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Vulnerable Trump Loyalist Congress Member Nick LaLota [1]

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Date: 2025-07-04

GOP Congress Member Nick LaLota–Democrats Aim to Defeat Him in Campaign 2026 July 4, 2025

By now, I think we should know that when Demagogue/Dictator wannabe Donald demands that they pass legislation that he wants, even GOPers who express doubts and strongly criticize laws he wants end up in the end caving to him “big time.” They fold like proverbial cheap suits. Exhibit A. When it came to passing Donald’s “Big Beautiful (No, Ugly) Tax Cut Bill,” extremist Freedom Caucus Members declared their opposition was real this time, but “this time” turned out to be just like every other time. Trump yells, “Vote with me or else,” and they come running. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), considered by many to be a moderate, spoke of being on the fence and having to make an “agonizing” choice about a bad bill, but in the end, joined Donald’s camp. The final vote for this awful bill that adds a horrible $ 4.5 trillion to the debt, cuts $1 trillion from Medicaid, and reduces food assistance will horribly impact anywhere from 11 to 17 million Americans to pay for a top 1% tax cut. Never mind that 64% of the American voters view this bill unfavorably. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/us/politics/democrats-trump-bill.html ,

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/03/us/trump-news-policy-bill

Still, Donald’s House and Senate cultists are always there for him. When the bill came back to the House on July 3, 2025, it passed on a party-line vote.After all, Donald demanded he had to have it by the Fourth of July. Two-hundred eighteen House GOPers voted “AYE,” with only two “Team Red” members, Reps.Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), in the “NAY” column. All 212 Democrats voted “Nay.” https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/03/us/trump-news-policy-bill

Before the final House vote on the “Big Ugly,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), in a marathon House floor speech that lasted more than eight and a half hours, spoke of how badly the public will be hurt by this Trump/GOP congressional action. In his strong comments, Cong. Jeffries singled out by name the most vulnerable GOP congressional members “Team Blue” hopes to defeat in midterm Campaign 2026 by hitting them hard for this awful vote. One of them he mentioned was Republican Congress Member Nick LaLota. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/us/politics/democrats-trump-bill.html

Just who is this Cong. LaLota?

Second-term Congress Member Nicholas Joseph LaLota (47) currently represents New York’s 1st Congressional District (CD). The Empire State 1st CD is located in eastern Long Island and constitutes the eastern two-thirds of NY’s Suffolk County. It includes the northern portion of Brookhaven, as well as the towns of Huntington, Smithtown, Riverhead and the extremely wealthy enclaves of the Hamptons. In addition, the middle class suburban towns of Selden and Lake Grove lie in the NY 1st. Rural farming communities such as Mattituck and Jamesport are also in the 1st. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York%27s_1st_congressional_district

Politically, this is an extremely swingy district which has a Cook PVI (Partisan Voting Index) of R+4. W Bush won here in 2004 by less than one percentage point. Obama won in both 2008 and 2012 by less than five points. In 2016, Trump clobbered Hillary by a 12% margin. In 2020, Biden won the 1st over Trump by just .2 of a point. In 2014, GOPer Lee Zeldin, now Trump’s EPA (Environmental Protection Administration) head, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Zeldin ,

defeated the Democratic congressional incumbent who had represented the NY1st since 2003. In 2016, Cong. Zeldin won re-election by 15.6 points, but in 2024, Zeldin narrowly won re-election by a 4.1% margin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York%27s_1st_congressional_district ,

https://almanacofamericanpolitics.com , 2024, National Journal, p. 1300.

According to Wikipedia, Bay Shore native Nick LaLota graduated in 2000 from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. He served in the Navy for eight years and had three overseas deployments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_LaLota

He obtained an MBA and a law degree from Hofstra University. Wikipedia also noted that LaLota served as chief of staff to Suffolk County presiding officer Kevin McCaffrey. LaLota further served on the Suffolk Board of Elections and as a trustee for the village of Amityville, NY. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_LaLota

In 2022, when Cong. Zeldin, unsuccessfully ran for Governor of NY, La Lota ran for this open congressional seat. He defeated his Democratic rival Bridget Fleming by 11.01 points. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_LaLota

He won re-election to a second term in 2024 against Democrat John Avlon by a similar 10.40 margin. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/05/us/elections/results-new-york-us-house-1.html

In the House, Cong. LaLota was given a near basement 8% rating by Planned Parenthood Action fund for his positions on women’s health in 2024. He repeatedly voted for and backed several extreme anti-abortion efforts in the House. He called the Supreme Ct.’s overruling “Roe v. Wade” a “step in the right direction” on his campaign website, but he was caught scrubbing his praise of “Roe’s” overruling on this website in order to “soften his anti-choice extremism for political expediency.” https://dccc.org/the-case-against-nick-lalota-2024/

LaLota voted for an amendment to the defense bill that would restrict reproductive health care nationally for service members and their families. https://dccc.org/the-case-against-nick-lalota-2024/

Cong. LaLota is a member of the right-wing influential Republican Study Committee and was the first one of vulnerable NY GOPers to endorse Donald in 2024. https://dccc.org/the-case-against-nick-lalota-2024/ LaLota has called for cutting police wages. He even went as far as pushing to abolish the Amityville Police Department. When he campaigns, LaLota talks about public safety and securing the border with Mexico, but he has done nothing to look out for the safety of Suffolk County families, because Trump could care less about any of them. https://dccc.org/the-case-against-nick-lalota-2024/

True, LaLota was one of the first GOPers to condemn the former Long Island Cong. George Santos (R-Imposter), who will start serving a federal prison sentence at the end of this month for wire fraud and identity theft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_LaLota ,

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/george-santos-report-to-prison-date/

Some “profile in courage!” Had LaLota not condemned Santos, IMHO, he would have been a laughing stock among his fellow Long Island constituents. LaLota would have been repeatedly pressed about not addressing this GOP scandal close to his own political backyard.

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