Tom Williams and Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
- There will be a special election on February 13 to replace recently expelled Rep. George Santos.
- Local party bosses chose former Rep. Tom Suozzi to be the Democratic nominee.
- He's a more moderate Democrat who was a prolific stock trader during his previous stint in Congress.
The expulsion of George Santos has teed up a special election in New York's 3rd congressional district, and Democrats now have their candidate.
On Thursday, local party bosses nominated former Rep. Tom Suozzi for the job, pitting him against a yet-to-be-named Republican candidate on February 13.
The race, taking place in a Long Island swing district, is expected to be highly competitive and a potential bellwether for 2024.
But Suozzi, who served in Congress from 2017-2023, isn't your average down-the-line mainstream Democrat.
'We have to try and create a society where abortion is more rare'
He has long been a less enthusiastic supporter of abortion rights than most of his party, including seeking to promote "abstinence" when he served as Nassau County executive.
He also previously supported the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal funding for abortions.
"I'm 100 percent committed to keeping abortion safe and legal," he said in 2017. "I do believe, however, that we have to try and create a society where abortion is more rare."
According to the New York Times, Gov. Kathy Hochul recently made Suozzi pledge to run as a "full-throated defender of abortion rights" — otherwise she would seek to block his candidacy.
Suozzi ran against Hochul, the incumbent governor, in 2022.
'I think it's a very reasonable law'
During his 2022 primary campaign for governor of New York, Suozzi offered praise for the Florida Parental Rights in Education Law — known to critics as "Don't Say Gay."
The initial version of the Florida law forbade classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through third grade. It has since been expanded all the way up to high school seniors.
Critics argue that the law marginalizes LGBTQ students in educational environments — but Suozzi defended the law during an appearance on a conservative radio show.
"I think it's a very reasonable law not to try to get kids in kindergarten to be talking about sex," Suozzi said at the time. "I wish it wouldn't become such a hot button issue where people are just attacking each other — it's just common sense."
He later doubled down in a statement to City & State New York: "Maybe this isn't a politically correct position but it certainly seems like common sense to me."
When he was in Congress, he violated the STOCK Act. A lot.
When Business Insider published its "Conflicted Congress" investigation of lawmakers' stock trades and financial holdings in 2021, Suozzi was one of just 13 lawmakers who earned a "Danger" rating.
That's because he violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, a federal law designed to prevent insider trading, more than 300 times.
That doesn't mean Suozzi was actually doing insider trading.
He simply didn't file any periodic transaction reports — which he was required to do any time he made a significant trade — for three years. And it landed him a formal ethics complaint from the Campaign Legal Center, an ethics watchdog.
The House Ethics Committee ultimately declined to fine Suozzi for those violations, determining that he and other lawmakers who violated the STOCK Act "were generally unclear on the requirements" of the law.
Suozzi cashed in when his term ended, becoming the co-chair of the lobbying and consulting firm Actum.