Meet Mazi Melesa Pilip: The Ideal Republican Candidate to Replace George Santos

George Santos was a constant headache for Republicans, starting when he was exposed as a con man shortly after winning a Long Island Congressional seat a year ago.

That continued until this month, when he was expelled from the House after publication of a searing ethics report.

But the mood among local Republicans is likely to shift now that they’ve found what appears to be a dream candidate for the Feb. 13 special election to succeed Santos.

Mazi Melesa Pilip, 44, is a two-term member of the Nassau County Legislature whose life comes out of central casting.

She was born in a poor village in Ethiopia where no house had running water.

She left for Israel at age 12 as a refugee in a program that rescued 14,000 black Jews living under an oppressive dictatorship.

At age 18, she signed up as a paratrooper in the Israel Defense Force.

After completing her service she earned a master’s degree in diplomacy and security from Tel Aviv University.

While there she married a fellow Jewish student whose family had emigrated to Israel from Ukraine and in 2005 came with him to the United States, where he completed his medical studies to become a cardiologist.

Two years ago, Pilip decided to enter politics (“You can’t just complain from outside,” she said) and ran for Nassau County Legislature in the Great Neck area, defeating a four-term Democratic incumbent by 7 points.

She still found time to give birth to twin daughters (her sixth and seventh children) just weeks before the election.

She was re-elected to a second term last month with 60% percent of the vote.

Pete King, a congressman from Nassau County for 28 years, is full of praise for Pilip’s candidacy: “She’s really the American success story, the American dream.”

Tom Suozzi, who represented the district in the House for six years until 2022, is the Democratic candidate in the special and has far stronger name recognition.

But his electoral history is spotty.

He was ousted as Nassau County executive in 2009 as part of a tax revolt.

In 2022 he left Congress to challenge Gov. Hochul in the Democratic primary.

But his moderate platform bombed with the Democratic base, and he only won 13% of the vote.

While Hochul has endorsed him for the special, progressives’ lingering suspicions of Suozzi may dampen enthusiasm for his campaign.

At first glance, Suozzi starts out with a partisan advantage. The district went for Joe Biden by nearly 9 points in 2020.

But Republicans have done well since then running on taxes and crime, with 2022 gubernatorial nominee Lee Zeldin winning easily and Republicans sweeping the county executive, district attorney and comptroller’s offices this year in Nassau.

Pilip represents a tenth of the district’s voters in her current legislative seat.

Pilip has been attacked for lacking experience on the national stage, but as a local official she has worked with law enforcement to reduce crime and battle Hochul’s plan to impose high-density housing on Long Island neighborhoods.

She has also become a source of strength for families who lost loved ones in the October Hamas atrocities.

It “personally impacted me,” she told the Times of Israel.

“And we have to send a message to the world. Hamas is a terrorist organization, and Israel has an obligation to defend its people.”

The campaign will last only two months.

The Cook Political Report calls it a toss-up race but notes Pilip is “a rising star whose personal story would be tailor-made for national coverage.”

Should Pilip win she would have to almost immediately campaign for re-election and in a district that due to a new state court decision could be gerrymandered by the supermajority Democratic Legislature to remove GOP-leaning areas.

But Pilip has already proven she can overcome every obstacle that life has thrown at her.

If she wins she’s more likely to remain a spokesman for GOP diversity than to see her career cut short by computer gerrymandering gnomes.

John Fund is a columnist for National Review and a fellow at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.