Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Long Island) voted to denounce socialism, backed Andrew Cuomo for New York City mayor over Zohran Mamdani, and urged his party to reject the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). His Republican challenger, Mike LiPetri, still calls him a socialist.
The former state Assemblymember points to Suozzi’s September vote against a Republican resolution condemning socialism. He leaves out what else was in the resolution: a call to pass the SAVE America Act, President Donald Trump’s stalled election bill, which Suozzi has voted against every time it has reached the House floor.
The SAVE Act would require Americans to show documentary proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, to register to vote, and a photo ID to cast a ballot in federal elections. The Bipartisan Policy Center found its ID rules would be stricter than any state’s. Republicans call it an election integrity measure; Democrats say it would disenfranchise millions of eligible voters. The House passed it in February with one Democratic vote. Suozzi voted no, and the bill stalled in the Senate.
The vote marks yet another instance where Suozzi opposed a bill he fundamentally aligned with because Republicans loaded it with a SAVE Act poison pill designed to trap moderate Democrats.
The vote LiPetri keeps citing
The resolution to condemn socialism and call for the SAVE Act passed Sept. 1 by a vote of 220-192, with all voting Republicans and eight Democrats in favor. Suozzi voted no, along with most of his party.
“Some votes in Congress should be simple,” LiPetri wrote in a Sept. 2 post on X. “But last night, when given a chance, Spineless Suozzi voted NO!”
The attack matters because LiPetri needs one that sticks. Suozzi represents New York’s 3rd Congressional District, a Queens and Long Island seat Trump carried 51.4% to 47.1% in 2024, the same year Suozzi beat LiPetri 51.7% to 48.1%. LiPetri is back with Trump’s endorsement, and the NRCC has named Suozzi one of its targets. Forecasters still favor the incumbent: VoteHub’s model gives Suozzi a 95.7% chance of winning as of Oct. 1.
Before the vote, Suozzi joined Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), and Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.) in proposing an amendment to strip out the voting provisions and keep a clean condemnation of “socialism in all its forms, including the Democratic Socialists of America.”
Ten months earlier, when the House considered a resolution “denouncing the horrors of socialism” with no other provisions attached, Suozzi voted yes. It passed 285-98, with 86 Democrats joining every voting Republican. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), the lawmakers LiPetri claims Suozzi votes with “nearly every time,” both voted no.
Republicans have used the same approach on other measures. In July, House Republicans attached voter-ID language from the SAVE Act to a ban on congressional stock purchases and passed it, 232-198. Suozzi, who cosponsors a stricter bipartisan trading ban, voted no, calling the GOP bill “a watered-down version with unrelated poison pills.” The bill then went to the Senate, where Democrats blocked it on Wednesday, objecting to the same voter-ID provision.
A Democrat who picks fights with his party’s left
Suozzi has spent much of the cycle publicly feuding with his party’s left flank.
He endorsed Cuomo over Mamdani in last year’s mayoral race, saying he couldn’t back “a declared socialist with a thin resume.” His pledge declaring Democrats “capitalist, not socialist” came as he compared the DSA’s rise inside his party to the Freedom Caucus’ grip on the GOP.
His voting record reflects that independence. CQ Roll Call’s 2025 vote study found he broke with his party on more than 10% of party-line votes, making him one of a handful of House members to do so. He also co-chairs the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus with Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania.
The company LiPetri keeps
LiPetri’s own alliances invite scrutiny. In May, the New York Young Republican Club endorsed LiPetri, hailing him as a “fellow Young Republican,” the same phrase it used when it backed him in 2024. In June, the club hosted a “Day of Action with Mike LiPetri” to rally volunteers for his campaign in Queens.
Months earlier, the club’s annual gala had featured white nationalists and antisemitic conspiracy theorists on its guest list, alongside figures from Germany’s far-right AfD party. In July, New York magazine reported on antisemitic posts from an account appearing to belong to the club’s former treasurer, along with a photo of him appearing to make a Nazi salute. He denied the account was his and said the photo was doctored.
After that report, City Council Member Inna Vernikov said she left the club. Courier New York found no public statement from LiPetri addressing the controversy, and the club’s endorsement of him remains on its website. His campaign did not respond to questions about whether he still accepts it.
LiPetri’s campaign leans on hard-line immigration rhetoric. His candidate profile boasts that he “exposed migrant handouts” as an assemblyman, and he has shared a post from Elon Musk warning that immigration will turn the United States into a “one party state.”
Suozzi’s campaign declined to comment, and the New York Young Republican Club did not respond to Courier New York’s requests for comment.
