Former Rep. George Santos, the scandal-plagued New York Republican-turned-independent, announced Tuesday he is withdrawing from his independent run for Congress in November following his expulsion from the House of Representatives last December.
Though he’s ending his bid to reenter Congress, ex-Rep. George Santos said he will “continue to ... [+]
Santos said on X, formerly known as Twitter, he is withdrawing in an effort to avoid splitting the ticket and being “responsible for handing the house to (Democrats).”
Santos, who previously represented New York’s 3rd District and was only the sixth member of the House of Representatives to ever be expelled, said if he stayed in the race—in which he was running against incumbent Republican Nick LaLota and Democrats Nancy Goroff and John Avlon—it would “all but guarantee” the Democrats win.
Santos isn’t leaving politics, though, saying in the post on X he will “continue to participate in the public policy discussion and will do my part” and that “it’s only goodbye for now, I’ll be back.”
$0. That’s how much Santos had raised in his campaign, New York Spectrum News reported.
Santos announced his campaign in early March during the State of the Union. When announcing, he said “New York hasn’t had a real conservative represent them since I left office arbitrarily, thanks to RINO, empty suits” like LaLota, who voted in favor of expelling Santos in December. After just two weeks campaigning as a Republican, Santos announced he would be running as an independent because he could “no longer be part of the Republican Party,” seemingly referring to the House's passing of a bipartisan funding bill to avoid a government shutdown, before adding: “I will take my Ultra MAGA/Trump supporting values to the ballot in November as an Independent.” He was expelled from Congress in December after a scathing ethics report that alleged he “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.” Santos was also indicted last year and has pleaded not guilty to 13 charges of fraud and money laundering and not guilty to an additional 10 charges tacked on alleging he was part of two schemes that involved the stealing of donors’ identities and financial information.