Santos says he’s leaving GOP and will seek election in NY-01 as an independent candidate

George Santos is switching gears. 

He’s not going to challenge incumbent Republican Congressman Nick LaLota in a primary. Instead, he says, he will seek election to the First Congressional District in November as an independent candidate. 

Santos made the announcement in a post on X yesterday, claiming to be disgusted by “the embarrassing showing in the House,” after after House Republicans reached an agreement with Democrats on a spending bill to avoid a government shutdown. The far-right flank of the House GOP caucus opposed the bill and reacted with outrage to its passage.  

“…I have reflected and decided that I can no longer be part of the Republican Party,” Santos said in the post. He accused the Republican party of continuing “to lie and swindle its voter base.”

Santos, elected as a Republican in 2022 to represent NY-03, was expelled from the House of Representatives in December after a House Ethics Committee report found there was “substantial evidence” he had violated federal criminal laws, stole from his campaign and deceived donors to obtain contributions he used for his personal benefit. 

He is currently facing 23 federal criminal charges, brought last year in U.S. District Court in Central Islip, including conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, access device fraud, false statements to the Federal Election Commission, falsifying records and making false statements in a House Disclosure Report. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His criminal trial is scheduled for September.

On March 7, he announced he would seek election in NY-01 and challenge LaLota for the Republican nomination.

MORE COVERAGE: Former Rep. George Santos announces his candidacy in East End congressional district

Santos’ “resignation from the Republican Party is good for common sense conservatives,” LaLota said in a statement.  

“Santos can watch me defend this important swing district and the November election results from his prison cell as he’s being held accountable for stealing an election and ripping off donors,” LaLota said.

LaLota was one of the first Republicans in Congress to call for Santos’ resignation. He called on Santos to step down less than two weeks after they both took office in January 2023. LaLota also voted in support of referring Santos to the House Ethics Committee and later cosponsored a resolution to expel him from the House.

The two candidates vying for the Democratic nomination in NY-01 both sought to paint Santos and LaLota with the same brush.

“Whether George Santos runs as a Republican or Independent, this would be funny if it weren’t so serious to see George Santos and Nick LaLota fight to see who is more extreme,” Nancy Goroff said.  “The reality is that both oppose a woman’s right to choose, have failed to lower costs for families, and care more about publicity than getting things done for Long Island families. Not to mention that neither actually lives in the district,” she said in a statement.

“Voters aren’t going to be fooled by George Santos saying he’s running as an independent. George Santos and Nick LaLota are just two faces of Trumpism,” John Avlon said in a statement. “One’s a serial liar and the other is a Trump-flunky who will do whatever Donald Trump says, including cutting Social Security and Medicare, blocking the bipartisan border security bill and attacking a woman’s right to choose,” he said. 

“The fact that Santos says that the GOP ‘continues to lie and swindle its voter base’ is a reminder that for the MAGA crew, every accusation is a confession,” Avlon said. “It’s just another example of why Democrats can’t afford to lose this fight.”  

Goroff, of Stony Brook, a retired chemistry professor who lost to Rep. Lee Zeldin in 2020, and Avlon, of Sag Harbor, a former CNN political commentator, will face off in a party primary election in June. 

With Santos’ decision, the LaLota campaign has been spared the expense and effort of a party primary election. 

If Santos stays in the race as a non-aligned candidate and if he can collect enough signatures to secure a spot on the ballot in the November general election, his presence in the race as a conservative candidate could potentially draw votes from LaLota, a first-term congressman. 

NY-01, which Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) represented from 2013 to 2023, in the past was considered a swing district. The majority of voters in the district voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. In the 2022 race for governor, Zeldin won the district by nearly 45,000 votes and 14 percentage points over Gov.Kathy Hochul.

Suffolk County Republican Party Chairman Jesse Garcia said Santos is “inconsequential to any election.”

“The voters of the First District and all of New York have no appetite for the continuation of the Santos clown car show,” Garcia predicted.

“If he does file any petitions, we will evaluate them and I’m confident they will have the same validity as his degree from Baruch college,” Garcia said. Santos claimed on a resume that he earned a degree from the New York City college — summa cum laude — but Baruch College has said it has no record of him ever attending there.  

Garcia said to gain a spot on the ballot as an independent candidate, Santos will collect 3,500 independent signatures on petitions for First Congressional District in a little over a month, beginning April 16. That’s a tall order for a candidate without any party or campaign organization to back him up.

“He says he’s leaving the Republican Party? I think we threw him out of the party when we expelled him from Congress for multiple felonies,” Garcia said.

Santos, he said, is “trying to keep his 15 minutes of celebrity fame going.”