New York Republican Representative George Santos (R., N.Y.), whose political career this year has been riddled with bizarre scandals concerning his credentials and finances, announced Monday that he would be running for reelection.
“Since the Left is pushing radical agendas, the economy is struggling, and Washington is incapable of solving anything, we need a fighter who knows the district and can serve the people fearlessly, and independent of local or national party influence,” Santos said in a statement.
“Good isn’t good enough, and I’m not shy about doing what it takes to get the job done. I’m proud to announce my candidacy to run for re-election and continue to serve the people of NY-3,” he said.
Santos touted the campaign promises he’s worked to fulfill in his first 100 days in office, such as securing the border, lowering the high cost of living, and fighting New York Governor Hochul’s soft-on-crime policies. However, in that time window, Santos has also faced allegations of fabricating parts of his background, financial misconduct, and overall shady behavior.
After claiming he received a degree from Baruch in 2010, Santos later admitted that he never graduated from any college, the New York Post reported. He also said he worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, but neither firm has any record of his working at the banks, the article noted.
The Washington Post wrote that the congressman appeared to have been involved in a Ponzi scheme. And in January, Santos submitted peculiar campaign expense reports to the Federal Elections Commission, including 40 charges for precisely $199, one dollar below the benchmark that would require his team to keep receipts or invoices for their expenses.
Since March, the House Ethics Committee has been investigating Santos. Several GOP representatives from New York urged his resignation in the wake of the stories about his record. In February, House Democrats introduced a resolution for Santos’s ouster from the chamber. The sponsor, Democratic Representative Robert Garcia, said his “continued pattern of fraud and deception is especially worrisome to our own LGBTQ+ community, and it’s time we act and immediately expel him from Congress.” Santos is the first openly gay non-incumbent Republican elected to the House, according to the New York Post.
“When I ran in 2022, no one said we’d win. ‘That’s a safe Biden seat,’ they said. Well guess what? That D+2, Biden +10 seat I won by 8.5 points,” Santos said in his Monday statement. “Not only won but made history as the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress.”