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A GOP women’s group is launching a digital ad focused on immigration to boost Republican Mazi Pilip ahead of next week’s special election in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
Winning for Women Action Fund, a group that supports female Republican candidates, is launching a “six-figure” digital ad buy, according to an announcement shared first with NBC News. The group has poured nearly half a million dollars into the race.
Pilip, a Nassau County legislator, is competing against Democratic former Rep. Tom Suozzi in Tuesday’s election to replace GOP former Rep. George Santos, who was expelled following a damning Ethics Committee investigation.
“In Congress, Mazi will secure the border, work with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to curb illegal immigration, and stop Tom Suozzi’s open borders agenda,” a narrator says in the 15-second spot. The ad also nods to Pilip’s biography as an Ethiopian immigrant who fought in the Israel Defense Forces, labeling her as a “soldier, mother [and] conservative fighter.”
Immigration has dominated the airwaves in the 3rd District, based on Long Island, as neighboring New York City grapples with an influx of migrants. Suozzi has countered attacks on the issue by launching his own immigration-focused ads, pledging to work with both parties to secure the border.
Suozzi has recently targeted Pilip over the bipartisan border security deal, which has imploded in the Senate. Pilip said in a statement that the measure is “an absolute nonstarter for me because it simply puts into law the invasion currently happening at our southern border.” Suozzi knocked Pilip for ruling out potential action on border security, saying this week that she is “beholden to the extreme wing of her party.”
The new spending underscores how both parties have been engaged in the special election, with Democrats looking to flip a seat President Joe Biden won by 8 percentage points in 2020 and Republicans looking to hang on to their razor-thin majority.
“This special election is absolutely critical, and we are proud to be in the fight to hold this seat,” Winning for Women Action Fund Executive Director Danielle Barrow said in a statement.
So far Democrats have outspent Republicans on the airwaves in the race. Suozzi and aligned outside groups have dropped $9.5 million on ads, compared to Republicans’ $5 million, according to AdImpact.
