had been raised in the district but not lived there in a long time, filed petitions to run right before the deadline. Her campaign was well-funded by industry figures, particularly her boyfriend Ryan Salame, an executive with FTX. Bond was widely perceived, according to LaLota, as trying to buy the seat on behalf of her industry. She raised $700,000 in contributions and loaned her campaign $900,000; this was augmented by super PACs funded by Salame and other crypto executives for a total of $3.5 million in spending. "This was a pure power play by the crypto industry looking to get a seat at the table on Wall Street", Figliola said later. Among Bond's supporters, albeit discreetly, was George Santos, the endorsed Republican candidate in the neighboring 3rd district and the winner of the general election there, later found to have extensively misrepresented his personal background and history. His Leadership PAC, GADS PAC, contributed the maximum $5,800 to her campaign (which reports the donation as only $5,000), Santos's sister Tiffany also gave the same amount, and the two campaigns shared the services of a consulting firm founded by a couple very supportive of Santos. He never publicly endorsed Bond, but was often seen with her at events. It is very unusual for a party's endorsed candidate to back a challenger to their party's endorsed candidate in another primary race, even to the limited extent Santos did. Jesse Garcia, the Suffolk County Republican chairman, said later he felt especially betrayed since he had diverted a possible primary challenger to Santos towards a run for the State Assembly at a time prior to the state's redistricting, when the 3rd district included some towns in Suffolk County and Santos had contributed to LaLota's campaign. "I believe he did things to ingratiate himself, for the sole purpose of advancing his personal career at the expense of other members on the ticket", he said in early 2023. LaLota said he was "more than annoy[ed]" at Santos for supporting Bond but decided against making an issue of it during the campaign; he was later one of the first Republicans in Congress to call for Santos to resign once his deceptions became known. Ultimately LaLota won the primary with 47 percent of the vote. Bond finished with 28 percent to Figliola's 25 percent. The latter noted that he had raised and spent just $68,000; meaning she had spent