Rep.-Elect Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) was officially declared the winner just mere days ago in New York’s 11th Congressional District race, though the election, of course, occurred in early November.
She defeated incumbent Democrat Max Rose, becoming yet another of the GOP women who’s been newly elected to the House this fall of 2020—a year notably dubbed “the year of Republican women” by CBS News and others.
Malliotakis, 40, will join Rep.-Elect Ashley Hinson of Iowa, Rep.-Elect Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Rep.-Elect Victoria Spartz of Indiana—among others—on Capitol Hill this January as a freshman House member.
She is the daughter of Greek and Cuban immigrant parents and was first elected to the New York State Assembly in 2010.
Endorsed by President Donald Trump in her congressional run, Malliotakis has wasted no time in making bold media appearances and articulating strongly that she’ll be part of a new alliance of conservatives in Congress right now called the “Freedom Force.” The group of natural allies intends to “fight back” against the policy stances of such far-left extremists as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
The conservative group, said Malliotakis in an interview on Fox News, is “bonded by a love of this nation—and opposes the radical agenda of ‘the Squad.’”
These Republicans value “freedom” and “liberty”—and as Malliotakis also explained during a recent interview on CNN, “I think what you’re going to see is a group of individuals who are going to serve as a counterbalance to the values of the socialist ‘Squad.’ We don’t believe we should be dismantling the economy,” she said. “We don’t believe we should be destroying free-market principles. We don’t believe in ‘Green New Deal.’ We don’t believe in packing the courts.”
Malliotakis added, “We love this nation. We want to see it prevail. We want to see it remain the land of opportunity, what has, in essence, attracted millions of immigrants from around the world, to pursue that American dream … Somebody like me, the daughter of a Cuban refugee—I want to be there to be a part of the discussion and the debate, and to provide a counterview.”
“You have an amazing group of freshmen members of Congress who have stories to share with Americans, particularly millennials—who [think] that socialism is something grand. It’s not,” Malliotakis also told Breitbart. “It leads to poverty, zero opportunity, your freedoms are stripped, your liberties are taken away, and that is not something that we want to see in this country. And that’s why we’re here to push back.”
Malliotakis grew up in Great Kills, Staten Island. She earned her B.A. in communications at Seton Hall University in New Jersey and her MBA from Wagner College in Staten Island.
A coronavirus relief package for hurting Americans—so many of whom have lost their jobs or their livelihoods this year—is a key priority for her as a newly elected congresswoman, she said. “We have a lot of businesses barely hanging on,” she told The New York Post.
And by the way, for anyone who might be wondering: She fully believes in the legal right of President Donald Trump to question the numerous voting irregularities that have been exposed thus far in this year’s election. It’s “a legal process and it’s about the Constitution,” she said—and added that the public must “have trust in our system.”
“This really is about the integrity of our election system,” Malliotakis said on CNN. “And I look forward to working with anybody and everybody who’s going to work with us for the American people, when all is said and done.”
This article was written by Maureen Mackey. She is a writer, editor, and web content strategist in the New York City area.