Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway belabored Mazi Pilip’s loss in a New York House special election Tuesday, saying the GOP candidate was made to be “political roadkill” by a poorly-run campaign.
Pilip lost the Long Island race to fill former Rep. George Santos’s (R) seat to former Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) by a 7-point margin, a higher gap than anticipated. The race increases momentum for Democrats for November, when New York is slated to be a key battleground in the battle for the House.
Conway told Fox News’s Dana Perino on Wednesday that Pilip could still have a future as a GOP candidate “if she stops being wishy-washy on where she is on the leader of the party and the presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.”
“If she wants to distance herself from him, she can. If she wants to embrace him, she can. But when you sit in the middle of the highway, you become political roadkill,” Conway said. “And these people who are told by their consultants, distance yourself from Trump, and then Trump somehow is to blame for it.”
Former President Trump denounced Pilip as “foolish” after her defeat Tuesday, saying she would have found more success if she clung to him instead of “straddling the fence.” Pilip never endorsed Trump, selling herself as a moderate. She was registered as a Democrat until 2012.
Conway also complimented Suozzi’s campaign while noting that Republicans could learn lessons from the defeat. She acknowledged his overperformance with early voters and criticism of Biden administration immigration policy as boons to his campaign.
“You have to run a real grown-up campaign. Suozzi did two things that were smart that the Republicans better learn from. No. 1, early voting,” she said. “The weather yesterday in New York proves this: Bank your vote early. Getting that early vote and making Republican voters comfortable — center-right voters comfortable — with voting early is incredibly important.”
“No. 2, Suozzi, instead of lying like every other Democrat is doing, … he said, ‘I better go against my party on the border,’” she continued. “And he did it; paid advertising, mailers, press conferences, public appeals. So he is showing the Democrats how to run on the border.”
Conway said Republicans can and should take a page out of Suozzi’s playbook for 2024 by turning his approach to immigration into their approach on abortion in swing districts.
“I think the Republicans should do the same thing with abortion. Instead of being ostriches and pretending with their head in the sand, they should be peacocks and say, ‘Look, this is what it means to be pro-life in 2024 and pro-choice in 2024,’” she said.
“Instead of hiding, own it and message it,” she continued. “I think he did a great job on that going against his party. Let’s see how many Democrats follow suit.”