Democrat Tom Suozzi won back his Long Island House seat in a special election to replace expelled GOP Rep. George Santos, narrowing the House Republicans' majority. But how much impact will it have on the upcoming presidential election?

“If I were a Democratic consultant or strategist, I would be taking a huge grain of salt before I base my playbook on this election,” Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, tells the Associated Press. 

In the Roll Call article, “Democrats won big in New York, but what’s that mean for November?,” Reeher says, “It’s really stabbing in the dark to say that this says anything about the upcoming presidential elections.” 

He was also quoted in the Independent article, “Is New York’s special election really a bellwether for November?" 

“My sense is that there are a number of candidate-specific issues and some local context that would make this a tough case from which to conclude much about national trends, despite the fact that congressional elections have become more ‘national’ in recent years,” says Reeher.

Lastly, Reeher was quoted in the U.S. News & World Report article, “Democrats Are Trailing Everywhere But at the Ballot Box.”

"I think that Democrats would be making a lot of assumptions if they, A, took their great joy from this result as some sort of bellwether for November or, B, thought there was some kind of playbook that came out of it" to win races in districts in other parts of the country, he says.