Thirty years after she was airlifted from Ethiopia to Israel fleeing religious persecution, Mazi Melesa Pilip was elected Nassau County legislator in 2022, according to a new article by Jewish Daily Forward Senior Political Editor Jacob Kornbluh.

Pilips is running to fill the vacancy left by former Republican Congressman George Santos from her district (10). Santos was forced out of office following scandal charges brought against him by fellow Republicans last fall, and a special election is set for February 8.

In 2022, Pilip, now 42, won over a four-term Democrat legislator by seven points amid a red tide that swept over Long Island and helped Republicans flip key posts in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

Democrats are salivating over the prospect of replacing Santos by defeating Pilips and returning Democrat Tom Suozzi, whom Santos defeated in 2022, to the Congressional office he had held since 2017.

Democrats have reportedly amassed in excess of $5 million for the Suozzi campaign — compared with Pilips’s roughly estimated $250,000 — to spend on ads and campaign materials between now and Feb. 8.

Born in Ethiopia, Pilip was evacuated with her family to Israel in 1991 when she was 12 as Israel covertly transported more than 14,000 Jews from that country during a span of 36 hours.

She said government assistance, her years at boarding school with immigrants of other backgrounds, and her time in the army helped her assimilate into Israeli society.

“The beautiful thing about the army is that your background really doesn’t matter,” Pilips told Kornbluh. Everyone is serving one nation,” said Pilip, who trained and served as a paratrooper for almost two years.

Later she earned a bachelor’s in occupational therapy from the University of Haifa and a master’s in diplomacy and security from Tel Aviv University.

She met her future husband, Adalbert Pilip, who was born in Ukraine, raised in the U.S. and had come to Israel for medical school. The couple moved to the U.S. in 2005, and he’s now a cardiologist in Smithtown.

Being a person of color was helpful in pursuing office, she told Kornbluh. “Here I’m bringing something unique to the table. People [have] resonated with my message of unity, of bringing communities together for common cause even when we have different opinions.”

Republicans now hold a 12-7 majority over Democrats in the 19-seat Nassau County legislature: one seat shy of a super-majority.

As a two-time immigrant, former soldier and mother of seven, Pilips says as a GOP Congresswoman she will “bring a lot to the conversation about building a better society and bringing people together.” ##