Former Democratic representative Tom Suozzi beat state representative Mazi Pilip this Tuesday in the special election for the third district in New York for the House of Representatives. This means that the Republican seat occupied by the disgraced legislator becomes Democratic.
The battle for District 3, which includes the suburbs of Long Island and a small corner of Queens, became a preview of the political strategies that both parties could use in the fall. Democrats framed the battle around abortion rights, a centerpiece of their electoral strategy. Pilip was born in Ethiopia but left the country at age 12 as part of Operation Solomon, when Israel airlifted some 14,500 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in less than two days.