Austin Cheng launches his run for Congress, photographed at his family’s home.
Photo by Matthew McDermott
Queens-born Long Island native Austin Cheng declared that he is running as a Democrat for Congress in District 3 – a seat currently held by scandal-ridden Republican George Santos.
According to his campaign team, Cheng has already secured $1 million in campaign funds. He was able to raise $500,000 from undisclosed sources and self-matched the same amount with personal funds.
Bayside native Steve Behar is one of the numerous candidates that have also launched campaigns for the seat. Other contenders include Democrat Anna Kaplan, a former state senator who represented District 7 in Nassau County and Josh Lafazen, who is serving his third term in the Nassau County Legislature. Former Queens Republican district leader Philip Grillo, who was arrested in 2021 for storming the Capitol in the Jan. 6 insurrection, is also running.
The district he hopes to represent encompasses a slice of eastern Queens, including Whitestone and Bay Terrace, and much of northern Nassau County. As one of the fastest growing demographic groups nationally, Asians also make up the second largest ethnic group in the district. Chinese and Korean were also the second and third most common non-English languages spoken at home. Cheng is currently the only Asian-American in the race.
“My parents immigrated to this country and worked to the bone to give my sister and I a better life– they found their American dream in New York, and they passed that dream onto us,” Cheng said in a statement. “I am running for Congress in the district where I was born and raised to protect that dream, and ensure that regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, if you work hard you can achieve that dream.”
With wide-ranging experience in the health care field, and as a criminal prosecutor in the military, Cheng is taking a moderate stance on issues such as…
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