A little more than a month before votes will be counted, the special election between Tom Suozzi and Mazi Melesa Pilip is heating up, as each candidate picks up endorsements for the Jewish vote in the district covering Northeast Queens and the North Shore of Nassau County.
“We are delighted to endorse Tom Suozzi, who will be a passionate and pragmatic Democratic voice in Congress,” said Mark Mellman, chair of Democratic Majority for Israel. “Suozzi will search for common ground to solve people’s problems and embrace – as he long has – the proud pro-Israel tradition of our party.”
In his organization’s support for Suozzi, Mellman seeks to maintain his party’s support for Israel, as polls indicate growing opposition towards Israel’s war effort among younger voters. The announcement follows Suozzi’s visit to Israel last month, where he visited communities devastated on October 7, and met with family members of hostages captured by Hamas. He was traveling with Todd Richman, Board Co-Chair of Democratic Majority for Israel, sister organization of the DFMI PAC that made the election endorsement.
With the war in its third month, its casualties and costs rising, Suozzi remains supportive of the Israeli campaign to eliminate Hamas. “It’s just very hard and it’s very difficult and it’s going to take time,” he said in an interview with Politico. “But you know, much like we finally got Osama bin Laden, much like after the Munich attacks during the Olympics, it took them years, but they found everybody.”
One can argue that the physical elimination of Hamas on the ground will not erase its ideology, but the same can be said of ISIS and al-Qaeda, which remain active but no longer in control of any significant territory. For pro-Israel Democrats, the return of Suozzi to Congress would mean a supportive voice on par with Rep. Ritchie Torres of the Bronx and Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who have spoken forcefully against protesters and anti-Israel colleagues in the Democratic Party in interviews and on social media.
“I’m the biggest advocate for peace, for diplomacy, for negotiating. Some people are just evil. They have to be stopped. They have to be; there’s no choice,” he added. He described anti-Israel members of his party as “clueless.”
“They don’t understand what a serious threat this is to not only Israel and Jews throughout the world, but to America and our allies. They’re just not educated about the issues.”
With experience as an IDF veteran, Pilip does not need to say much about supporting Israel, and focused on other issues that resonate among suburban voters, such as the migrant crisis on the southern border. In contrast to Pilip’s campaign kickoff, which featured prominent local and state Republican leaders, at Suozzi’s announcement, there were fewer colleagues from his party, which has been losing seats on Long Island.
Countering the appearance that Suozzi is running on his experience and name, one of his campaign coordinators pointed out that the national party is investing in this race. House Majority PAC, dedicated to electing Democrats, recently announced $5.2 million in digital and television ads for the week before the election and $700,000 for mailers in the district.
By Sergey Kadinsky
