Embattled incumbent Rep. George Santos (R-NY) introduced on Monday that he would search reelection to Congress. Santos’s announcement, posted on Twitter, got here after the New York Republican has confronted months of scandals following a sequence of revelations about his previous. The revelations ranged from Santos mendacity about having Jewish heritage, to lies about his professional background, to false claims he obtained a university diploma, to allegations that the first-term member of Congress had defrauded Amish canine breeders in 2017.
The outcome has been that Santos has turn into each a nationwide determine and a nationwide laughingstock seemingly in a single day. He presently faces a number of investigations from the House Ethics Committee and legislation enforcement and doesn’t have any committee assignments at current. Santos, who described himself as a “diligent legislator” in his announcement Monday, additionally stated “good isn’t good enough and I’m not shy about doing what it takes to get the job done.”
Santos faces important obstacles to successful reelection. Quite a lot of his fellow Republicans have known as on him to resign, together with the chair of the Nassau County Republican Party and each different first-term Republican elected from the Empire State in 2022. In his most up-to-date fundraising report filed over the weekend, Santos raised simply over $5,000 within the first quarter of 2023 and has solely $25,000 readily available. He additionally owes over $715,000 in money owed to himself for loans he made to his marketing campaign in 2022.
Even earlier than Santos’s announcement, his district was thought of maybe the most definitely House seat for Democrats to choose up in 2024. Joe Biden gained his district by practically 10 factors in 2020, and Santos benefited from a traditionally poor efficiency from New York Democrats in 2022. Santos misplaced his first bid for Congress in 2020 towards then-incumbent Tom Suozzi. He then went to Washington, DC, to take part in former President Donald Trump’s rally on the Ellipse on January 6, 2021, and insisted that each he and Trump gained their elections at an occasion the day earlier than. However, a failed bid for governor by Suozzi in addition to New York’s confused redistricting course of helped Santos win in 2022 on his second attempt.
In an announcement, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee stated “George Santos’ decision to run for reelection underscores what little control the Republican Party has in one of their most vulnerable regions, after Santos has been discovered blatantly lying to voters about his life and record. Voters on Long Island are eager to vote Santos out of office and once again have a representative who looks out for their interests — not his own.” A spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Santos additionally continued his legislative work on Capitol Hill on Monday. He reportedly launched the Minaj Act, named after rapper Nicki Minaj, which might “establish a development period for new vaccines in order to generate public confidence.” (The invoice’s textual content has not but been publicly launched.) A spokesperson for Santos didn’t reply to a request for remark concerning the invoice, which appears to have been impressed by a 2021 viral tweet wherein Minaj claimed her cousin’s good friend acquired swollen testicles from a Covid-19 vaccine. The vaccines don’t trigger this, though sexually transmitted ailments can.
