It's the Brian Larra Show on WNYC. Good morning everyone. We've been covering the campaign to replace

George Santos in Congress from New York's third congressional district and we'll continue that now with a look at how Democrat Tom Swazi and Republican

Mazi Pillup are campaigning and compare some of their stands on the issues in

this swing district which includes parts of Northeast Queens, like Bayside,

Douglaston, and Little Neck, and mostly the north shore of Nassau County from Great Neck

out to Siacet, and some points further south like Hicksville and Massapiqua.

The district went for Biden in 2020, but elected the Republican Santos in 2022,

so this is really a swing district, and this special election begins with early voting soon on Saturday, February 3rd, and continues through the actual election day on Tuesday, February 13th.

And of course, there are national implications for narrowing the tiny Republican majority

even more immediately, and as a test case perhaps more importantly on how to

campaign for many many swing suburban districts around the country with

control of Congress in play for this fall. So for example, Pilla is running as a Republican,

but as you'll hear in this clip of her being interviewed on Fox 5,

she recites most of the National Republican talking points but tries to distance

herself from at least one.

If you really see my voting record, you will see I'm all about law enforcement supporting law

enforcement public safety lowering taxes and and is securing our borders. What about

abortion? Abortion, it was a very complex issue. You have seven kids. Yes. I am religious.

Okay. Therefore I am pro-life. However, and I want to emphasize the however here, I'm not going to force my own beliefs in any

woman. It's not going to happen therefore I'm not going to support a national abortion

ban.

Mazzi Pillay on Fox 5 and for Swazi's part here he is on spectrum news New York one backing

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