In New York on Tuesday, Democratic former Representative Tom Suozzi won a unique U.S. House of Representatives election. This made the Republican majority even thinner, which has made it harder to pass laws.
The spot became open after the House did the unusual thing of firing Republican George Santos, who was charged with fraud after telling many lies about his background.
Suozzi beat Mazi Pilip, a Republican county lawmaker from Ethiopia who served in the Israeli military. Pilip had held the spot before Suozzi stepped down to run for governor. A small part of New York City and some of its eastern areas are in this district.
Since the win, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s majority has dropped to 219-213, which makes it a little harder for him to control a rowdy group. Last week, when the House failed to pass a bill to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, President Joe Biden’s top border official, it was a clear sign of his problems.
On Tuesday, the House passed the bill a second time after No. 2 Republican Steve Scalise came back from cancer treatment to cast the deciding vote.
There will be more issues because Johnson must choose whether to take up a bill that the Senate passed on Tuesday to aid Ukraine, and Congress must act quickly to prevent a second government shutdown early next month.
Before the November election, when the President and control of both houses of Congress will be at stake, both parties have used the New York district, which voted for Biden in 2020 and then Republicans in the 2022 midterms, to test their messages.
Suozzi, a centrist Democrat, promised to work with Republicans to solve challenging issues, such as the migrant situation at the southern U.S. border.
During his winning speech, he said, “The people of Queens and Long Island are sick and tired of political crap.” “They want us to come together and solve problems.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters cut him off for a moment and said he supported “genocide.” This shows how the war between Israel and Gaza has split Democrats.
There was a lot of talk about immigration, as there has been all over the country since Biden and former President Trump’s predicted return in November.
Pilip slammed Suozzi and the Democratic Party on immigration, saying they weren’t doing enough to stop people from crossing the line with Mexico. A group of Border Patrol agents’ unions backed Pilip.
The attacks that Pilip made on Suozzi were not accurate, and Suozzi said that Pilip had not been clear about how she would handle border security.
He agreed that stricter controls are needed and criticized Republicans for turning down a deal to secure the border that was discussed in the Senate. The deal fell apart after Trump told Republicans to turn it down.
He also said bad things about Pilip about abortion, which Democrats have made a big deal about since the U.S. Supreme Court took away a right for everyone in 2022. Pilip said she disagrees with abortion, but she wouldn’t mind if the government banned it.
People were already not likely to vote in a special election in February, and a winter storm that dumped several inches of heavy snow on the area on Tuesday morning made things even worse. In the afternoon, both campaigns offered free rides to the voting places to get people there.