Nicholas Antonucci is an adjunct professor of history at Suffolk Community College. He has taught at the college for over 15 years. He also teaches at Seneca Middle School and has taught at Sachem East High School, both of which are part of the Sachem Central School District.

This year, Nick ran for US Representative of the First Congressional District of New York. However, he and his team recently decided to suspend their campaign after reviewing the redistricted maps of New York. Nick said that the new maps “placed the base of his supporters” – primarily, people in the Sachem Central School District, but also the Patchogue-Medford School District, Sayville, Blue Point, Bellport, and Bayport – outside of the district in question.

In a recent statement on his website, NYNick4Congress.com, Nick and his team announced “After we received the redistricted maps, we broke down the data, and it didn’t look promising. . . . [W]e do not have the resources to harvest enough primary votes in the new areas drawn on the map.” Nick and his team concluded that their campaign for the First District “does not see a way forward leading up to the June primary.”

Nick believes that the Congressional District maps were gerrymandered to suit the political purposes of the Democrats, who “are looking to maintain their majority in Congress.”  He wrote an article about this in The Suffolk Times, entitled “Gerrymandering hurts our democracy.”

In January of 2021, Nick realized that he might want to run for office. This was after he had written a letter to Congressman Lee Zeldin, current and then-US Representative of the First District. Nick wrote, “The letter condemned Zeldin’s claim that the 2020 Presidential election was illegitimate because state officials had changed election rules to enable voting during the coronavirus pandemic.” Nick further wrote that he had urged Zeldin “not to speak on the House floor to object to the electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania.” Nick wanted him to stop saying that the election had been stolen. Zeldin did not appear to listen, and after the incident on January 6^th, Nick vowed to “get off the sidelines” and run for Congress.

Nick recalls a listening tour he did from roughly February to the beginning of May. During this time, he went around the First District and talked with people to better understand how they responded to his values and perspectives on various issues. He spoke with almost 300 people and received overwhelmingly positive feedback. 

Nick’s three main focuses for his campaign – the “three E’s” – were education, the environment, and the economy. His focus was on working-class families and their struggles; he feels he can relate to the problems of the working class differently than career politicians can (for example). In addition, Nick believes that “the voice of educators is conspicuously absent in government,” and he felt he could add something of value to Congress because of this. Nick’s campaign slogan was, “Your Island. Your Voice.”

Nick remains open to future opportunities to serve his community. He says, “I still have a deep desire to have an encore career in public service.” And as stated on his campaign website (mentioned above), “My team and I are preparing our next steps and hope to share those with [our friends, family, and supporters] soon.” Nick can be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].