Santos Quits Congressional Bid After Raising $0 in First Quarter: ‘I’ll Be Back’
Nathan Howard/Sipa USA via AP Images
George Santos is throwing in the towel on his attempt to get re-elected back to Congress, after raising a devastating zero dollars and zero cents in the first quarter of 2024.
The serial fabulist got caught telling so many exaggerations, misrepresentations, and flat-out lies that my attempt in January 2023 to chronicle them barely lasted a day before it was outdated. He was finally expelled from Congress in December 2023 after a damning Ethics Committee report and one of his fellow Republican congressmen accused Santos of defrauding him – and even his mother.
A special election in February for Santos’ replacement in NY-3 was won by Democrat Tom Suozzi, but Santos couldn’t stay out of the spotlight, crashing the State of the Union address in March, insisting on taking advantage of the floor privileges afforded to former members of Congress, although he was not allowed to take up a prime seat.
That same evening, Santos announced he was running for NY-1, blasting the incumbent Republican congressman in that seat, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) as a “RINO” and “empty suit.”
The attempted Santos reboot has now flopped, with Santos posting an “Announcement!” on The Platform Formerly Known as Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, along with a red siren emoji.
“I have decided to withdraw from my independent run for #NY1,” he wrote.
Santos continued that he didn’t want his campaign “to be portrayed as reprisal against Nick [LaLota]” — LaLota was among the New York Republicans who loudly criticized Santos for his prevarications and ethical troubles, before voting to expel him — but “I don’t want to split the ticket and be responsible for handing the house to Dems.”
He vowed to “continue to participate in the public policy discussion” and “do my part” so he can “stand on the right side of history.”
“It’s only goodbye for now,” Santos concluded. “I’ll be back.”
Local Spectrum News reporter Kevin Frey noted Santos’ announcement and dropped the devastating detail that “[h]is latest FEC filing showed him raising $0 in the first quarter of 2024.”
LaLota himself took a swipe at his erstwhile challenger, implying that Santos’ tweet was written by ChatGPT and saying it meant Santos was “taking a plea deal.”
Santos unsurprisingly snarled right back at LaLota, calling him a “useless feckless RINO” who was “spreading misinformation.”
Former CNN senior political analyst and Daily Beast editor-in-chief John Avlon is also running, as a Democrat, for NY-1.
Mediaite confirmed Frey’s reporting that Santos raised $0.00 in the first quarter of 2024 on the FEC website. Also of note: Santos’ campaign ended the quarter with only $6,290.60 cash on hand and owing debts of $781,932.07.
