Democrats hailed New York’s victory as a good sign for November. But will it be enough to quell anxiety about Biden?

WASHINGTON: Former U.S. Rep. Tom Souzi’s bid to regain his Long Island House seat could provide a blueprint for Democrat Joe Biden’s reelection bid heading into November, showcasing the party’s strength in hotly contested suburban districts that also happen to be Where Donald Trump grew up.

But the good news comes after a rough few days for the White House, with House Republicans voting Tuesday to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. This comes after a special prosecutor concluded that Biden’s memory was “flawed,” “poor” and had “significant limitations,” but said there was no reason to accuse the president of mishandling classified documents.

So it’s unclear how much a Souzi victory will quell Democratic anxieties about the president’s age and low approval ratings.

The Democratic former congressman swept to victory in a special election where heavy snowfall may have hurt turnout and with nearly nine months left in the presidential race. He has made immigration a centerpiece of his campaign, taking a politically hardline approach to an issue that has helped Republicans win in previous cycles.

He also called Biden “old.”

Sozi easily defeated Mazi Pilip to replace ousted former New York Republican Rep. George Santos, narrowing the Republican House majority to 219-213. The district went for Biden by 8 points in 2020 but voted for Santos during the 2022 midterm elections — a time when Republicans are gaining ground across New York over a tougher stance on immigration and combating rising crime in some areas. performed better than expected.

After Santos stepped down, the special election to replace him was seen as a close call – although Sozzi was a more familiar figure. He won the seat in 2016 and was re-elected twice before retiring in 2020 and losing to current Gov. Kathy Hochul in the Democratic primary.

The influx of migrants into major Democratic-run cities, including New York, has made security at the U.S.-Mexico border a particularly thorny issue for Biden’s party across the country. Queens is one of the few large-scale tent housing facilities for immigrants in New York City, but Suozzi faced the problem head-on.

“This is a template for Democrats everywhere because you can’t imagine a district that would be more hostile to Democratic stereotypes,” said Lis Smith, a national Democratic strategist and adviser to Suozzi’s campaign. “You just have to go on offense and say, ‘I’m the guy who wants to secure the border. Republicans want chaos at the border.”

It’s “a very simple message that can be adopted by Democrats across the country,” Smith said.

During the campaign, Suozzi often spoke of strengthening immigration policies and said he would support temporarily closing the U.S.-Mexico border to slow the influx of migrants, echoing Biden’s recent willingness to do the same. Last month, Sozy rushed to the tent settlement in Queens for a rebuttal news conference after Pilip held an event there in an attempt to tie him to federal immigration policy.

Suzi was an outspoken supporter of the Senate’s bipartisan immigration deal, which Republicans opposed after former President Donald Trump, now the front-runner in the Republican presidential primary, urged them to do so. Suzy even started her victory speech by mocking being attacked as the “godfather of the immigration crisis” and “Suzy Sanctuary.”

That resonated with Lois Clinco, 59, who said she voted for Suozzi because she wanted him to “keep immigrants out because we’re overpopulated right now.”

Still, Grant Reh, a political science professor at Syracuse University, cautioned against extrapolating Sozi’s victory, noting that the blizzard and the brief lead-up to the special election also had unique contours associated with Santos.

“If I were a Democratic consultant or strategist, I would be skeptical before I strategized based on this election,” Leal said.

Biden’s reelection campaign noted that Democrats have scored a series of special election and off-year legislative victories since he took office. The report also said more immigrants arrived in Queens County last year than in all of Chicago, underscoring how important the issue was to Sauzi’s victory.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates called Tuesday’s results a “devastating repudiation of congressional Republicans.”

“Tom Sozzi has put support for bipartisan border legislation — and congressional Republicans’ politically motivated efforts to kill it — at the forefront of the case,” Bates said in a statement. “The results are unmistakable. of.”

Although Trump has emphasized a law-and-order message for years, Republicans have seen their support slip in many suburbs as the former president solidified his grip on the national Republican Party. Still, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed the larger implications of Tuesday’s race for his party.

“Last night’s results, in my opinion, don’t warrant much celebration among Democrats,” Johnson told reporters on Wednesday. He added that Suozzi “campaigned like a Republican and he sounds like one when he talks about the border and immigration.” Republicans, because this is the most important issue” in everyone’s hearts and minds. “

But Sozzi also advocated for a defense of abortion rights, echoing a message Democrats have used across the country since the Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion. New York will put a referendum on the November ballot asking voters to ban discrimination based on “the result of pregnancy.” Although there is no explicit guarantee of abortion rights, supporters believe the measure will further protect access to abortion, and Democrats see it as a way to boost turnout.

Souzi’s victory could also be seen as a personal slap to Trump, as the former president’s childhood home is in the Jamaica Estates section of Queens. Still, Trump advisers blamed Pilip’s failure on her failure to more closely embrace the Make America Great Again movement.

Ed Cox, chairman of the New York Republican Party, said the party will not give up on winning and will defeat Sozzi when he runs for re-election in November. At that point, he said, “the campaign will refocus on Joe Biden and the Democrats’ disastrous open-borders, soft-on-crime policies, rather than the specific circumstances that led to this special election.”

But Soozzi hasn’t fully embraced Biden. He even said in a TV interview, “The most important thing is that he is old.” Sozy also said that he did not think Biden would be helpful in running with him in this race.

“If I were giving him advice,” Reich said of the president, “I would put a big red headline on it that said ‘Consider this campaign with caution, there are a lot of things here that may not apply to you.'”

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Izaguirre reported from Lindenhurst, New York.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from Yonhap News Agency-The Associated Press)