Delivered by President Stefano L. Forte, December 13, 2025.
Good evening friends, elected officials, foreign dignitaries and fellow patriots. My name is Stefano Forte. I am the 77th president of the New York Young Republican Club and I am proud to deliver my first State of the Club address in front of this sold out crowd in the historic Cipriani Wall Street.
I want to thank our Sergeant-at-Arms, Troy Olson, for the high praise and confidence he has placed in me, and I would like to thank the veteran members of our Executive Committee, Nathan Burger and Claire Walsh, for their leadership and sage wisdom they have so selflessly given since I assumed the role of President.
This club is blessed to have some of the strongest political minds not just in New York, but in the entire country. Please give a round of applause to our entire Board of Governors and Executive Committee.
To our Host Committee, Logan Circle Group, Oasis Cafe, Center for Fundamental Rights, American Principals Project, and the Chairman of our Host Committee, Joshua Eisen, on behalf of all of us thank you for your generosity!
I would also like to acknowledge Alternative for Germany, Fidesz of Hungary, the Center for Fundamental Rights and Foundation for a Civic Hungary, the National Rally Party of France, Lega of Italy, Freedom Party of Austria, our Afrikaner friends and the leadership of Orania, Republika Srpska, and the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan.
I also need to thank my parents for being here tonight. Lastly, to the love of my life, my fiancée Becky, I don’t think I can string together words that can describe how much I love you.
I was blessed to become President of this storied institution on April 9th. No club gets the guests, press, and recognition like we do. Since I put my hand on the bible and said those words “so help me God” I have received more help from God than I am worthy of. In my short tenure we have seen hit pieces, a Mamdani victory, and political assassinations.
We stood strong in the face of left wing political violence when a martyr for our movement, Charlie Kirk, was brutally shot down by a coward’s bullet before our very eyes. That same week we came together for a candle light vigil in Madison Square Park. We didn’t know if there would be copy cats hell bent on targeting conservatives. What we knew was that we couldn’t stay silent, we couldn’t hide away. As a Club we stood shoulder to shoulder with a sea of grieving young republicans who came together to honor Charlie’s memory to say to the world that we are unafraid, unbowed, unbroken, and to say with one voice that we are all Charlie Kirk now.
I think back to the days after the first attempt was made on our President, Donald J Trump’s life in Butler Pennsylvania. How left wing politicians promised the American people that they and their friends in the media would lower the temperature, like every utterance out of their mouth they lied.
The media went full schizo to insinuate that we were Nazis because of our connection to our friends at the most popular party in Germany, the AfD.
The Governor of New York Kathy Hochul called us “Rightwing Freaks” and Senator Schumer called us “Nazi Sympathisers”. Language like Nazi freaks is what drove Thomas Crooks to take a shot at our president, and what drove Tylor Robison to assassinate Charlie Kirk. Innocent blood is spilled when the left and their collaborators in the media distort the truth.
So you want us to denounce the AfD, you want us to denounce our allies, you want us to denounce those that stand with us? Well here’s a denunciation.
We unequivocally denounce the fake news that purposefully distorts the truth to put us in danger.
The midterms are approaching fast, and we need new rules for a new future. The status quo cannot hold.
Housing is unaffordable. Children are unaffordable. College graduates cannot find jobs. Young people are not raising families. And we the people of this great nation have forgotten what it means to be American.
With these challenges before us, the Republican Party cannot afford to launch a senseless civil war against ourselves. At this turning point – yes, this turning point – in the history of the United States we cannot remove our eyes from our common enemy and cast stones among ourselves.
We all know who that enemy is. Do I need to define it? Do I need to spell it out? Do I need to describe who the enemy of the United States of America is today?
I will.
The enemy is who shot President Donald J. Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The enemy is who almost shot him AGAIN two weeks later in Mar-A-Lago. The enemy is who shot and killed Charlie Kirk in Utah. The enemy is who waged a war against us for ten years to silence us, censor us, tear us apart, and destroy our MAGA. The enemy slanders us in the media, throws wide our borders, replaces our native population, and wants to take the crown from Lady Liberty and crush it beneath his satanic heel.
The enemy wants to involve us in foreign wars. It wants to take the money we earn and send it to countries we do not know, where they speak languages we do not speak.
It wants to flood our Nation with foreigners who have no love or anything in common with our country, who eat from our hand and spit in our faces. The enemy wants to take what is left of the American Dream and tear a long, bleeding gash through the Stars and Stripes.
We are not fighting this battle alone, we are blessed to have a fighter in the White House, and although the media will tell you young people are abandoning our President, nothing could be further from the truth.
Mr. President, we are young MAGA and we have your back! This club was the first to endorse President Donald J. Trump in 2024, and Mr. President, the New York Young Republican Club is prepared to endorse in 2028.
This club is the only antidote to Mamdani, this club is the only rival to the DSA, this club is the only organization with the infrastructure and manpower to take back NY. Only our club could have won one of the closest elections we’ve ever seen where our candidate George Sanrantopoulos won his primary by only 16 votes. Shout out to our Campaigns Chairman, Mr. October himself, Mario Nicoletto, and our Outreach Chairman, the Big Cheese himself, Colby Conerly for that victory!
We signed up nearly 2000 members — shout out to Liz Baione and Corrie Newman, our Membership Co-Chairs and our Recruitment Chair, Gianna Prignano. We’ve grown our follower count and garnered millions of social media impressions — shout out to Mary Dugandzic, Dovid Holtzman and Bella DeMatteo for their hard work.
The milquetoast visionless neo-conservative republicans of the past are not prepared for this fight. Only we could sell out Cipriani Wall Street, only we could do 50 man deployments for Frank Morano, only we could launch a campaign to deport Zohran Mamdani. The only way to win this city is our club, our volunteers, our members, and our army.
Our club is preparing to expand its campaign capabilities by partnering with one of our sponsors and awardees tonight, Jason Meister, who is starting the Save Empire State Pac.
For the next generation of Young Republicans, I offer the following rules to guide our efforts to take back New York and our country:
First: Our Lord and savior Jesus Christ said “blessed be the peacemakers,” and we must have a ceasefire among ourselves. The parties must lay down their arms, abandon this MAGA civil war, and focus our efforts where they matter: on the left and on the George Bush Neo-Cons that are trying to subvert our party.
Second: The rules of our coalition are that to join, you must be an American, unabashedly America First, and to put Americans First to Make America Great Again because someone has too!
Finally, we must establish our goalposts. We know we will have won when we feel American again – when our country feels American again.
I would like to thank each of you who came here tonight, to celebrate the most glamorous night in Republican politics, here with the New York Young Republican Club. I want you to leave this room feeling emboldened, secure in our common values, confident in our mission, ready to crush our opposition and build the America that our children deserve – the America that we deserve.
I am proud to say that the state of our club is strong!
God bless President Donald J. Trump, God bless the United States of America, and God bless you all.
Drink up lads, tonight is a night for Americans!
Thank you.