Republicans Choose Little-Known County Legislator to Run Against Suozzi

WESTBURY, N.Y. — The Nassau County Republican Committee has selected a little-known county legislator, Mazi Melesa Pilip, as its nominee to run in the Feb. 13 special election to replace disgraced former Rep. George Santos.

Pilip will be facing former Rep. Tom Suozzi, who held the seat from 2017 to 2023, and previously served as Nassau County executive and mayor of Glen Cove, a position also once held by his father and an uncle.

But if Pilip isn’t exactly a household name in New York’s 3rd Congressional District, the panel of Republicans from Queens and Nassau counties that chose her to be its candidate Thursday morning believe her compelling personal story will resonate with voters in the district.

Born in Ethiopia, Pilip, who is Jewish, immigrated to Israel with her family at the age of 12. She later served in the Israel Defense Force’s Paratroopers Brigade, and studied at the University of Haifa, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy.

She later continued her education at Tel Aviv University, where she earned a master’s degree in diplomacy and security. 

But it was while she was still at the University of Haifa that she met her future husband, Adalbert Pilip, an American-Ukrainian-Jewish medical student who had come from the United States to Haifa to study medicine at the Technion, a public research university.

After they married, they moved to the United States, settling in Great Neck, New York, on Long Island’s north shore. Adalbert Piplip now works as a cardiologist, and the couple have seven children.

Before entering politics, Mazi Melesa Pilip served as vice president of her synagogue, Kol Yisrael Achim, and became active in trying to revitalize her adopted hometown.

In her first run for political office, in 2021, she defeated four-term incumbent County Legislator Ellen Birnbaum by seven percentage points. Pilip was reelected to the seat in November.

Though Pilip was tagged as an early favorite for the congressional race, her selection was thrown into doubt when local newspapers reported she was technically not a Republican at all, but a registered Democrat.

Republican officials, speaking on background, said while the story was true, as far as it went, Pilip has run both her political races on the Republican line.

Longtime politics watchers on Long Island also pointed to the precedent set by former Rep. Carolyn McCarthy.

McCarthy, a licensed practical nurse, was a lifelong Republican when, on Dec. 7, 1993, her husband Dennis was killed and her son, Kevin, severely injured, when a gunman named Colin Ferguson opened fire on passengers on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train.

In all, six people died in the attack and 19 others were wounded, but it was the outspoken McCarthy who became the face of the tragedy.

Courted by both political parties, she ultimately ran for Congress as a Democrat, representing the district from 1997 to 2015.

In a statement, Nassau County Republican Chairman Joe Cairo said Pilip’s registration as a Democrat, which was first reported by Politico, was known to party leaders. 

He said they had long supported her because she was “philosophically in sync with the Republican team.”

The party is expected to officially announce Pilip’s candidacy at a rally in Massapequa, New York, on Friday — two weeks to the day after the House voted to expel Santos for allegedly fabricating much of his life story and resume and spending campaign funds for his personal whims.

On Thursday afternoon, Republican House Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and E-PAC, the Stefanik-led effort to to increase the number of Republican women elected to Congress, endorsed Pilip’s bid to represent New York’s 10th congressional district.

“Mazi Melesa Pilip stands out as a truly exceptional candidate and will make the hardworking families of New York’s 3rd district proud,” Stefanik said in a written statemen. “Mazi is a shining example of the American Dream, and her extraordinary story reflects just that. As a paratrooper, mom, and local elected official, Mazi knows how to lead. I am proud to endorse her and Team Elise is all in to help her win NY-03.”

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue