(RepublicanJournal.org) – A controversial former congressman has abandoned his attempts to get back into the House of Representatives. George Santos (R-NY) was expelled from Congress in December 2023 but launched a bid to run for a different seat as an independent. However, it seems nobody wanted to donate to his campaign.
In 2022, George Santos ran as the Republican candidate for New York’s 3rd Congressional District and defeated his Democrat rival by an 8% margin. However, almost as soon as the votes were counted, rumors started to circulate that Santos had lied extensively on his resume and concealed a variety of criminal charges in his past.
In May 2023, he was indicted on 13 federal charges, and 10 more were added in October. On December 1 the House voted 311-114 to expel him.
Santos didn’t let the small matter of being kicked out of Congress interfere with his political ambitions, however. On February 13, Democrat Tom Suozzi, who beat Santos in 2020, won a special election in the 3rd District. In response, Santos filed campaign paperwork with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), launching a bid for New York’s 1st Congressional District. This district is currently held by Representative Nick LaLota (R-NY), one of Santos’s strongest critics in the House GOP. He then announced that he was leaving the Republican Party and would run as an independent.
It turned out to be a short run. On April 23, Santos announced on X (formerly Twitter) that he was pulling out of the race. He claimed that despite his previous attacks on LaLota, he didn’t want to “split the ticket” and let the Democrats win the seat.
That’s almost a believable explanation — but it might not be an accurate one. Santos’s March 2024 FEC filings show that, in the whole month, his campaign spent no money and received no donations, so it’s likely the real reason he dropped out is that he realized he had no support.
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