Last December, George Santos was expelled from the House in a vote of 311-114, becoming the sixth member to be expelled and the only Republican thus far. A majority that voted to expel him included Democrats and Republicans. With Santos’s expulsion, the seat for the 3rd Congressional District in New York was left vacant until Tuesday, February 13th where a special election took place to fill the seat.

Democrat Tom Suozzi and Republican Mazi Pilip were face to face but Democrats were able to flip the seat, making a tight slim majority in the U.S. House. Previously, Tom Suozzi was representative of the 3rd Congressional District for 3 consecutive terms and later chose to run for governor against Kathy Hocul, but was unsuccessful.

With this win, according to AP News, this will likely reassure Democrats that they have a chance at performing with suburban communities, a fundamental effort to reassure the reelection of Joe Biden and having control in the U.S. House.

ABC News detailed how special elections have a way of indicating who the presidential candidate from either party will win. However, ABC stated the following “overperformance in special elections in the aggregate can be predictive of the next general election, and on average, Democrats in special congressional and state-legislative elections this cycle have overperformed the partisanship of their districts by 6 points.” In general, it’s hard to say what the outcome will be in the upcoming election but these special elections can define how communities may vote and what they may favor in particular.
For those interested in watching the sweating in for Congressman Tom Suozzi as U.S. Representative for the 3rd Congressional District of New York, here is the link. It’s important to stay up to date about what’s going on in politics and be active in our communities, in an orderly manner, with respect.