Tom Suozzi

3rd District Congressman

Call it the power of the comeback. Former Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, a Democrat unseated by Republican Ed Mangano in 2009, lost a rematch bid four years after that, but then won Steve Israel’s former congressional seat in 2016 instead. Now freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) wields his influence from Capitol Hill instead of the county seat in Mineola. He may be in the Democratic minority of the Republican-controlled Congress — at least for now, if pundits can be believed predicting a so-called blue wave of mid-term election voter revolt against President Donald Trump’s policies — but Suozzi is still fighting for his constituents just as hard. As a Certified Public Accountant and attorney who started his political career as Glen Cove city mayor, Suozzi is a pragmatic progressive, espousing Democratic ideals while pushing proposals that are most likely to draw bipartisan support, so he doesn’t spend his floor speeches shouting at the rain like so many congressional windbags that came before him. But it’s his gift of translating complicated political issues into laymen’s terms to woo constituents to his side that is his biggest asset. That combined with his persistence and name recognition should be enough to keep him office beyond the two terms he served as county exec.