The New York State GOP Poised To Repeat Mazi Pilip Debacle By Nominating Another RINO Candidate To Challenge Gillibrand In Senate Race

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results: for the New York State Republican Committee, that is their mantra.

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Kirsten Gillibrand, the far-left Democrat who is New York’s junior senator, is up for re-election this year.  Under her tenure, the state has gotten considerably worse: it currently suffers from record-setting inflation, rising crime and homicide rates, and an unmanageable illegal migrant crisis that could well be the straw that breaks New York City’s back.  Just this past week, Mayor Eric Adams announced an initiative to pay $53 million of NYC taxpayer money to fund the lifestyle habits – including accommodating dietary preferences – of illegals, who have effectively overtaken the city, as city residents struggle to make basic rent payments while more native born New Yorkers than ever currently languish in homelessness.

And these mounting problems do not even begin to factor in the weaponization of the state justice system – which, acting in tandem with the Biden regime’s Department of Justice — has systematically targeted President Trump and some of his most outspoken supporters still residing behind enemy lines.  The heavy hand of the state’s draconian judiciary has punished those who have exercised and defended fundamental constitutional rights, as well as the MAGA movement more broadly.

Given this historic crisis, one would think it would be a no-brainer to nominate a candidate for the senate seat who best encapsulated the values of MAGA and stood unwaveringly behind Donald Trump throughout his political persecution.  This expectation is fortified by the disaster that was last week’s total embarrassment in New York’s third congressional district, where the handpicked candidate of the Republican State Committee, Mazi Pilip, who did not even care to change her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican before entering the race, unsurprisingly lost to Tom Suozzi, the last Democrat to occupy that seat, by nearly ten points.    

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Whatever his faults, it is indisputable that former Congressman George Santos was steadfastly devoted to President Trump.  Santos not only walked the walk but talked the talk: he boasted the most America First voting record of any member of Congress from New York’s Republican delegation in, quite literally, decades.  

Santos, who impressively flipped a Biden +8.2 district into a R+7.5, a nearly sixteen-point swing in just two years, rigged elections included, should set the model for other Republican candidates running statewide.  That is what common sense would dictate.

But the New York State Republican Party, led by two Trump haters, state committee chairman, Ed Cox, and Nassau County chairman, Joseph Cairo, will have none of that.  Rather than adopt the winning strategy, they routinely do the very opposite — and are poised to do so yet again.

First, they encouraged other RINO New York congressmen, such as Rep. Anthony D’Esposito and Rep. Mike Lawler (neither of whom have endorsed President Trump to date), to cooperate with the absolute worst of House Democratic leadership, such as Hakeem Jeffries, to lead the way to expel Santos.  The Republican Party is colloquially known as The Stupid Party since they habitually eat their own – and Cox, Cairo, and the majority of the New York Republican delegation — personify that notion to a tee. 

They hence stand in sharp contrast with their Democratic peers, who include within their ranks such morbidly corrupt politicians as Sen. Bob Menendez, Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Rep. Eric Swalwell.  No matter how reprehensible the above lawmakers’ ethical and moral failings, however, Democrats always protect their fellow members – which in the overwhelming scheme of things make what Santos did seem incredibly tame, even innocent. 

Because the Republican Party fails to learn the fundamental rule of politics – namely, to reward friends and punish enemies – they constantly shoot themselves in the feet, allowing their Democratic betters to run circles around them.  

The success of Santos’ ouster is ultimate telltale of the GOP’s inherent weakness given that 1) Santos has yet to be convicted of a crime in a court of law; and 2) regardless of that fact, the proper remedy for congressional misconduct in a democratic system, save exceptional cases of criminality (a level of which none of the allegations surrounding George Santos even comes close to meeting), is not expulsion, but electioneering: let the voters decide! 

Especially nowadays, when the justice system is so weaponized by radical agents who freely carry out the marching orders of the Biden regime’s DOJ – not just against President Trump, who exemplifies the paradigmatic case, but against parents who refuse to allow their schoolchildren to be indoctrinated by woke propaganda – and legions of other Americans who peacefully demonstrated on Capitol grounds – one would think Republican lawmakers would now be far less deferential to accusations lodged against their own – and be particularly skeptical of allegations lodged against those with a history of boldly standing alongside President Trump.

But Republicans time and again refuse to grasp the magnitude of our political crisis.  Party leaders like Cox and Cairo, aided by an equally helpless, Ronna McDaniel-led RNC, absolutely refuse to become more strategically combative in defending their own.  As a consequence of this recalcitrance to adapt — which in equal parts is attributed to incompetence, laziness, and being sellouts — Republicans are now on the cusp of losing their razor thin House majority, which has been reduced from seven to six, with Suozzi’s recent victory over Mazi.

This, the genius of Republicans in New York State, who improvidently wasted upwards of ten million dollars on a nonviable candidate in Pilip, so obviously flawed in every way imaginable, when all of this could have been avoided by allowing Santos to finish his term and let his constituents determine his fate through the normal constitutional process.  This solution would have prevented precious time and resources being expended on Pilip’s long-shot candidacy. 

The clock is rapidly ticking. November’s presidential election is now fewer than ten months away. A much, much wiser use of their time and energy would of course be on registering voters and vetting for Trump-aligned candidates across the board: local, state, and federal office.  And if New York Republicans were smart and competent, this would naturally be their focus.

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Rather than losing another seat, the GOP majority in the House would – if it stood its ground and silenced those petulant voices like D’Esposito and Lawler who pushed for Santos’ ouster (or even chose to turn the guns on them for their deliberate and wasteful sabotage) – have a stronger cushion entering the 2024 general election.  And no matter his shortcomings, Santos was aligned with President Trump on virtually every issue that matters: the border, crime, the economy, trade, opposition to reckless spending on forever wars.

