On Sunday, New York State Assemblyman Lester Chang, a rising star in New York Republican politics, held a successful fundraiser at Trump Tower after winning reelection against his Democrat opponent in Brooklyn last November.
Another major highlight of the night was the appearance of New York-based attorney and former U.S. Marine JAG officer Thomas Kenniff, who got NYC subway hero and fellow Marine Daniel Penny off the hook for manslaughter and a potential prison sentence last month.
Chang, the first Chinese-American Republican elected to the NYS legislature, has been flipping Brooklyn Chinatown Republican since getting elected in 2022.
His friend, Republican NY State Senator Steve Chan, was also elected to office in the same area and is a former U.S. Marine and NYPD officer.
Chang, a U.S. Navy veteran who served in Afghanistan, beat longtime Democratic incumbent Peter J. Abbate Jr.
Chang first ran for public office in Manhattan to unseat disgraced former Democrat State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who later went to prison for corruption charges.
In 2020, he ran for the 26th State Senate district in Manhattan, losing to incumbent Democrat Brian Kavanagh, but then won his current seat in Brooklyn, where he was raised.
Major keynote speakers attending the event included New York City mayoral hopeful Curtis Silwa, Brooklyn GOP Chairman Richard Barsamian, Manhattan GOP Vice-Chair Robert Morgan III, and Nassau County Chairman Bruce Blakeman.
Nathaniel Gavronsky, a GOP consultant who hosted the event for Chang, was the MC for the event.
The two GOP county chairmen, Barsamian and Blakeman, both gave speeches on the state of the GOP in their respective regions, while Silwa made a speech about his potential second run for mayor of New York.
Meanwhile, Douglas Dechert, a political analyst and media consultant, brought some of the top names in media and finance to the fundraiser.
Some of those personalities included Jon Levine and Kelly Torrance of the New York Post, Tunku Varadarajan of the Wall Street Journal, Connor Stringer of the Daily Telegraph, and Dr. Yusuf Mogalagulu, a financier and CEO of New York Sustainable Energy LLC (NYSEC), a new U.S.-based energy firm.
Dechert also brought Kenniff, who once ran against Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor who attempted to put his client in prison.
“The turnout at this event was impressive, and it highlights the triumph of Lester's strategy of relocation from his native Chinatown in Manhattan to the Brooklyn district that he eventually won by flipping its Asian voters red with the support of the growing Brooklyn GOP establishment—support the Manhattan GOP had failed to muster,” noted Dechert.
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Kenniff is reportedly discussing with people connected to President-elect Donald Trump being appointed a U.S. attorney for the Eastern or Southern District of New York, according to Stringer at The Daily Telegraph.
Both Chang and Kenniff served together in military relief efforts during President Donald Trump's Operation Warp Speed program at the height of the 2020 pandemic.
“The event we hosted for Lester was a great success, with excellent food provided by Trump Tower, and amazing guests from all over the great state of New York. We aim to keep moving forward and reclaim New York to its rightful place as the unofficial capital of the world, one new Republican elected official at a time,” said Gavronsky.
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Mogalagulu, who seemed pleased by his time that evening, said, "I think all of Wall Street should be donating to MAGA Republicans in national, state, and city election campaigns, because their policies will help revive our economy and energy infrastructure."
Chang said he will be in Washington, D.C., over the weekend to see Trump be sworn in as the 45th/47th president on January 20.
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