Three congressmen from Long Island voted for former Rep. Lee Zeldin Tuesday for House speaker, joining a group of 20 House Republicans that voted to block the election of Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan to the role.
Republican Reps. Anthony D’Espositio of Island Park, Nick La Lota of Amityville and Andrew Garbarino of Bayport voted for Zeldin, a Republican from Shirley who served three terms in Congress before losing to Gov. Kathy Hochul in last year’s gubernatorial election.
Embattled Rep. George Santos of the state’s 3rd Congressional District voted for Jordan, joining the majority of his party.
It has been two weeks since Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the speakership in an unprecedented move for the House. The House was scheduled to vote again on the next speaker Wednesday morning at 11 a.m.
LaLota said on social media that he’s laid out the biggest issues to his district when speaking with potential speaker candidates and that he has been upfront about withholding his support without reliable commitments.
“When I said I’d always put Long Island First, I wasn’t bluffing,” LaLota said in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
D’Esposito said he wants a speaker who understands Long Island’s needs including restoring the state and local tax, otherwise known as SALT, deduction, safeguarding Sept. 11 victim support funding and investing in critical infrastructure.
Zeldin himself said Monday ahead of the vote that he supports Jordan to become speaker of the House.
“With so many pressing issues facing our nation and world, America is not getting the leadership it needs from the White House and Senate,” Zeldin said on X. “I’ve worked closely with Jim Jordan for many years and am confident he has the talent to do a great job as the next House Speaker.”
Santos said in a video online that voting for Zeldin, whom he called an honorable statesman, was “noble” but that the party needed to rally behind Jordan.