The incompetence of the Republican Party in New York State is at an order of magnitude that boggles the mind.  The State GOP clearly prefers to lose, rather than win and thus be given actual responsibility, where they can no longer grift as – what is for all intents and purposes – paid opposition against the Democratic machine that runs New York – a machine that includes Schumer, Gillibrand, Adams, James, Jeffries, Ocasio-Cortez, and Alvin Bragg – that has dealt the Empire State perhaps a fatal blow.

Perhaps Cox and Cairo are masochists. After having beclowned themselves with the Mazi Pilip debacle, just one week later they are poised for a repeat.  It probably aggravates Republican state leaders that they even must nominate a candidate every six years for the senate in the first place.  As has been previously reported, Republican leaders from all 62 counties in New York state will gather on Thursday to select a candidate to run against Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.  

The best candidate is obviously, Cara Castronuova, a reporter for both The Gateway Pundit and Newsmax, as well as “a former two-time Golden Gloves Boxing Champion and head trainer on NBC’s The Biggest Loser.” 

Castronuova has already collected pivotal endorsements from key Trump allies: Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who in his endorsement described her as “THE AMERICA FIRST candidate in this race” and “a fighter who knows how to deliver results.”  Moreover, she picked up another huge endorsement in longtime Trump ally and political operative, Roger Stone, who similarly described Castronuova as “a fearless journalist, a champion fighter, America First [and] fully supports President Trump.” 

Furthermore, on Monday, Castronuova landed the endorsement of the Richmond County Republican Party, whose chairman is Mike Tannousis.  In the endorsement, the Staten Island Party Chairman described Castronuova as a leader “who will address the crisis at the border and the real issues impacting our home communities.” 

But Castronuova has one major thing going against her: her unapologetic loyalty to President Trump. 

In a recent statement, Castronuova held nothing back: ““I’m an ‘America First’ person. I believe Trump had great policies and he was a great president. He’s retweeted articles I have written.”  She pulled no punches: “I’m not wishy-washy. Trump is the leader of our party.” 

She has also notably combined her investigative journalism with her advocacy for the Republican presidential frontrunner.  In recent months, Castronuova has made headlines charging deep into the heart of territory conventional wisdom deems unwinnable for Republicans, such as the Bronx, to poll voters about who they plan to vote for in the upcoming presidential race.  Through his reporting, Castronuova uncovered that many Trump voters do indeed exist behind perceived enemy lines – so many in fact that President Trump even recently teased hosting a possible rally in the South Bronx and other New York City venues in the coming months, likely inspired by Castronuova’s media hits.

While this sentiment will doubtlessly endear her to New York Republican voters, the overwhelming majority of whom support Donald Trump, it also will rankle the Cox and Cairo-led party establishment and their handpicked candidate, Mike Sapraicone. 

A recent dive into FEC records reveal that Sapraicone donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democrat Rep. Tom Suozzi over many years.  Importantly, Sapraicone never donated a single penny, based on these filings, to President Donald Trump.  This might explain why neither he nor the other Republican vying for the party nomination, Josh Eisen, has publicly expressed support for the Republican presidential frontrunner.

Sapraicone and Eisen are clearly the establishment’s two favorite picks, with Sapraicone leading the charge.  As the former NYPD officer was donating to Democrats like Suozzi, who have supported policies that have directly led to the weaponization of the justice department and the flood of illegals now overtaking the state, Castronuova was organizing anti-lockdown rallies in Albany at the height of the pandemic.

As Sapraicone and Eisen have run away from the 45^th President, Castronuova has embraced him, unreservedly, and with open arms – understanding, full well, that President Trump’s fate will determine the fate of the rest of the country: whether America continues as a free nation that protects fundamental liberties such as free speech and one’s right to have autonomy over one’s own medical decisions or bear arms, or one that plunges headlong into tyranny.

New York’s worthless Republican State Committee has done absolutely nothing to reverse the bleeding.  In fact, they have actively enabled it by nominating surefire losers like Pilip and Sapraicone for important races that will have the effect of further solidifying the Democrats’ grip on the state – accelerating the Empire State’s descent into oblivion.  Thus, anyone who they rally behind should be automatically met with suspicion, if not derision, by regular voters who wish to save their state.

Despite all the chaos unleashed upon the state by both parties, Donald Trump, despite everything has had to endure, is polling within single digits of Joe Biden in the Empire State.  That alone should be enough to gauge how to succeed as a Republican in a deep blue state like New York: embrace Donald Trump, wholeheartedly, and stand with him on the central issues that matter. 

President Trump alone showed the pathway to victory – and principled candidates like Castronuova, unafraid to adopt that model, would help move the state in the right direction – over and against the incompetence and corruption of Republican State Party leaders.  This is a do or die moment for New York: they have last week’s example of what not to do by nominating another RINO hack like Sapraicone. 

That is, unless they are hellbent on losing forever, which is the only logical explanation for their actions.  They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  That is Ed Cox and Joe Cairo in a nutshell: God willing, reasonable heads prevail this time around and Castronuova, rather than being shunned by party leaders, will emerge as their nominee for the senate race.

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A slightly modified version of this piece was originally published in The Gateway Pundit, and can be found here.

Paul Ingrassia is a Constitutional Scholar; Communications Director of the NCLU; a two-time Claremont Fellow, and is on the Board of Advisors of the New York Young Republican Club and the Italian American Civil Rights League. He writes a widely read Substack that is regularly posted on Truth Social by President Trump. Follow him on X @PaulIngrassia, Substack, Truth Social, Instagram, and Rumble.