Snaring the coveted Nassau County PBA endorsement was a huge win for Rep. Tom Suozzi, the first Democrat the organization has supported in decades, especially considering his tumultuous history with the organization and its former president Gary Dela Raba.

The union, which has about 1,750 members, had endorsed Suozzi’s Republican opponent, Mazi Pilip, in February’s special election to fill the 3rd Congressional District seat of the expelled George Santos. PBA president Tom Shevlin told The Point Tuesday that the organization told Suozzi back then that if he won and continued his support of law enforcement, they would reconsider for the general election.

“He went on the floor of Congress and said ‘defund the police’ was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard,” said Shelvin. “That showed us he could stand up to his own party.”

Suozzi said he was “hopeful” about getting the union’s endorsement because he ran the force for eight years as Nassau County executive, as well as the Glen Cove police department when he was the city’s mayor before that. “We battled out contracts but I understand how tough their jobs are,” he told The Point.

The Nassau PBA president said the organization’s support for a Democrat was also a warning to other elected officials: “We should not be taken for granted, we are looking at every person as an individual and it doesn’t matter what party they come from.” Shevlin said police organizations can’t always put themselves on one side of the political aisle. “We need to show Democrats we are not against them and they should not be against us … We need to get back to the days when we are not seen as pawns,” he added.

One example of the GOP lockstep is Nassau’s smaller law enforcement associations, the Nassau County Detectives’ Association and the Nassau County Superior Officers, which announced their support Tuesday for Suozzi’s GOP opponent, Mike LePetri.

Shevlin said the PBA is willing “to take the first steps to have tough conversations” with Democrats and that “Tom is the perfect candidate to do that with.”

Those conversations weren’t always so pleasant, especially during Suozzi’s first term as Nassau County executive when during contract negotiations he blamed Dela Raba and the union’s leadership for bloating the police budget. He said they were “fat cats” causing higher taxes and bankrupting the county. The slugfest with Dela Raba actually dated back to Suozzi’s time as mayor.

It got so bad during Suozzi’s 2005 campaign for a second term as county executive that Dela Raba had billboard trucks circling the county basically claiming your granny will be murdered in her bed because of Suozzi. And for an added touch, Dela Raba had a small plane fly banner ads over Jones Beach that summer which read “Tom Suozzi: Good for the bad guys, bad for the good guys.”

Reached in South Carolina, where the retired union chief splits his time, Dela Raba said he talks to Suozzi now and then but had no role in the endorsement. “But here’s a little secret, I like the guy,” he said.