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Congress


SEN. CHRIS MURPHY URGES DEMOCRATS TO FOLLOW TOM SUOZZI AND GO ON THE OFFENSIVE
ON THE BORDER

The White House also praised Suozzi’s strategy and said President Joe Biden
plans to take it on the road.


Democratic House candidate Tom Suozzi celebrates Tuesday in Woodbury,
N.Y.Stephanie Keith / Getty Images
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Feb. 14, 2024, 9:37 AM EST / Updated Feb. 14, 2024, 11:38 AM EST
By Julie Tsirkin, Sahil Kapur and Summer Concepcion

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., urged Democrats to go on offense on the border and
immigration in a memo Wednesday to party members, citing New York Democrat Tom
Suozzi’s victory in the special election for former GOP Rep. George Santos' seat
in the Long Island-based 3rd Congressional District.

Murphy, who served as the lead Democratic negotiator on a bipartisan border
security bill that Republicans rejected largely along party lines last week,
pointed to Suozzi’s forceful messaging on the border and immigration, which the
senator argued can “serve as a roadmap for Democrats” in November.




“Suozzi messaged aggressively on the issue, running ads that highlighted his
support for a secure border and legal pathways to citizenship,” Murphy wrote.
“He flipped the script on his Republican opponent, successfully painting her as
unserious about border security because of her opposition to the bipartisan
border bill, and turned what could have been a devastating political liability
into an advantage.”

Murphy acknowledged his frustration that after months of negotiating the
bipartisan border security bill, Republicans in the Senate ultimately knifed it
in a matter of days. But he said the GOP’s rejection of the bill provides
Democrats with a way to counter GOP talking points on the border.

“Republicans can’t claim that the border is in crisis and then vote against the
bipartisan bill, written by their own leadership, that would fix the problem,"
he wrote. "But their abandonment of the bill they requested presents Democrats
with an opening to flip the narrative on the border. We can talk about our
belief in a strong border and strong legal immigration, contrasted with
Republicans’ view of the border as a simple political tool to help spread
hateful, xenophobic messages about immigrants.”

“Quite simply, we risk losing the 2024 election if we do not seize this
opportunity to go on offense on the issue of the border and turn the tables on
Republicans on a key fall voting issue,” he concluded.



In a post Tuesday night to X, formerly Twitter, Murphy emphasized his argument
that Democrats should focus on the border issue.


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"Republicans were counting on the border being a key issue for them this fall.
And tonight the GOP is flipping out because our new winning message is pretty
simple: Democrats supported the bipartisan bill to fix the border. Republicans
killed it," he wrote.

The White House also praised Suozzi’s strategy and said President Joe Biden
plans to take it on the road.

“When President Biden worked with Republicans and Democrats in the Senate to
deliver the toughest, fairest border security legislation in decades, Speaker
Johnson killed it — choosing politics, Donald Trump and fentanyl traffickers
over the Border Patrol Union and America’s national security,” White House
spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement first provided to NBC News.



Bates noted that Biden has vowed to spread the same message, and said New York
voters "proved him right" with the election result.

“Tom Suozzi put support for the bipartisan border legislation — and
congressional Republicans’ killing of it for politics — at the forefront of his
case,” Bates said. “The results are unmistakable.”

Ahead of Suozzi’s special election victory Tuesday night, some Democrats viewed
the race between Suozzi and Republican Mazi Pilip as an opportunity for the
party to showcase how serious they are about addressing record-high migrant
crossings at the southern border, which they said could prove to be a winning
strategy for Democrats heading into the general election in November.

In a memo Wednesday, the National Republican Congressional Committee argued that
immigration was a net positive for Pilip, but not enough to overcome Suozzi’s
other advantages.



“Republicans had one issue that drove Suozzi’s negatives and consumed the race:
immigration," the memo said. "The wall-to-wall coverage of the migrant crisis in
New York forced Suozzi to compete on our turf. But even being outspent
two-to-one, and with our candidate being significantly outraised, Republicans
did significant damage to Suozzi’s image. Imagine what we will do to any
candidate without the institutional advantages Suozzi brought to the race.”

During the campaign, Republicans tried to paint Suozzi, who previously
represented the 3rd district before unsuccessfully running for New York governor
in 2022, as being associated with liberal lawmakers known as "the squad" who
oppose immigration enforcement. But Suozzi supported the bipartisan border deal
and seized on Pilip’s opposition to the measure, casting her as bound to former
President Donald Trump and conservative supporters in Congress who opposed the
legislation.

“Despite all the lies about Tom Suozzi and the squad, about Tom Suozzi being the
godfather of the migrant crisis, about ‘Sanctuary Suozzi,’ despite the dirty
tricks, despite the vaunted Nassau County Republican machine, we won,” Suozzi
said in his victory speech. “It’s time to start working together. So our message
is very clear. Either get on board or get out of the way.”

Julie Tsirkin

Julie Tsirkin is a correspondent covering Capitol Hill.

Sahil Kapur

Sahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.

Summer Concepcion

Summer Concepcion is a politics reporter for NBC News.

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