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.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., echoed Murphy at a news conference in New York on Wednesday, telling reporters, “MAGA Republicans handed Democrats a golden opportunity to talk about the border.
Schumer cited Suozzi’s campaign strategy, which criticized Republicans in Congress for not backing the bipartisan border security bill.
The messaging “shows voters [Republicans are] not serious about actually fixing the problem,” Schumer said.
Schumer also criticized former President Donald Trump, who spoke out against the bipartisan bill before the deal fell apart. "Being a mini-Trump is not going to work for them," he said.
“Donald Trump is a detriment for down-ticket Republicans in swing districts. … The American people don’t want Trump acolytes running the country,” Schumer added.
In a post Tuesday night to X, formerly Twitter, Murphy emphasized his argument that Democrats should focus on the border issue.
"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 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.”