George Santos Drops His Bid for Congress

George Santos is out: The disgraced former congressman has dropped his bid to return to Congress. In a post on X Tuesday, Santos, who was expelled from the House of Representatives (where he represented New York's 3rd Congressional District) amid various ethics scandals including 23 charges of violating federal law, said he was exiting his race to represent New York's 1st Congressional District. He first entered the race as a Republican in March before shortly thereafter switching his party affiliation to independent just about a month ago. In his post, he said that he is only ending his campaign because he realized that by potentially splitting the GOP vote with incumbent Rep. Nick LaLota, a Republican, he might be helping to hand Democrats the win, CNN reports.

"I have meet [sic] with leaders and with constituents and I have made the decision to hang it up here and stop perusing [sic] this race, THIS YEAR!" he wrote. "It's only goodbye for now, I'll be back." Among the reasons he gave for not wanting a Democrat to win: antisemitism. Democrats, he wrote, "have a very large issue with antisemitism in their ranks…" He added that he "will always strive to stand on the right side of history." Santos' federal trial is expected to start in September, USA Today reports. (More George Santos stories.)