George Santos Chooses His Replacement

Ousted former Congressman George Santos has had his say on who should replace him in the House.

The former representative from New York said ex-police officer and security expert Mike Sapraicone would make the best choice as his replacement, hailing his experience in law enforcement and the world of business as reasons for a potential run for Congress.

"He's a former cop," Santos said on X, formerly known as Twitter. "A business leader. And has the fundraising and infrastructure to go head to head with Suozzi and show the whole country NY-3 is a GOP stronghold."

Sapraicone is a retired New York Police Department (NYPD) detective and served there for 20 years, according to his campaign page. He is currently the CEO of the security firm Squad Security, a global company that says it has "an extensive network of highly-trained, current and former law enforcement professionals, who are capable of providing executive protection, investigations, and all aspects of logistics, corporate, and event security."

A special election to find a replacement is likely in around February next year, according to early reports. The empty gap in New York's third district was left open after Santos was expelled following an ethics committee investigation that found he used campaign funds to purchase items for himself—Santos denied any criminal wrongdoing. His endorsement of Sapraicone is not expected to affect the GOP's choice of candidate.

Santos also said Sapraicone would be his preferred candidate over Tom Suozzi, widely reported to be tipped as the first choice for the Democrats in the district. Suozzi has not been confirmed as the official candidate for the party, but Santos said Sapraicone would be the "only person that can beat Suozzi."

Newsweek has contacted Sapraicone for comment via LinkedIn. Santos could not be immediately contacted for comment.

Suozzi spent six years in the role as Congressman for the district before leaving to run for state governor. The attorney, who would end up losing a bitter battle to Kathy Hochul in the primaries, said the "madness in Washington, D.C" was behind his decision to run.

Also tipped to be in with a chance of running for the Democrats is Anna Kaplan, a former State Senator who lost her seat in December last year. She announced her plan to run for the district in May this year and will hope to be the candidate despite Santos' assertion that her party is likely to pick Suozzi over her because they are "misogynistic asses and won't let Anna Kaplan be their nominee."

"For me, this congressional district is very, very personal. I left a country where I saw the rightwing extremists taking over and stripped women of their rights," Kaplan said to City & State New York.

Kaplan has attempted to draw clear lines between herself and Suozzi in their pitches to voters so far, citing Suozzi's attempt at the governor's seat as a time in which he "abandoned" his district. "After almost a year of this district having embarrassing representation, Tom Suozzi thinks voters on Long Island have forgotten that he abandoned us to George Santos," she said in a statement reported by Politico. The Iranian-American candidate also took a swipe at Suozzi's apparent pro-choice stance.

The race is likely to be hard fought with the Republicans having an already slim majority in the House of Representatives, now home to 434 representatives. The GOP currently has a majority of eight seats.