Former Republican Rep. George Santos of New York has dropped his bid to return to the U.S. House.
Alex Brandon/AP
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Alex Brandon/AP
Former Republican Rep. George Santos of New York has dropped his bid to return to the U.S. House.
Alex Brandon/AP
Another chapter within the scandal-plagued profession of New York Republican George Santos sputtered to an finish this week as he deserted his unbiased bid for a U.S. House seat on Long Island.
“I don’t want to split the ticket and be responsible for handing the house to Dems,” Santos wrote in a social media post. “Staying in this race all but guarantees a victory for the Dems.”
Santos received his election in New York’s third Congressional District within the 2022 midterms. He was half of a pink wave in New York that helped give Republicans a razor-thin majority.
But his private {and professional} narratives rapidly unraveled.
It turned out Santos, who was initially supported by many of New York’s most outstanding GOP leaders, lied about his household’s faith, his training and his enterprise expertise.
Santos even claimed falsely to have been a aggressive faculty volleyball participant.
In May 2023, whereas going through a House ethics probe, Santos was arrested on federal fraud charges that accuse him of bilking political donors. Santos has pleaded not responsible. The Justice Department ultimately expanded the criminal counts against Santos to 23 prices.
“Santos is charged with stealing people’s identities and making charges on his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace mentioned in an October 2023 statement.
Santos’s trial on Long Island is predicted to get underway in September. His former marketing campaign treasurer has already pleaded responsible within the case.
Ousted from Congress, Santos tried for a comeback
In December 2023, together with his scandals and authorized troubles deepening and political allies abandoning him, Santos was expelled from Congress in a 311-114 vote. Many Republicans joined the hassle to purge him from workplace.
In the months since, Santos has emerged as a far-right gadfly and influencer, firing political salvos at Democrats and at average Republicans.
Santos initially mentioned he would run within the Republican main in New York’s 1st Congressional District however later shifted to run as an unbiased.
In his social media publish asserting that he is deserted his marketing campaign, Santos once more blasted the “abysmal” voting report of Rep. Nick LaLota, the Republican who at present holds the seat.
LaLota performed a key function within the bipartisan effort to power Santos from workplace.
John Avlon, who’s working within the 1st Congressional District’s Democratic main, expressed his disappointment on the finish of the three-way race: “Gotta say: I was really looking forward to the debates.”
Since Santos’s quite a few lies have been revealed, he has turn into a political pariah in New York City. But Santos’ publish recommended that even now his political profession might not but be over:
“It’s only goodbye for now, I’ll be back.”