Tom Suozzi is the winner in the 3rd Congressional District

5th State Senate District race still undecided

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When U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi held a news conference on Monday in Glen Cove, he said he was confident he would win, but was not ready to claim victory. Now, less than 24 hours later, he can.

"George Santos called me this morning to concede and congratulate me on my victory,” he said in a news release. “I thanked him for his call.”

Calls to Santos were not returned by press time.

Suozzi was behind in the vote count Election Day, capturing 49 percent of the day's vote to Santos, a Republican, who garnered 51 percent. This was based on in-person voting. But Suozzi said at the time that he was confident he would win and continued his positive outlook throughout the process, based on the larger-than-ever number of absentee ballots that still needed to be counted.

As of Nov. 5, there were 48,097 absentee ballots in Nassau County and 23,846 in Suffolk County outstanding. Northeast Queens, which U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi represents, had 13,947 absentee ballots. The registration of the ballots was 51 percent Democratic, 17 percent Republican and 32 percent blank. 

“I said I’d win by 20,000 votes on Election Day, but now I think I will win by over 20,000 votes,” he said on Monday. “Twenty-five percent of the ballots were absentee this year, which has never happened before.”

On Monday, there were still 70,000 ballots to count, the majority of which were from Democrats. The counting began in Queens on Nov. 11, in Nassau the next day and in Suffolk on Monday.  

“We need to change the law in New York state so the winner will be declared more timely,” Suozzi had said on Monday.

“It is a great honor to serve as a member of Congress, and I look forward to continuing to work on behalf of the people I represent,” Suozzi said after Santos conceded. “Our nation faces tremendous challenges, and the division is distracting us from accomplishing our goals."

Suozzi, an attorney and certified public accountant, said he would like to continue to pursue his constituents' goals using his membership on the House Ways and Means Committee and as vice chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.

“I will work to try and bridge the divide and address the Covid pandemic, our unstable economy, the climate crisis and the need to rebuild our middle class,” he said. “I will never stop fighting for Long Island and Queens and the people of our state and country.”

The race for the 5th State Senate District is still up in the air. Incumbent State Sen. Jim Gaughran, a Democrat from Northport, had lost on election day by capturing 44 percent of Nassau County’s vote versus challenger Edmund Smyth’s 56 percent.

However, as of press time Tuesday, Gaughran has taken the lead as more and more absentee ballots are counted. He now holds roughly 52 percent of the county’s votes versus Smyth’s 48.

Smyth still leads in Suffolk County with 53 percent of the vote against Gaughran’s 47.

“There are nearly 15,000 outstanding absentee ballots left to be counted in Suffolk County,” said Marissa Espinoza, Gaughran’s spokeswoman. “While the ballots are overwhelmingly trending Democratic, our democracy demands every ballot be counted. I’m confident that this full count will favor Senator Gaughran.”

Calls to Smyth were not returned by press time.

Mike Conn contributed to this story