Just minutes after serial liar George Santos announced he’d seek a second term representing New York’s 3rd Congressional District on Monday, he drew his first big-name Democratic challenger, Nassau County Legislator Josh Lafazan, who ran for the same seat in 2022 but finished third in last year’s primary.
Fittingly, Santos had reportedly told GOP leaders he wouldn’t run for reelection before he was even sworn in, so it’s only natural that that was a lie, too. And in a perfect twist, Santos launched his bid the same day he introduced legislation named for vaccine conspiracy theorist Nicki Minaj.
Santos’ decision came just days after the world learned the scandal-plagued Republican’s campaign is almost bankrupt and apparently owes the candidate $715,000. Lafazan, meanwhile, managed to haul in $345,000 during the first quarter of the year after opening a fundraising account in January when he was still exploring the race.
Just ahead of Santos’ kickoff, an unnamed source told The New York Post that the congressman had “called big donors and sat down with supporters and believes he can raise $500,000 to $750,000 in the second quarter of 2023.” The paper did not say whether a single one of those donors believed a word of that, especially since Santos raised less than $5,400 during the first three months of the year while refunding $8,400 to previous contributors. It’s also not clear who these “big donors” are, especially since exactly one person donated more than $200 to Santos during the first quarter of the year.
Santos’ fellow Republicans have made it very clear they want pretty much anyone else as their standard bearer in the 3rd District, a Long Island-based constituency that favored Biden 54-45 in 2020, and there’s no question the incumbent will face a tough primary challenge if he’s even still in office next year. Santos in fact has already drawn intra-party opposition: Business executive Kellen Curry last week became the first Republican to announce a bid, though numerous others have been mentioned. Likewise, there’s a long list of Democrats who could join Lafazan in the primary.
