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By: Ilana Siyance
With the House of Representatives seat of expelled George Santos up for grabs, Jewish activists are eying Nassau County legislator Mazi Pilip to run for the Republican ticket.
As reported by the NY Post, the Republicans will need to select one candidate for the special election scheduled by Gov. Kathy Hochul to replace ousted Santos, in his seat representing New York’s 3rd congressional district, which includes Long Island communities in Nassau and Suffolk Counties and northeastern Queens.
Jewish activists are pushing Republican leaders to choose Mazi Pilip, an Ethiopian Jew, who had served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a paratrooper. “Mazi got a lot of support in the Jewish community. We’re talking strong support,” a Republican insider told the Post. “If Mazi wants the nomination — she gets it. The question is, does she want it,” the GOP source familiar with the discussions said. The source noted that last week Mrs. Pilip did attend one of the NY fundraisers co-hosted by House Speaker Mike Johnson, flanked by prominent party donors. “If it’s not Mazi, it’s a jump ball,” the source added.
Mrs. Pilip, who is actually a registered Democrat (though that’s not expected to pose any problem) has strong backing, twice winning elections for the Nassau County legislature in Democratic-leaning North Hempstead, with the most recent election in Nov. 2023. Pilip, 44, immigrated to Israel when she was 12 years old from Ethiopia, served with distinction in the IDF, studied at the University of Haifa for her Bachelors, and continued at Tel Aviv University, earning a Masters degree in diplomacy and security.
NY’s 3rd congressional district is the richest congressional district in New York, and in 2022, was the fourth wealthiest district in the country, per Wikipedia. The Democratic Party already officially nominated former Congressman and Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, a moderate candidate and staunch supporter of Israel, to run in the special election, scheduled for Feb. 13. Suozzi, 61, has historically been very popular at the polls, and served NY’s 3rd congressional district from 2017 to 2023, and as county executive of Nassau County from 2002 to 2009. Suozzi already started campaigning on Saturday, in Levittown, which is known as a Republican stronghold in the district.
Since it’s a special election, each party will only have one candidate, and it is expected to be a tight race. Republicans are expected to announce their nominee for the seat later this week, said retired Long Island Congressman Peter King. “There are people being vetted right now,” King said. The Republicans, who were burned and criticized for not having sufficiently vetted Santos, are now rigorously vetting multiple candidates for the seat. King said, there are a handful of candidates being considered. Santos, who admitted to lying on his political resume, was found guilty in an ethics probe on his campaign funding, becoming the sixth individual ever to be expelled from Congress in U.S. History.
Per the Post, the other candidates being mulled by Republicans include Michael Sapraicone, a former NYPD detective and security consultant. Incidentally, Sapraicone has donated some $30,000 to Suozzi’s campaigns over the years. Another possible candidate is Daniel Norber, a former member of the Israel Defense Forces who was in Israel for the Jewish holidays during the savage and deadly Oct. 7th Hamas attack on Israel.
