WASHINGTON — Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., announced Monday that he is running for re-election, despite calls for him to resign and ongoing investigations at the federal, state and local levels.
“I am proudly announcing my bid for re-election for #NY03. This is about TAKING BACK our country and restoring greatness back to New York,” he tweeted.
Santos’ decision to seek a second term comes after he has repeatedly lied about his background, both before he was elected last year and since taking office.
In a statement Monday, Santos said that no one said he would win in 2022 because people said it was a safe Democratic seat. But, he said, he won by more than 8 percentage points.
“Not only won but made history as the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress,” he said.
Santos’ campaign doesn’t have much money to spend on his re-election at the moment. His campaign had just $25,000 in its account as of March 31, according to a campaign finance report filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission. The campaign raised just $5,000 in the first three months of the year and spent $8,000 — all on refunding contributions to past donors.
Santos first came under scrutiny after The New York Times published a bombshell investigation in December indicating that much of his résumé appeared to have been manufactured, including claims that he owned numerous properties, was previously employed by Goldman Sachs and Citigroup and had graduated from Baruch College. He has also lied about how his mother was at the World Trade Center during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Bridget Bowman contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
