Rep. George Santos information 2024 assertion of candidacy — but it surely doesn’t suggest he is operating for reelection

Embattled Republican Rep. George Santos of New York took a step Tuesday towards a attainable bid for a second time period within the Home, the place he’s at the moment below investigation.

Santos’ marketing campaign filed an announcement of candidacy for the 2024 election cycle with the Federal Election Fee, a transfer that might sign the freshman lawmaker’s intent to run for reelection.

However the submitting doesn’t assure Santos, who has been denounced by some in his personal social gathering and embroiled in a flurry of investigations, will search one other time period in Congress. After successful his seat, the New York Occasions reported that Santos appeared to have fabricated key particulars of his background. He later admitted to mendacity about his biography whereas he was campaigning for workplace.

Santos was required to file the shape by Tuesday’s deadline with a purpose to preserve a few of his marketing campaign’s contributions that got here after the 2022 cycle and proceed fundraising. The FEC warned final month that Santos would both should make a proper declaration of his candidacy or else “disavow” his fundraising actions.

“It doesn’t essentially imply he’s operating — it simply means his marketing campaign committee is elevating cash,” Brendan Quinn, senior communications supervisor for the Marketing campaign Authorized Middle, instructed CNBC in an e mail.

Santos’ reelection plans stay opaque. He reportedly instructed New York Republican leaders late final 12 months that he would not search one other time period in workplace, however since coming into Congress has adopted a extra defiant tone and has reportedly began telling folks he’ll run once more.

“Rep. Santos’ marketing campaign group has filed his assertion of candidacy as required by the FEC,” Santos mentioned in an announcement shared with CNBC by a textual content from the congressman’s lawyer, Joseph Murray. “No additional feedback can be supplied immediately.”

Santos was sworn into Congress below a cloud of scandal earlier this 12 months, after the bombshell New York Occasions report questioned key particulars about his private {and professional} life. Santos later admitted “embellishing” his resume however denied different wrongdoing. As Santos got here below better scrutiny, extra damning accusations got here out, together with that he made off with funds that had been raised for a disabled veteran’s dying canine and, most lately, that he was concerned in a bank card skimming scheme. Santos has denied each allegations.

Earlier this month, the Home Ethics panel appointed a subcommittee to research whether or not Santos engaged in illegal marketing campaign exercise, and whether or not he violated federal battle of curiosity legal guidelines. The subcommittee can be trying into an allegation of sexual misconduct by a former volunteer on his workers.

Santos has been inundated with requires his resignation, together with from high New York Republicans round Santos’ Nassau County-area congressional district and a few GOP members of Congress. Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who leads a slim Republican majority in his chamber, has not joined these calls.

Santos has vowed to serve out his full time period, saying the voters of his district ought to get the ultimate say on whether or not he stays in Congress or leaves. A Siena Faculty ballot carried out in January discovered that Santos’ constituents overwhelmingly need him to resign.

Within the meantime, Santos has eliminated himself from the 2 Home committees to which he was assigned till the “distraction” of the quite a few investigations into his marketing campaign and private funds have subsided.