Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), a Long Island centrist, is running advertisements standing against extremism “on both sides” as the Democratic Party reckons with socialist candidates running in the party in 2026.
Suozzi touted the ad on X on Thursday morning, sharing it while socialist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, one of the faces of the leftist wing of the party, was making headlines for saying that the United States is “pound for pound” worse than al Qaeda. The two advertisements portray Suozzi as a practical, bipartisan lawmaker, with him voicing over the video saying, “I don’t work for parties. I work for you.”
“While the extremes fight for attention, I’m fighting for you. We must lower costs by cutting tariffs, ending the war, and slashing the debt,” Suozzi wrote on X Thursday morning, sharing the 15-second version of his anti-extremism ad.
Suozzi, co-chairman of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, is running for his fifth full term in the U.S. House against Republican challenger state Rep. Mike LiPetri. Suozzi and LiPetri have faced off before in New York’s 3rd Congressional District, with Suozzi defeating LiPetri by 3.6 percentage points.
The race for New York’s 3rd District is listed as “leans Democrat,” but the Cook Political Report writes that it is “plausible” that the matchup “eventually makes its way to the Toss Up column” depending on how much Republicans pour into the race.
LiPetri is endorsed by President Donald Trump and won his primary by over 64 percentage points. The GOP candidate slammed Suozzi’s ad as “classic ‘Two-Faced’ Tom Suozzi – campaigning as a moderate but voting with the DSA-wing of his party the first chance he gets.”
“‘Spineless’ Suozzi talks a big game on the campaign trail but always falls in line behind [Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY)], [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)], and the [New York Mayor Zohran] Mamdani socialists,” LiPetri said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
LiPetri pointed to votes Suozzi has taken, including his vote against a House resolution condemning “socialism in all its forms” and the Democratic Socialists of America.
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The DSA has become a major flashpoint in the 2026 elections, as several DSA or DSA-backed candidates are running on the Democratic slate in the general midterm elections.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to Suozzi’s campaign for comment.