Tom Suozzi Victory Speech after Winning NY-03 Special Election Transcript

It was pretty cool. You look beautiful. I am.

Go back. Everybody back. Go back. Go back. Go back. Everybody back.

Anything else? Signs down. Thank God.

(00:00)
Let me just enjoy this for one more minute. Okay?

Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi.

You can’t hide. You’re supporting genocide. Stop supporting genocide. Stop supporting genocide. You’re supporting genocide.

Okay.

[inaudible 00:01:05]. You support genocide.

Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi.

(00:00)
Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi.

(00:00)
Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi.

Okay. All right. Despite all the attacks, 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 NASA County Republican machine, we won!

Yeah.

(02:32)
We love you.

Now, we know that this race was fought in a district-

For the last four months, you’ve really gone-

(02:58)
Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi.

I love America. This race was fought amidst a closely divided electorate, much like our whole country. This race was centered on immigration and the economy, much like the issues all across our country. We won this race. We, you, won this race because we addressed the issues and we found a way to bind our divisions. You know, what we just saw with the protest tonight, okay?

(03:45)
There are divisions in our country where people can’t even talk to each other. All they can do is yell and scream at each other. And that’s not the answer to the problems we face in our country. The answer is to try and bring people of goodwill together to try and find that common ground.

Yes.

We won this campaign because the people of Queens and Long Island. Let’s hear it for Queens. Let’s hear it for Long Island. 80/20. It’s an 80-20 district.

Let’s hear it for Labor.

Let’s hear it for Labor.

(04:40)
But the people of Long Island and Queens are sick and tired of the political bickering. They’ve had it. They want us to come together and solve problems.

(04:48)
So, now, we have to carry the message of this campaign to the United States Congress and across our entire country. It’s time to move beyond the petty partisan bickering and the finger pointing. It’s time to focus on how to solve the problems. It’s time to get to work on immigration, on Israel, on combating Putin, on helping the middle class, and in getting the state and local tax deduction back.

(05:32)
Let’s send a message to our friends running the Congress these days, stop running around for Trump, and start running the country. It’s time to find common ground and start delivering for the people of the United States of America.

(06:00)
The people are watching. They want us to start working together. So, our message is very clear. Either get on board or get out of the way.

(06:16)
To the people in this room and to our friends throughout this whole campaign, thank you so much for sticking with me. We’ve all seen what politics has become. And in this campaign, we try to give a vision of what it could be.

Respect.

Let’s take our country back from the dividers. You know that no external force is ever going to beat the United States of America. The only way we’re going to be in trouble is if we let ourselves continue to be divided from within.

(06:58)
So this whole campaign, the whole campaign has been about how do we communicate to people that we can be better if we work together to try and solve the problems we face in our country.

(07:10)
And that’s the message, that’s the message that resonated with the people in this campaign. This was a really tough campaign. And we only won because of that message and because of all of you.

(07:28)
So, listen, do you want to take the country back from the people who are trying to divide it?

Yes.

Are you with me in that fight?

Yes.

Are we going to keep on working until we hold politicians accountable when they just try to use issues for weaponization to try and destroy the other guys instead of actually solving the problems to make people’s lives better? That’s what we’ve got to do in this country.

(07:57)
I’ve got to thank a whole bunch of people. I’m never going to be able to thank everybody by name, Anthony. So, let me just be very clear, okay? I want to start by thanking the Chairman of the National County Democratic Party, Jay Jacobs.

(08:16)
On the National County Democratic Party, I want to thank the Chairman of the Queens Republican Party, Greg Meeks and the … Did I say Republican? I don’t want to thank the Chairman of the Queens Republican Party. I want to thank the Chairman of the Queens Democratic Party, Greg Meeks, and the Queens Democratic Party for selecting me as the candidate to run in this race. I am so grateful for this honor.

(08:49)
I want to say this is the best campaign I’ve ever been involved with in my entire life. It’s been amazing. I’ve got to thank my best friend, the best partner anybody could ever have in their life, who’s put up with so much. Let’s hear it for Helene Suozzi and our daughter Caroline, who worked so much in the campaign, Michael and Joseph.

(09:32)
I’ve got to thank our awesome campaign staff, unbelievable, led by John Goan and our campaign manager, my advisor for the past 23 years, Kim Devlin, and the great Nick Ryan. I can’t go through everybody on the team. You’re all fantastic. You’re all awesome. I’ve got to thank the people on whose backs really carried a large part of this campaign. My friends, the men and women of Labor. I will always have your back the way you had my back. I am so grateful to all of you. I can’t believe how much work everybody did from the very beginning to the very end of this campaign up until just a few hours ago. I am so grateful to all of you.

(10:35)
I want to thank the grassroots folks all over the country and here on Long Island and New York. During this campaign we did 2 million phone calls, hundreds of thousands of postcards, hundreds of thousands of texts, 150,000 door knockers. It’s just amazing how many people contributed to our success at the grassroots level. I mean, it’s so humbling to me to have had so many people help in this campaign.

(11:14)
I want to thank the DCCC for the partnership they showed in this race. I want to thank the Jewish voters of my district who stuck with me. I want to thank the Chinese Americans who helped me in this race. I want to thank the Korean Americans who stuck with me in this race. I want to thank the Indian Americans who stuck with me this race. I want to thank the Pakistani and the Bangladeshis who stuck with me in this race, despite how difficult it was throughout this process.

I know, I know it was.

And the Muslim community that stuck with me in this race. And it wasn’t easy.

(12:08)
I want to thank the African Americans who stuck with me in this race. I want to thank the Latino Americans who stuck with me in this race. I want to thank the white Irish and Italian guys who stuck with me in this race. I want to thank the women that stuck with me in this race. I got to thank Glen Cove. I am so grateful to Glen Cove. I want to thank the grassroots organizations from women’s group to gun safety groups to show to the environmental groups, to the get out to vote groups, to the good government groups. I’m going to leave somebody out. I’m going to get in trouble, I know.

(12:54)
I want to thank my regional captains. That’s why I say it at the end. I want to thank all of the democratic clubs that helped me in this campaign. This campaign, this is just an awesome, awesome experience. And the whole thing is that we took all these different folks with all these different positions and all these different issues and we said, “We can make our country a better place.” And the way to make our country a better place is not by attacking each other and tearing people down. The way to make our country a better place is to try and find common ground.

(13:41)
It’s not easy to do, it’s hard to do. You can’t solve the complicated problems of our country with a tweet or with a press conference or from one speech. It takes hard work over a long period of time with people of good will who are willing to sit down with each other across from the table and say, “I may not agree with you on this, and I may not agree with you on that, but listen, if we work together, we can make everything better for everybody.” Thank you very much everybody. I really appreciate you. I’m so happy. Queue the music.

Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi. Suozzi.

Thank you.

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