U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, a self-proclaimed centrist Democrat who was re-elected Tuesday night despite sweeping wins for Republicans, has called for his party to stop entertaining far-left ideas. This included denouncing support for trans athletes to play in women’s sports.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Suozzi said Democrats need to “stop pandering to the far left” and that the national party’s issue is winning over moderate and independent voters.
“I don’t want to discriminate against anybody, but I don’t think biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports,” Suozzi said, according the Times. “Democrats aren’t saying that, and they should be.”
In a statement released afterward, Suozzi clarified his stance on the issue, saying Democrats failed to respond to Republicans’ weaponization of social issues.
“Many Americans are simply afraid of “the Left” more than they are afraid of what President Trump will do,” Suozzi said in a statement Thursday. “While some Democrats effectively responded to Republican’s claims of chaos at the Southern border, we still ceded too much ground to the Republicans on an issue we could have won. And we failed as a party to respond to the Republican weaponization of anarchy on college campuses, defund the police, biological boys playing in girls’ sports, and a general attack on traditional values.”
Suozzi’s statements follow Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to Donald Trump in Tuesday’s presidential election. He joins many other Democrats nationally who have criticized the Harris campaign for not reaching swing voters and further isolating them due to far-left ideas.
“Going forward, we need to make the case every day that we will fight to give everyone a fair shake and that America is for everybody,” Suozzi said. “We cannot get wrapped around the axle by our base and resistance politics.”
Calls denouncing the party’s stances also included Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat, who blamed Harris’ loss on her stance on trans athletes, according to The Hill.
“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” Moulton told The New York Times on Thursday. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
In Nassau County, where most of Suozzi’s district lies,Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman enacted a law via executive order that bars transgender athletes from competing in female sports hosted at county facilities.
The law has garnered broad pushback, including a lawsuit filed by New York State Attorney General Letitia James and a local roller derby group that has trans athletes on their team.
