Republican House candidate Mazi Pilip on Feb. 13, 2024. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

By Jacob Kornbluh February 14, 2024

Former President Donald Trump lashed out Tuesday night at Mazi Melesa Pilip, the Republican nominee in the special election to replace expelled GOP Rep. George Santos, for failing to seek his endorsement. 

“Just watched this very foolish woman, Mazi Melesa Pilip, running in a race where she didn’t endorse me and tried to ‘straddle the fence,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform, “when she would have easily won if she understood anything about modem day politics in America.”

Pilip, an Ethiopian Israeli, Orthodox Jew and mother of seven, lost the contested race by eight points to former Congressman Tom Suozzi, according to unofficial election results.

MAGA ‘stayed home’

During the election, which was centered around immigration and support for Israel, Pilip refused to fully back Trump or publicly disclose whether she voted for him in 2020. She said she would not support Trump’s 2024 bid if he is convicted of a crime. “Nobody is above the law,” Pilip said in a TV interview. “If he is convicted of a crime, he cannot represent us.”

Trump attributed Pilip’s loss to the lack of enthusiasm among Republicans, and suggested that Trump supporters refrained from voting in protest of her unwillingness to embrace him.

“MAGA, which is most of the Republican Party, stayed home – and it always will, unless it is treated with the respect that it deserves,” he said. Trump also mentioned that Pilip, who serves as a local Republican legislator, has been registered as a Democrat since 2012. She said during the campaign she would change her party affiliation to Republican after the election. 

Suozzi’s eight-point margin of victory was similar to President Biden’s in the district over Trump in 2020. 

Nikki Haley, Trump’s rival in the Republican presidential primary, blamed Trump for Pilip’s loss. 

“Despite the enormous and obvious failings of Joe Biden, we just lost another winnable Republican House seat because voters overwhelmingly reject Donald Trump,” Haley’s spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a statement. 

The Republican Jewish Coalition fully backed Pilip, investing at least $100,000, about half from their super PAC, the RJC Victory Fund, and half from individual donors who directly supported Pilip’s campaign via the RJC porta. Sam Markstein, the group’s spokesperson, said the RJC was “proud to have supported Israel Defense Forces veteran and Jewish Republican Mazi Pilip” and praised her performance. 

Trump has in the past disparaged American Jews for failing to support him and has accused them of dual loyalty. 

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