A House Democrat who represents a district that former Vice President Kamala Harris lost to now-President Donald Trump in 2024 is sounding the alarm about public perceptions of his party.
‘I think the Democratic brand is really in trouble, and it’s been portrayed as this crazy-left, you know, out-of-touch thing,’ Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., told Fox News Digital in an interview. ‘They couldn’t paint me with that brand because people know me.’
Suozzi is well-known in his suburban Long Island district, having been a longtime local official before first coming to Congress in 2017. He did not run for re-election in 2022 but later won a special election to replace expelled former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., and has remained ever since.
During that time, he forged a reputation as a moderate Democrat willing to find bipartisan consensus on issues like government waste and border security – themes he wished his party would take the lead on.
‘When I first started talking about immigration, the need to secure the border, a lot of consultants were like, ‘Well, that’s a Republican issue. I don’t know if you should talk about that.’ But I said, ‘That’s what the people are talking about in my district,” Suozzi recalled.
‘I’m a first-generation American. My father was born in Italy, so immigration is a really important issue to me. When it became such a negative, it was actually painful for me, because I define my whole life through immigration.’
He said people in his district were also concerned about the cost of living, which he suggested was a universal concern.
‘We don’t, as Democrats, focus enough on the basics,’ Suozzi said. ‘It can’t just be choice and LGBT – important issues, but that you can’t build a party around that – so I’m trying to encourage Democrats to talk about things like, how do we rebuild the middle class?’
Additionally, like House Democratic leaders in more recent election cycles, Suozzi also denounced progressive calls to ‘defund the police’ – which he called ‘the stupidest three words ever said in the history of politics.’
He even argued Democrats were on board with cutting government waste, the stated mission of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), though Suozzi disagreed with how it was being carried out.
‘I want to set up a competition between the Democrats and the Republicans. Let’s see who can root out more waste, fraud and abuse,’ he said.
‘I don’t think anybody’s against rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. We just don’t think that when you’re doing it through DOGE, that you should be eliminating the people that oversee the nuclear stockpile, like they did and then reversed,’ Suozzi continued.
‘We don’t think that you should be eliminating the people that are responsible for preventing the avian flu. Which they did and then tried to reverse. We don’t think you should be eliminating the people that are overseeing the outbreak of measles in Texas. That’s not a good idea. But they did. So let’s be smart about these things and let’s, you know, figure out ways that we can actually save money.’
He also called on Democrats to focus more on outreach outside ‘traditional media,’ noting Trump’s embrace of podcasts and social media to reach young male voters.
Suozzi, in particular, singled out Trump and Elon Musk’s appearances on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience,’ one of the most-listened-to podcasts in the world.
‘We have to figure out how we can get the truth out there to people. When Elon Musk or the president or somebody says something and there’s nobody to check it, and there’s no way to push back because nobody– I can’t get on Joe Rogan. I’d love to go on Joe Rogan. I can’t get on,’ he said.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., was the only prominent Democrat to appear on Rogan’s podcast during the 2024 election cycle. Tentative plans for Harris to appear fell through, though she did appear on the ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast.
Overall, however, the New York Democrat signaled he was confident Democrats could take back the House of Representatives in 2026, given the historic electoral backlash to a sitting president during the midterm elections.
It is worth noting, however, that Democrats will be defending more vulnerable members in 2026 than Republicans.
‘I mean, you look at history and when a president of one party gets in power – usually that party usually loses elections the year and two years afterward. So, like, even in the local elections this year, I think you’re going to see a much higher Democratic vote because the Democrats are going to be energized, because they’re all so upset,’ Suozzi said. ‘I think that the midterms will be the same thing.’
Suozzi warned, however, that Democrats’ message ‘can’t just be about why we disagree with Trump and, you know, hair on fire and everybody freaking out.’
‘There are a lot of causes for concern,’ he conceded, but added, ‘We have to also talk about what we stand for. And I think, again, this whole idea of rebuilding the middle class and public safety and strong defense and securing the border – we have to also talk about those things as well.’