In the race for New York’s third congressional district, Congressman George Santos is getting a new challenger, with Congressman Tom Suozzi announcing a bid for his old seat after an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign last year.

“The madness in Washington, DC, and the absurdity of George Santos remaining in the United States Congress is obvious to everyone,” Mr. Suozzi said in a statement. “Today, I’m filing a committee to run for Congress in November 2024.”

In his announcement, Mr. Suozzi lays out priorities, including cost of living, crime, climate change, immigration, and combating terrorism, adding that “we need more common sense and compassion and less chaos and senseless fighting.”

In the Democratic primary, Mr. Suozzi will face a political activist, Zak Malamed, a state senator, Anna Kaplan, and a county legislator, Josh Lafazan, in what is quickly becoming a crowded primary as Democrats line up to unseat Mr. Santos.

Ms. Kaplan responded to Mr. Suozzi’s announcement by saying, “Tom Suozzi thinks voters on Long Island have forgotten that he abandoned us to George Santos,” adding that Mr. Santos is “embarrassing representation” for the district.

“The Democratic Party is a pro-choice party, and unlike Tom Suozzi, I will always stand up for a woman’s right to choose — period,” Ms. Kaplan said in a statement. 

The race is similarly crowded on the Republican side, with Mr. Santos running for re-election and challengers, like businessman Kellen Curry, seeking the nomination. So far, there are 21 declared candidates for Mr. Santos’s seat in 2024.

Mr. Curry tells the Sun that he expects it to be a busy campaign season, adding that the district is “a place where we can win again but we have to have the right Republican nominee” and that “both parties want this seat.”

“Voters are completely over Santos,” and Mr. Curry says he expects “serious campaigns” from both parties ahead of 2024 and any potential special election, should Mr. Santos have to prematurely leave his seat due to mounting legal issues.

“We’re going to be on the offensive in 2024, and the Democrats are going to be on the defensive, and it doesn’t matter if your name is Suozzi or Kaplan or anyone else,” Mr. Curry says.

The National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman, Savannah Viar, derided Mr. Suozzi as a “Cuomo apologist and third-place loser,” saying he “just couldn’t stay away after his embarrassing loss for governor last year.”

The battle for New York’s third is likely to draw national attention, given Mr. Santos’s many scandals, New York being a key battleground in the 2024 House elections, and that Mr. Santos is facing mounting legal troubles relating to an apparently fake $500,000 loan.

The Santos campaign’s former treasurer, Nancy Marks, pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud, making false statements, aggravated identity theft, and obstruction of the Federal Election Commission. In her guilty plea, she implicated Mr. Santos in a scheme involving falsified campaign finance reports that included fake loans and fake donors.

Mr. Santos faces an indictment of his own, which alleges 13 counts of defrauding donors, committing unemployment fraud, embezzling money from his campaign, and falsely claiming to be a millionaire in financial disclosures provided to Congress. 
At Marks’s court hearings, she described a strategy of falsifying records aimed at duping the GOP into supporting Mr. Santos.

Part of this scheme was fabricating a financial report that showed Mr. Santos loaned his campaign $500,000, a false report intended to make Mr. Santos appear wealthier than he is and to clear fundraising requirements for national GOP support.