Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley blamed former president Donald Trump for Republican Mazi Melesa Pilip’s loss to Democrat Tom Suozzi in the special election for George Santos’s former Long Island House seat.
Echoing the case they’ve made for their own candidate in the GOP presidential primary, Haley’s campaign argued in a Tuesday night statement that Trump’s brand is toxic among moderates in purple areas like New York’s third district and will continue to weigh down Republicans.
“Let’s just say the quiet part out loud. Donald Trump continues to be a huge weight against Republican candidates. Despite the enormous and obvious failings of Joe Biden, we just lost another winnable Republican House seat because voters overwhelmingly reject Donald Trump,” Haley national spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a statement.
“Until Republicans wake up, we will continue to lose. Time for a new generation of conservative leadership that doesn’t turn off the American people,” she added.
Suozzi, who represented New York’s third district in the House from 2017 to 2023, defeated Pilip 53.9 percent to 46.1 percent on a day when a snowstorm in New York City and the surrounding areas likely influenced voter turnout in the hotly contested special election. Pilip, a former Nassau County legislator, conceded shortly after the Associated Press called the race for Suozzi.
The bellwether suburban district voted for Joe Biden by eight points in the 2020 presidential election, making Pilip’s defeat a potential sign of things to come for Republicans in competitive seats this upcoming election cycle. Illegal Immigration was at the front and center of the campaign because of the record levels of migration across the southern border overflowing into sanctuary cities such as New York.
Trump himself criticized Pilip for not embracing him or the MAGA movement during her campaign against Suozzi.
“I have an almost 99% Endorsement Success Rate in Primaries, and a very good number in the General Elections, as well, but just watched this very foolish woman, Mazi Melesa Pilip, running in a race where she didn’t endorse me and tried to ‘straddle the fence,'” Trump said on Truth Social.
“MAGA, WHICH IS MOST OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, STAYED HOME – AND IT ALWAYS WILL, UNLESS IT IS TREATED WITH THE RESPECT THAT IT DESERVES.”
Trump and Haley will face off in the South Carolina Republican primary on February 24. The former president leads Haley in her home state by an average of 33.5 percent, according to the RealClearPolitics state polling average.
Haley’s campaign is already gearing up for super Tuesday following the South Carolina primary.