Grace Meng endorses Weihua Yan for county

BY KARINA KOVAC

Queens Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) has officially endorsed entrepreneur Weihua Yan for the position of Nassau County Legislator for District 10. He’ll become the first Asian-American in the Legislature if elected and is running against Republican Mazi Melesa Pilip.

Yan, a Great Neck resident himself, brings to the table entrepreneurial experience as the founder of software and e-commerce companies. He serves as a partner at Rise Capital and as the chief technology officer at Wonder, Inc., a food delivery platform that connects top chefs from renowned restaurants with customers at home.

Meng, who has been a prominent figure in public service representing the Asian-American community in northeast Queens and at the national level, said Great Neck prosperity is personal to her, mentioning her father’s work in a Chinese restaurant nearby and her parents-in-law’s residence in Manhasset for two decades. Meng stressed the importance of giving a voice to the Asian-American community, especially considering the challenges it has faced in recent years through bigotry and violence.

“This is sort of a test for AsianAmerican community, right?” said Meng. “Our population outweighs our electorate numbers here in this district and here in Nassau County. And one of the best ways that we can prove that our voice matters, and that we should have a say in the seat of county government is to make sure we are getting new people to register and to come out for Weihau. People might look at the numbers of our community and say, well, they don’t really hold. We don’t want to pay attention to them. And the best way to refute that is to prove them wrong.”

Meng and Yan worked together attending rallies and protests in the community and want to continue working together while in the federal and local governments, respectively. Meng said Yan has exceptional skills in building alliances with other communities, such as the Jewish community, which helped them pass the Covid-19