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(A7) Republican Rep. George Santos officially announced on Monday he will seek reelection in 2024 to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District, despite calls from some Republicans on Capitol Hill and in his district to step aside.
“I’m proud to announce my candidacy to run for re-election and continue to serve the people of NY-3,” Santos said in a statement announcing his candidacy, as quoted by CNN. Last month, Santos filed paperwork formally declaring his 2024 candidacy.
Santos faces long odds after having been discovered to have lied extensively about his resume, education and family background.
A New York prosecutor launched an investigation against Santos in late December after he admitted to “embellishing” his resume.
Last month, the US House Ethics Committee announced that it would investigate Santos over allegations that he lied extensively about his background and violated campaign finance laws.
Some of the biggest questions around Santos’ campaign activity have centered on the financial windfall that allowed him to report a personal loan of $705,000 to his successful 2022 campaign. In Santos’ previous, failed bid for Congress, in 2020, his personal financial disclosure form listed no assets and a salary of $55,000.
He has said he earned the money through his firm, The Devolder Organization, but he listed no Devolder clients on the financial disclosure he was required to file last year as a candidate.
Santos has also come under fire for falsely claiming to have Jewish heritage. The Forward had questioned a claim on Santos’ campaign website that his grandparents “fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, and again fled persecution during WWII.”
George Santos says he called himself ‘Jew-ish’ as a ‘party joke’
In another story, the site noted that he had called himself a “proud American Jew” in a position paper that was shared with Jewish and pro-Israel leaders during his campaign.
Santos later maintained that he still identifies as “Jew-ish” despite reports showing that his grandparents were Catholics born in Brazil.
