In the sixth-ever case of a congressperson being expelled, Republican Congressman George Santos was expelled from Congress after a House Ethics Committee report found evidence of Santos breaking several laws.
George Santos was a House Representative from New York’s 3rd Congressional District who first won the election in 2022, in a district held by Democrats since 2012. The flipping of this district made Santos one of the important few flipped districts that gave Republicans the House majority.
Without Santos, that makes the Republican Majority 221-213. With the events of electing a new House Speaker fresh in the minds of Republican representatives, this smaller majority will surely make their grip on the house feel more tenuous.
The circumstances of Santos’s expulsion are unique to him compared to the other five expelled, three of which were expelled for siding with the confederacy, and the other two cases occurred after convictions for their crimes. Santos used this unique position to argue against his expulsion, saying, “This will haunt them in the future where mere allegations are sufficient to have members removed from office when duly elected by their people in their respective states and districts.”
Santos seems to be playing on conservatives’ fears about legal and social punishments for actions that have technically not been decided on by a court yet. This argument seemed to not hold water for many Republicans, though, as only just over half of Republicans voted against Santos’s expulsion.
The reasoning for many Republicans voting against their own congressman and hurting their majority in the process, in such polarized and partisan time, can be summed up by Representative Michael Guest of Mississippi, who said, “I mean no one wants to have to remove a member from Congress. But the allegations against him, the evidence was overwhelming.”
As far as most people can see, the allegations are nearly impossible to refute with how much evidence has piled on against Santos. There has been evidence against Santos that he lied about his Jewish Ancestry, financial background and education. Still, the more serious allegations include stealing the identity of donors and making purchases on their credit cards worth thousands of dollars in total. Other crimes include money laundering, falsifying campaign finance reports, other instances of fraud and using campaign money for personal expenses.
In total, Santos received 23 indictments, and the ethics committee released a 56-page report on Santos’s misconduct. This created such negative attention similar to the debacle of the vote for the Speaker of the House, which was doing Republicans no favors.
Since his expulsion, Santos has gone on to sell recorded messages of himself saying whatever message he’s asked to say for $200 on Cameo.
Since the position for Santos’s district is now vacant, there will be a special election to fill the spot, and the Democrats have already announced their nominee, Tom Suozzi, who previously filled the 3rd District seat. The Republican nominee is still being decided upon, with two main choices being Michael Sapraicone, who was a New York Police Department detective, and Mazi Pilip, who’s a veteran of the Israel Defense Force.
With the recent history of this district as a Democrat stronghold and the controversy of Santos hanging over the election, it’s going to be an uphill battle for any Republican nominee.
