NO ENDORSEMENT from Teachers for Choice in Mazi v Souzzi Special Election

Medical Freedom Completely Ignored by Both Candidates

TEACHERS FOR CHOICE will not be endorsing either candidate running in the special election on February 13 in New York’s 3rd congressional district because neither candidate has said a word about Medical Freedom.

The two candidates are Democratic nominee Tom Suozzi and Republican nominee Mazi Pilips (who is herself a registered Democrat).

TEACHERS FOR CHOICE co-authored and co-edited a Medical Freedom survey with Autism Action Network which was handed to both candidates. Neither campaign has filled out the survey nor made any statements about Medical Freedom.

In all honesty we are not surprised that Suozzi and his campaign blew us off, but in the case of Mazi we are extremely disappointed.

John Gilmore of Autism Action Network has been in touch with Mazi’s campaign manager, Aidan Strongreen, for over a month, who has continually assured Gilmore the survey would be completed.

Strongreen was the campaign manager for Nicole Malliotakis, who is notoriously one of only 5 Republicans to vote to repeal the religious exemption to vaccination for children to attend school in New York back in 2019. Malliotakis is also the only New York Republican member of Congress who did not sign on to Rep Nick Langworthy’s letter calling on NYC to answer 8 questions about “Problem Codes” that were placed on the files of unvaccinated NYC educators. These codes serve as a “Scarlet Letter” denying employment to thousands long after the vaccine mandate ended, still till this day!

In this current special election, the last published poll has the race at SUOZZI 48% / MAZI 44% / UNDECIDED 8%.

This is a very tight race, and the forecast for Tuesday, February 13, is either a blizzard or downpouring rain. That is certain to hurt turnout. To see these candidates leave the Medical Freedom vote on the table is astonishing, especially for a Republican candidate in 2024!

Just compare this to the midterm elections in 2022 where Lee Zeldin fully embraced Medical Freedom in his historic run for Governor. Zeldin got on a 90-minute Zoom call with TEACHERS FOR CHOICE and 300 of our supporters, answering all of our questions. TEACHERS FOR CHOICE proudly and prominently endorsed Zeldin, we got in the streets for him and with him, we connected media outlets to support him, and kept our endorsement of him at the top of all our platforms for months helping his historic campaign to flip 4 NY congressional seats red. These 4 seats changed the balance of power in Washington, and Medical Freedom Fighters in New York were a major voting bloc that helped make this happen!

There are currently 9 New York Republicans in Congress who signed on to the letter from Rep Nick Langworthy we mentioned earlier, all of whom clearly understand the importance of Medical Freedom in New York as a voting issue.

We are very disappointed to be forced into no endorsement for the February 13 special election. This is personally very painful for me, as I live in the 3rd congressional district along with many TEACHERS FOR CHOICE steering committee members and supporters. However, we are a non-partisan organization focusing solely on Health and Medical Freedom. We stand with those who stand with us: we don’t give our support away when we get no support back.