New York City Rep Tom Suozzi Announces Campaign For Governor

New York Rep. Tom Suozzi announced that he would retire from Congress and seek his state’s Democratic nomination for governor on Monday.

Suozzi is just the latest Democrat to enter the primary race that already includes Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was sworn in after then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned in August, and the state’s attorney general, Letitia James.

Suozzi’s announcement comes just days after he turned down an offer from Eric Adams, New York City’s incoming mayor and an ally of Hochul, to be his deputy once Adams takes office on Jan. 1. Had Suozzi accepted that offer, the Democrats’ 221-213 House majority would have narrowed even further.

Suozzi, who has represented a northern section of Long Island that includes part of Queens since 2017, is the 18th House Democrat to forgo reelection ahead of the 2022 midterms. A moderate, Suozzi was instrumental in expanding state and local tax deductions in the House-passed version of President Joe Biden’s nearly $2 trillion spending package, a policy that faces sharp opposition from multiple Senate Democrats.

Despite Suozzi’s announcement, he is far from guaranteed to win the Democratic primary. One recent poll showed Hochul trouncing the rest of the field, with James in a distant second.