden districts in New York state that flipped in 2022, helping the party win a Republican majority in Congress. But soon after, a web of lies about Santos’ resume and his personal finances began to unravel, resulting in an investigation by the House Ethics Committee and his expulsion from Congress.
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