Area Native Backed By Republicans For Congress

Left, Rep. Tom Suozzi. Right, Dan DeBono

By Connor Beach
cbeach@longislandergroup.com

A Republican challenger has emerged in the campaign for control of New York’s Third Congressional District.

The district, which stretches from the Town of Huntington in the east to parts of Queens in the west, is currently manned by Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-Huntington).

Republican challenger Dan DeBono, of Northport, has garnered support from the Republican committees of Nassau, Suffolk and Queens.

Suffolk County Republican Committee Chairman John LaValle said, “He is someone who has always been a leader.”

DeBono, a U.S. Navy veteran with 20 years of experience in finance and investing, said he’s dreamt of running for office ever since he was a child.

“This, for me, was another call to duty,” said DeBono, 49. “I saw a leadership vacuum, and I’m hoping to fill that leadership vacuum.”

DeBono graduated from Northport High School and went on to Holy Cross College in Massachusetts on a Navy ROTC scholarship. He earned a degree in mathematics.

He then joined the Navy during the first Gulf War, serving four years with SEAL Team Two based in Norfolk, Virginia.

He served overseas in Bosnia before attending University of Chicago where he earned a master’s degree in business administration.

Since, he’s worked 20 years in the financial sector, currently operating a small, Manhattan-based investment company.

DeBono said he decided to run for Congress because the government is favoring big corporations at the expense of middle-class families.

“At the same time that the government is handing out subsidies in corporate welfare they are coming down on the middle class and the struggling, telling them, ‘Too bad,’” DeBono said. “It’s about the middle class, the middle class struggle, the government response to the struggle and the continued coddling of big corporate America.”

With his business experience, DeBono said, he has a unique perspective as to why the middle class is struggling.

Incumbent Suozzi, in his first bid for Congress, defeated Republican Jack Martins by more than 14,000 votes in 2016.

Suozzi, who has not officially announced a campaign for re-election, may face a Democratic primary as Joshua Sauberman, a former policy analyst for the United Nations, has already launched a campaign.

A statement from Kim Devlin, a political advisor for Suozzi, did not directly comment on DeBono’s campaign, but said, “Congressman Suozzi is honored and humbled to serve as a member of Congress, but he knows Washington is broken.

“Tom hears every month at his town halls that his constituents are happy that he is working across party lines on national issues like health care, the environment, immigration, gun violence, supporting our military and foreign affairs and that is what he will continue to do.”