Santos won’t run for re-election
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Embattled Congressman George Santos announced via Twitter that he will not seek re-election following a damning House Ethics report. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
By Ryan Schwach
Queens and Long Island Congressman George Santos announced via a tweet on Thursday that he will no longer seek re-election for his seat following a damning report from the House Ethics Committee that indicates Santos may have broken federal law during his effort to get elected in 2022.
“I will continue on my mission to serve my constituents up until I am allowed,” Santos tweeted just after 11 a.m. on Thursday. “I will however NOT be seeking re-election for a second term in 2024 as my family deserves better than to be under the gun from the press all the time.”
The bombshell announcement from the representative came just minutes after a House Ethics report was released featuring “substantial evidence” that Santos broke federal law as he faces more than two dozen charges in federal court, including identity theft, falsifying records and fraud.
“Representative Santos sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit,” the report read. “He blatantly stole from his campaign. He deceived donors into providing what they thought were contributions to his campaign but were in fact payments for his personal benefit.’
The bi-partisan ethics committee had been looking into Santos’ behavior for several months.
“Representative Santos’ conduct warrants public condemnation, is beneath the dignity of the office, and has brought severe discredit upon the House,” Representatives Michael Guest and Susan Wild, the ethics committee’s chairman and senior Democrat on the committee, said in a joint statement published by the Wall Street Journal.
In October, Santos pleaded not guilty and called the court investigations a “witch hunt.” Similarly, he claimed the committee “went to extraordinary lengths to smear myself and my legal team about me not being forthcoming” on Thursday.
The severity of the report could potentially lead to another attempt from Santos’ congressional colleagues to expel him from the body, Guests’ office told multiple outlets on Thursday.
Whether Santos is expelled from his seat, resigns before the end of his term, or completes what has been one of the most dramatic freshman terms in Congress in recent history, the line to replace him is long. Nearly 20 Democrats and Republicans, including former Representative Tom Suozzi, Democrat Anna Kaplan, and Republican candidates Kellen Curry and Michael Sapraicone, have launched campaigns to represent the 3rd Congressional District.
