Moderate New York Democrat Slams ‘Extremists’ Left and Right: ‘Road to Ruin’

EXCLUSIVE: A moderate House Democrat representing a district that President Donald Trump won in 2024 is warning his fellow elected officials, both within his party and the Republican Party, not to pander to the extremes of their base.

“It’s a path to ruin, because too many extremists, too many elected officials, are busy pandering to their base instead of listening to the general public and instead of trying to find common ground,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., told Fox News Digital.

Suozzi said people on the far left and far right make up a relatively small — but active — section on both sides. He suggested it’s a group that has also had outsized influence in Congress.

“We haven’t seen a lot of compromise these days. And it’s all been, you know, one party or the other trying to make a partisan effort my way or the highway,” he said. “I’m sure both parties have good intentions, but this won’t last and it won’t move our country forward.”

The far left has taken control of the Democratic Party platform, discouraging voters.

Rep. Tom Suozzi speaks during a news conference with other members of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus on the third anniversary of the Russo-Ukrainian War, February 24, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Suozzi’s district encompasses part of the New York suburbs of Long Island and also includes part of the Big Apple itself.

But his district is not as progressive as other New York neighborhoods that have shown support for socialist mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani — whose candidacy Suozzi has repeatedly spoken out against.

Suozzi did not respond directly when asked whether Mamdani’s leadership in the city would affect him in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, but he pointed to significant Republican gains in the district in the 2025 election cycle where he won.

“In Queens, in my part of the district, Mamdani lost 27 percent to Cuomo. And also, a Republican New York City councilwoman won in my district, and she won big. And then in my part of Long Island, which is not the city, but right next to the city, Mamdani was used as a weapon by the Republicans in their races, and they won everything,” Suozzi said.

“I was always in a vulnerable district, because Trump won by 19,000 votes and I won by 11,000 votes, and I had to convince 20,000 people who voted for Donald Trump to also vote for me,” he said. “But that’s still the case for me. So even though there were many Democratic victories across the country on Election Day, in my district the results still tended to be Republican.”

He attributed his success to “listening” to voters on both sides and reflecting those views back to Washington.

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani speaks to the media at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in the Queens borough of New York on Wednesday, November 5, 2025. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“The reason I made it in 2024 is because I was supported by the police, it’s because I was clear on my position on immigration, that we need to secure the border, because I’m fighting for affordability. I mean, I feel like I need to do what people are asking for,” he said.

Suozzi admitted that he thought Trump and Mamdani were right to focus on the high cost of living.

“Mamdani was right, as was Trump, that people are economically insecure. They are worried about their financial security. They are correctly diagnosing the problem,” he said.

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“The challenge is what is the solution? I believe socialism is a terrible solution. It won’t work. It has never worked in the history of the world. And it won’t work now.”

But he urged Democrats across the country to continue focusing on affordability, trying to find solutions specific to their districts and at the federal level.

President Donald Trump is seen in the East Room of the White House in Washington, November 13, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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One example he cited is the minimum wage, which has been $7.25 at the federal level since July 2009.

“It’s absurd, 20 states have a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. We should be fighting to raise the minimum wage,” he said.

Ultimately, however, he called for a Democratic Party that moves away from socialism on the national level.

“We must be capitalist, not socialist. We must be mainstream, not extremist. We must be concerned about security, not anarchy. We must be for reform, not the status quo,” Suozzi said. “We should be proud of our country, not ashamed of our country.”