George Santos for the win

One of the biggest Election Night surprises on Long Island was the eight-point victory of Republican George Santos in Congressional District 3.

Part of that was simply the fact that he flipped a longtime Democratic seat. Part of it was that neither party really expected he’d win. But another part of it was that for a two-time congressional candidate (he also sought the seat in 2020) Santos remains a bit of a cipher.

That seems to be the consequence of a deliberate strategy. As The Point noted in October, Santos has been reluctant to talk about his personal biography. In various forums, he delivered a variation of “this campaign is not about me.” In his Newsday debate with Democratic opponent Robert Zimmerman, he said he hoped the debate would be “about all of you in the room” because “this race is not about the two of us, it’s about you, the people of New York’s 3rd District.”

Santos is a “seasoned Wall Street investor and financier” and “one of the youngest vice presidents in the industry,” according to his campaign biography, which leaves room for interpretation. So does what the Daily Beast reported as his affiliation with an investment firm that “bilked millions of dollars from its customers.” Where he lives also has been a bit of a puzzle, as detailed in The Point in March. His bio says “Long Island.”

His policies, beyond a tough-on-crime stance, have been only vaguely defined. As Newsday noted in its CD3 endorsement of Zimmerman, Santos during his campaign “has pivoted to platitudes and vague promises, with few specific plans or new ideas.” At other times, the editorial board noted, he “avoided taking a position altogether.” And some voters probably didn’t realize that Santos changed his position on abortion from his 2020 campaign to 2022, as The Point explained in August.

One thing Santos has acknowledged was that he attended the infamous “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, which preceded the assault on the U.S. Capitol. He described the crowd as “amazing” and said President Donald Trump “was at his full awesomeness that day.”

Less known: At a Great Neck rally in February, Santos told a person with a camera phone (who turned out to be a Democratic activist) that he had “been working on funding a ton of them to get out,” referring to rioters who had been jailed. He also said he “wrote a nice check for a law firm to see if we can help some of them out.”

Perhaps no one should have been surprised that columnist Lane Filler said Santos was nowhere to be found at the Nassau County GOP victory party Tuesday night at the Coral House in Baldwin.

All of which leads to a new sort of Santos mystery: What company will he keep in Washington as some elements of the Republican Party attempt to move away from Trump?

Given the fish-eye lens trained continuously on the nation’s capital, suffice to say that Santos will be much better known - for better or for worse - by the time he stands for reelection in 2024.