Representative Tom Suozzi, a Democrat, will return to Congress after defeating Republican Mazi Pilip in a special election to replace the expelled congressman, George Santos, in New York’s Third District.

The win in a swing suburban district could bolster Democrats’ hopes of regaining the House as the parties look ahead to November’s election.

Mr. Suozzi, who represented the district three times previously before stepping down in a failed bid for governor, framed his win as a victory for bipartisanship.

“There are divisions in our country where people can’t even talk to each other. All they can do is yell and scream at each other,” he said, the Associated Press reported, acknowledging anti-Israel protesters who interrupted his remarks at his election night party at Woodbury. 

“That’s not the answer to the problems we face in our country. The answer is to try and bring people together to try and find common ground,” he added.

“The way to make our country a better place is to try and find common ground. It is not easy to do. It is hard to do,” Mr. Suozzi told supporters.

“Yes we lost, but it doesn’t mean we are going to end here,” Ms. Pilip told supporters after conceding to Mr. Suozzi, the AP reported. 

The race had been closely watched as a test of the political environment in New York City’s suburbs as well as the effectiveness of immigration messaging with suburban voters.

In 2022, the New York City suburbs were a key battleground that ultimately broke in favor of Republicans despite going for President Biden in 2020. In 2020 Mr. Biden carried the state by over 10 points. In 2022 Congressman Lee Zeldin carried the district by 12 points in the gubernatorial race.

Mr. Suozzi has attempted to tack to the right on immigration, attacking Ms. Pilip for not backing the recent bipartisan Senate deal on immigration and foreign aid.

Among the most conservative House Democrats, Mr. Suozzi also sought to show his pro-Israel bona fides in the race, with the Democratic Majority For Israel political action committee backing him in the race, a notable endorsement considering Ms. Pilip is herself a veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces. Mr. Suozzi also criticized Ms. Pilip for her opposition to the Senate deal, which included aid to Israel.

Democrats also moved in the last days of the campaign to associate Ms. Pilip with the disgraced congressman who previously occupied the seat, George Santos.

“The stakes for tonight’s election couldn’t be higher,” Congressman Dan Goldman said in a tweet. “We’ll either have Suozzi, a proven, bipartisan legislator who’ll deliver for Long Island families, or Santos 2.0, who’ll be a MAGA rubber stamp for abortion bans.”

Stitching across the northern shore of Long Island and into the northeast corner of Queens, the district is the wealthiest in the state. In recent national elections suburban voters like those in the Third District have been critical swing voters.

The majority white district also has a considerable minority of Asian and Pacific Islander voters, who Mr. Suozzi courted last week at a Lunar New Year event, where he appeared with Congresswoman Grace Meng.

On election day, which featured a major snow storm in the northeast, Mr. Suozzi was sounding the alarm to supporters about low voter turnout, though. 

Newsday’s Scott Eidler reported around midday that only around 16,000 voters had voted on election day, and that about 700 more Republicans had voted than Democrats. 

Republicans were trailing in turnout in the early vote returns and had to make up in election day turnout. Of the 80,000 voters who voted before election day around 30,000 were Democrats and around 23,000 were Republicans.

Both parties had invested significant resources into the race with Democratically affiliated groups investing some $13.8 million in the competition and Republican groups responding with $8.1 million.

While the investment in the race raised some eyebrows, particularly from Democrats who questioned the party’s investment in a seat that is likely going to have its boundaries redrawn before 2024, losing the seat formerly occupied by Mr. Santos could cause considerable headaches for congressional Republicans.

Last week, Republicans failed to pass an impeachment measure against the Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, because a single Democratic representative unexpectedly showed up to vote that day. Democrats gaining a seat could further strain the Republican majority.

Aid to Ukraine is among the issues where the new representative from New York’s Third could prove decisive. While Mr. Suozzi has backed aid to Ukraine, Ms. Pilip’s position on the issue is unknown and she did not respond to inquiries from the Sun on the question. 

With Speaker Johnson saying that he will not bring the Senate’s $95 billion foreign aid bill to the floor, Democrats have suggested they may attempt a discharge petition, a parliamentary maneuver in which the majority of the House acts to force a floor vote regardless of the position of the speaker or House leadership. To succeed, such a move would require support from nearly all Democrats and some Republicans as well.