Democrats have picked up a House seat in a key special election.
On Tuesday, former Rep. Tom Suozzi (D) beat out Mazi Pilip (R) to win the special election for New York’s 3rd Congressional District — which was left open when the House voted to oust former Rep. George Santos (R).
BREAKING: Tom Suozzi (D) wins the #NY03 special election, defeating Mazi Pilip (R)@DecisionDeskHQ projects.
— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) February 14, 2024
The Hill notes the 3rd is one of New York five districts that voted for President Joe Biden in 2020, and then voted for a Republican in the 2022 midterms.
“Suozzi will cut into an already narrow GOP majority in the chamber, where the party breakdown is currently 219 Republicans and 212 Democrats,” The Wall Street Journal points out.
It added, “Suozzi used his own experience—he previously served in Congress for six years—to cast Pilip as unqualified for the office. That resonated with some voters wanting a departure from Santos, who made up family and career details during his earlier campaign.”
Meanwhile, Pilip criticized Suozzi by pointing to the Biden administration’s failure to control the U.S.-Mexico border.
In the face of this defeat, former President Donald Trump offered a typically solemn, well thought out, and coherent response as he ranted on Truth Social, “Republicans just don’t learn, but maybe she was still a Democrat? I have an almost 99% Endorsement Success Rate in Primaries, and a very good number in the General Elections, as well, but just watched this very foolish woman, Mazi Melesa Pilip, running in a race where she didn’t endorse me and tried to ‘straddle the fence,’ when she would have easily WON if she understood anything about MODERN DAY politics in America.”
“MAGA, WHICH IS MOST OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, STAYED HOME – AND IT ALWAYS WILL, UNLESS IT IS TREATED WITH THE RESPECT THAT IT DESERVES. I STAYED OUT OF THE RACE, ‘I WANT TO BE LOVED!’ GIVE US A REAL CANDIDATE IN THE DISTRICT FOR NOVEMBER. SUOZZI, I KNOW HIM WELL, CAN BE EASILY BEATEN!” he claimed.
Trump reacts to #NY03: 'foolish woman' Pilip was insufficiently MAGA.https://t.co/D1EIAjWfZp pic.twitter.com/QvfJXMUxCu
— Rob Pyers (@rpyers) February 14, 2024
Certainly, offering an endorsement of the president who lost the 2020 election would help in the well-known conservative bastion of Queens, New York — a part of which is in this district.
Of course, Trump left out that the election occurred amid heavy snow, which is unfortunate for the party that has obsessively attacked early voting and encouraged people to wait to election day to vote.
That leaves no margin of error for Republicans in case voters get sick or there is a massive snow storm or cold snap that causes people to stay home, whereas Democrats have a buffer by pushing people to vote early and bank votes.
The election also came as Republicans foolishly pressed ahead with their impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, despite not finding an offense to meet the standard of a high crime or misdemeanor, and even though it will likely quickly be dismissed in the Senate.
From randomly ousting former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to demanding a border bill in order to support aid to Ukraine and Israel and then sinking it and then demanding border security measures again, to the impeachment of Mayorkas, Republicans in the Congress have done practically everything they can to show they will act like clowns and do not deserve to be in the majority.
As long as Republicans in the House continue to look like clowns who can’t govern but can get on obscure Newsmax shows, they’re likely to lose their ever-shrinking majority — and it won’t be because they don’t endorse Trump.
Trump’s assertion that “Republicans just don’t learn” is all too correct, just not in the way he means.
