Trump claimed MAGA voters stayed home after Republican Mazi Pilip kept him at arm’s length during her campaign for NY-03
Former President Trump criticized Republican candidate Mazi Pilip after she lost the special election for a U.S. House seat in New York to Democrat Tom Suozzi.
In a late-night post on Truth Social, Trump called Pilip a “foolish woman” and said she lost because she didn’t support him.
“Republicans just don’t learn, but maybe she was still a Democrat? I have an almost 99% success rate when I endorse candidates in primaries, and a good number in general elections too. But I just watched this very foolish woman, Mazi Melesa Pilip, running in a race where she didn’t endorse me and tried to stay neutral, when she would have easily won if she understood modern-day politics in America,” Trump wrote.
Pilip, who was born in Ethiopia and serves as a Nassau County legislator, used to be a Democrat before she switched to the Republican Party in 2012, according to Politico. While campaigning in New York, she kept her distance from Trump and said she wouldn’t support him for reelection if he’s convicted of a crime, according to the New York Post.
The top contender for the 2024 GOP nomination said that his supporters didn’t show up in the closely watched special election to fill the seat left empty by former Rep. George Santos, a Republican from New York.
“I didn’t get involved in the race because ‘I want to be loved!’ Give us a strong candidate for the district in November. Suozzi, I know him well, can be easily defeated!” Trump wrote.
The special election in a New York City suburb attracted significant attention from both Republicans and Democrats, who viewed it as a sign of what’s to come in the likely face-off between President Biden and Trump.
The district in Long Island, which Democrats had held for ten years, was won by Santos in the 2022 midterms. However, Santos was removed from Congress less than a year later after it was revealed that he had lied about his background and was indicted for several financial crimes.
Suozzi, who previously served as the district’s representative for six years before an unsuccessful run for governor, consistently connected Pilip with Santos and former President Donald Trump.
“Who knows what she believes? She’s like George Santos 2.0. It’s the same lack of transparency, just trying to get votes without being honest,” Suozzi said on the eve of the election.
Suozzi, a former mayor and county executive, also argued that Pilip, currently in her second term as a county lawmaker, “is an extreme far-right winger” who aligns closely with Mike Johnson and Donald Trump.
Pilip, an Ethiopian Jew who fled to Israel at the age of 12 to escape persecution, later served in the Israeli military before immigrating to the United States. She linked Suozzi to President Biden and blamed him for the migrant crisis.
“In a US Newzs interview on Sunday, Pilip claimed, ‘You know, he is the one who opened the southern border. He voted with Biden 100% of the time. He supported squad members 90% of the time. He is the one who caused the migrant crisis.'”
Suozzi, known as a centrist and moderate Democrat, maintained some distance from Biden and his party on immigration issues.
However, the White House announced that the president called Suozzi to congratulate him on his victory. The Biden campaign argued, “Donald Trump lost again tonight. When Republicans run on Trump’s extreme agenda — even in a Republican-held seat — voters reject them.”