(Bloomberg) -- Former Republican elected officials including ex-Staten Island Congresswoman Susan Molinari crossed party lines to endorse the Democratic challenger to Representative Nick LaLota in a key US House race on eastern Long Island.
Their support potentially boosts former CNN political analyst John Avlon’s appeal to political moderates in his bid to wrest a seat Democrats see as crucial to winning back the House majority.
Avlon depicted Molinari’s and former Congressman Adam Kinzinger’s cross-over endorsements — among a group of others who include former Massachusetts GOP Governor William Weld — as reflective of his aim to “rebuild the middle of our politics.”
LaLota’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
LaLota is more conservative than the four other freshmen New York City-region Republicans swept into Congress in the 2022 midterm elections but more moderate than most House Republicans, according to the Lugar Center and Georgetown University. A fifth Republican from a Long Island and Queens area district elected in 2022, George Santos, is no longer in Congress, and that seat is now represented by a Democrat.
LaLota ranked 34th among House Republicans in 2023 on an index of bipartisanship jointly prepared by Lugar and Georgetown.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the New York race as potentially competitive but “likely Republican.” On Wednesday, the party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, rallied supporters nearby, at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.
Molinari is politically prominent in the region. Her father, Guy Molinari, also served as a congressman and Staten Island borough president, and she served in Congress from March 1990 to August 1997, including a stint as the House Republican conference vice chairwoman.
“In an age of division, John will help us rise past partisanship and will always put Suffolk County first,” Molinari said, in a statement provided by the Avlon campaign.
Molinari also is part of a coalition of Republicans supporting Democrat Kamala Harris for President. They backed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
Kinzinger has been dogged critic of Trump. Before leaving Congress, he was one of only two Republicans who served on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol.
(Updates with additional detail in fifth paragraph)
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