A pro-Israel group closely aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is putting tens of thousands of dollars into Tom Suozzi’s race to win back his old seat in Congress.
The political action committee of Democratic Majority for Israel has spent $40,000 on Suozzi’s campaign, mostly on ads, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Suozzi is running in a February 13 special election to fill the House seat in New York’s 3rd Congressional District vacated by former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., who was expelled from Congress after receiving a federal indictment for fraud and money laundering.
Suozzi, a mainstay of centrist Democratic Party politics, gave up his House seat in 2021 to run for governor of New York, making enemies along the way and leaving a solidly blue seat open for Santos, who won a surprise victory.
DMFI is one of several pro-Israel groups that has spent millions to fight progressives in congressional elections in recent cycles. In November, the group ran ads attacking Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for criticizing Israel’s human rights abuses, voting against additional funding for weapons to Israel, and opposing a resolution to support Israel after the October 7 attack without mentioning Palestinians killed in the retaliation.
Suozzi is a staunch supporter of Israel and is leaning into his pro-Israel bona fides. His opponent, Republican candidate Mazi Pilip, also has pro-Israel credentials: She served in the Israel Defense Forces. On Tuesday, Suozzi bucked President Joe Biden and Democratic Party leaders when he announced his support for a House Republican bill that would give additional assistance to Israel.
“The best way to beat an opponent in an election is to offer an alternative vision and Suozzi has chosen to campaign as a weaker version of the Republican candidate,” said Will Bailey, an organizer with New York Communities for Change, who handles the group’s Long Island work.
Suozzi’s career has been inseparable from his centrism; he was, for instance, the vice chair of the House Problem Solvers Caucus during his last stint in Congress. Those positions have helped win him support from the mainstream of the Democratic Party: His name was added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Red to Blue plan last month.
Suozzi has the support of key moderate Democratic leaders, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who appeared beside Suozzi during a campaign event on Saturday, and New York State Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs, who also chairs the Nassau County Democratic Party.
Suozzi’s positions on issues like abortion rights and LGBTQ+ issues have caused consternation among Democrats.
Abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America had opposed Suozzi in his 2013 campaign for Nassau County executive but endorsed him last week under its new name, Reproductive Freedom for All. While he says he supports the right to abortion and had a 100 percent rating from Planned Parenthood Action Fund in Congress, Suozzi previously sought to curtail abortions as county executive and supported banning federal funding for abortions in the Hyde Amendment.
In his new campaign for the House, Suozzi is focused on lowering the cost of living, fixing the “immigration crisis,” addressing climate change in the Long Island Sound, public safety, reproductive rights, and support for Israel and Ukraine. He has won endorsements from several labor, environmental, abortion rights, and gun control groups, including Communication Workers of America, the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, Moms Demand Action, and the Human Rights Campaign PAC.