Thomas R. Suozzi, 3rd Congressional District

Thomas R. Suozzi

Democrat

BACKGROUND: Suozzi, 56, is also running on the Working Families and Women’s Equality party lines. He is seeking re-election to his second House term. Suozzi is on the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committee and is vice chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers and the Long Island Sound caucuses. He  was Nassau County executive from 2002 to 2009. He also ran unsuccessfullyagain for county executive in 2013. Suozzi ran a losing Democratic primary for governor against Elliot Spitzer, who later appointed Suozzi to head a state commission that first proposed a state property tax cap, which has since become state law. Earlier he served as mayor of his hometown of Glen Cove from 1994 to 2001.  Before elected office, Suozzi a certified public accountant,  worked for Arthur Andersen & Co. He also became a lawyer after graduating from Fordham Law School and worked for Shearman & Sterling in Manhattan.  After leaving county office he became a senior adviser at the Lazard investment banking firm and “of counsel” with the law firm of Harris Beach. He is married with three children.

ISSUES: Suozzi says his priorities are increasing middle class wages, lowering health costs — particularly prescription drugs — and cleaning up corruption. He also said he has strived to be the ”pothole congressman” working on a bipartisan basis to bring back funding for protecting the Long Island Sound, and clean the underground pollution plume at the former Grumman site in Bethpage. He also believes that Congress has to hold President Donald Trump accountable on issues like exiting the Paris climate accords, separating immigrant parents from their children and his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.