Tribal divisions trump George Santos scandals in knife-edge New York special election

Fred Forgione doesn’t bring up politics with family and friends anymore.

He doesn’t engage with political posts on Facebook, and certainly doesn’t mention hisprogressive abortion views to fellow members of the Knights of Columbus Catholic fraternal order.

“Most of my family and friends are staunch Republicans, I don’t get it. I used to have arguments all the time to the point where I just shut up. I don’t talk anymore,” the 67-year-old retired banker told The Independent in a strip mall car park in New Hyde Park, Long Island, on Monday.

Tuesday’s by-election in New York’s 3rd Congressional to replace the scandal-plagued, federally indicted former Congressman George Santos has largely turned into a national referendum on immigration, abortion, Donald Trump and the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Democratic veteran Tom Suozzi, 61, and the GOP’s Mazi Pilip have spent around $20m on negative adverts that have bombarded local news channels and sportscasts, and even ran during Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Mr Suozzi has tried to paint Ms Pilip, a 44-year-old Ethiopian-born, Israeli-American Nassau County legislator, as an extremist, Santos 2.0.

He claims she is unvetted and untested in Washington DC, and that she has refused to give a straight answer on whether she would support a national bill to protect womens’ reproductive rights.

Republican ad spots have tied Mr Suozzi to Democratic failures to rein in illegal immigration, the dominant issue on voters’ minds in the district, according to an Emerson poll in January.

What used to be a Democratic stronghold has in recent years turned into a Republican-leaning bellwether for how suburban districts across the country could vote in November’s general election. Recent polling suggests the race is