GOP hopeful vying for lying George Santos’ seat failed to vote for years, records show: ‘Troubling’
The Republican candidate vying for lying ex-Rep.George Santos’ vacated New York seat failed to vote for years in key elections — including for the congressional office she’s running for, voting records reveal.
GOP hopeful and mom of seven Mazi Pilip, 44, first registered to vote Nov. 6, 2012, as a Democrat, according to her voting profile with the Nassau County Board of Elections obtained by The Post.
But the Great Neck resident — still a registered Democrat and currently a Nassau County legislator — didn’t actually pull a lever until four years later, skipping three years of elections.
She failed to vote in the 2013 election for Nassau County executive, the 2014 midterm congressional elections and the race for governor, and the 2015 vote for Nassau County legislature.
Pilip — an Ethiopian native and former Israeli soldier facing off against Democratic ex-Rep. Tom Suozzi in the Feb. 13 special election for the vacant Santos seat in the 3rd District covering parts of Nassau and eastern Queens — did vote in the 2016 presidential election.
But she did not then vote in the 2017 Nassau elections, 2018 race for governor and Congress and 2019 county elections, according to her records.
The congressional hopeful did not vote again until 2020 — a presidential election year.
She voted in the 2021 elections — when she first ran and won a seat serving in the Nassau County legislature — the 2022 race for governor and Congress and in 2023, when she won re-election.
According to voting records, after registering as a Democrat in 2012, Pilip registered as a “blank” — not affiliated with any party — April 29, 2015.
She re-registered as a Democrat on May 5, 2015 — six days later — and has remained so.
The Suozzi campaign Democrats pounced.
“Mazi Pilip barely bothers to vote, she won’t debate Tom on TV, she won’t say who she voted for president or where she stands on most of the issues, and she offers nothing but nonsensical talking points dictated to her by party bosses,” said Suozzi senior campaign adviser Kim Devlin.
“The more we learn about her – the more troubling it is. We’ve seen this kind of candidate before in George Santos — the voters in Nassau and Queens won’t be fooled again,” Devlin said.
Nassau County Democratic leader Jay Jacobs added, “If you’re going to ask people to vote for you, you should have been someone who voted for their representatives when you had the chance.”
Pilip, in a statement released by her campaign, said she regretted “having missed voting in some elections” but said constituents should be more concerned about Suozzi’s voting record when he previously served in Congress and when he was Nassau County executive.
“Voting in elections is a privilege that every voter should exercise. As a former IDF [Israel Defense Forces] soldier who fought for freedom and the mother of seven children, Mazi Pilip is committed to teaching her children and all young people the importance of having their voices heard in elections,” a campaign spokesman said.
Her camp added that Suozzi’s voting record in Congress was “deeply troubling” — claiming he always voted with President Biden and with Democratic Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the left-wing “squad” 90%” of the time, resulting in “an open border” and “staggering inflation.” It claimed Suozzi raised taxes by millions of dollars when he was Nassau County executive, too.
“We are confident that when voters look at the voting records of Mazi Pilip in the Legislature compared to Tom Suozzi’s dangerous and extreme voting record in Congress, they will support Mazi Pilip for Congress,” Pilip’s campaign said.
The race is being closely monitored by both parties, which see it as a potential bellwether for which party wins in the House later in 2024.
The seat that Pilip and Suozzo are competing for was vacated when Santos, 35, became the sixth House member in history to be expelled.
He faced allegations of campaign finance violations and the surfacing of egregious lies about his personal and professional history.
