Delivered by President Gavin M. Wax, December 15, 2024.
Ladies and gentlemen, honored guests and dignitaries. I am pleased to welcome you all to the 112th Annual Gala of the New York Young Republican Club.
This year, Americans have faced a paradigm shift at the local, state, and federal levels. A recent story that weighed considerably on the hearts and minds of New Yorkers, in particular, was the trial of Daniel Penny, demonstrating the consequential nature of this societal transition.
Daniel Penny received widespread praise from right-wing commentators and activists for subduing a violent delinquent in a crowded subway car. Just four years ago, even elected Republicans harangued pitifully about the plight of criminals, offering crocodile tears about so-called racial injustice, throwing law enforcement under the bus and striving to placate low-grade quasi-socialists whom the post-Obama era’s acolytes deemed the new American ruling class.
Thankfully, times have changed. On the Right, all but the most pathetic figures accept that Penny is a hero. Even many Democrats now accept that Penny did the right thing. Ordinary citizens must stand up for law and order to maintain a free society. Penny became the folk hero that we need in a post-Constitutional America besieged by existential internal threats.
Penny’s example reminds us that we do not have to accept and live with the criminality, degradation, subversion, depravity, and evil in our society.
Penny received about as fair of a trial as he could get in New York City. Even though the judge and the prosecutors—both Alvin Bragg and his pathetic anti-American underling—colluded against him in a craven effort to destroy a young man’s life for sins he could never own, the jury, thankfully, did not buy their nonsense. Four years ago, standing up to this ideology would have been unthinkable. Something has changed. To that end, I want to give a special shoutout to Club member Tom Kenniff, Daniel Penny’s lawyer, who is with us tonight. We are honored to have him as a member of our organization and to have initially supported him in his run for Manhattan District Attorney against Alvin Bragg.
This Club was one of the first organizations to both donate to and fundraise for Daniel Penmy ’s legal defense, and we did not waver in our unequivocal support of him despite many other Republican groups in this city and state staying on the sidelines and hedging their bets. But now it is more apparent than ever that, after years of endless propaganda pushing low-IQ woke ideology, the American people have woken up. They’ve gotten wise to the scam.
We each owe President Donald J. Trump a tremendous debt of gratitude for shepherding us through this civilizational battle. Despite facing constant media degradation, political prosecutions, and even bullets, President Trump relented and emerged more focused than ever on indisputable victory. It was President Trump’s example that gave us hope and strength to keep fighting throughout our struggles, as we struggled against the cultural Marxist agenda in our day-to-day lives. Together, the decent, God-fearing, forgotten men and women of America, and our champion, President Donald J. Trump, broke the entire corrupt system that seemingly had our culture and nation in a death grip just a few years ago.And we must remember those voices on the Right who stated that Donald Trump could not win this election. They argued that the baseless charges levied against Trump, the media-fueled animus, and the growing polarization of the political discourse meant that we should run from the fight and elect a “traditional” Republican who was less controversial and who would spew the traditional GOP pablum about the shining city on the hill, American exceptionalism, and other tired hokum to the masses.
These voices on the Right were not just wrong; they were spectacularly wrong. President Trump went beyond being the most electable candidate; he shattered barriers that few dreamed surmountable. He won every single battleground state. He won the popular vote. He received more Latino votes than any Republican in history. He won more black votes than any Republican in 48 years. He dominated the Muslim vote in Dearborn, Michigan, of all places. And through his incredible podcast blitz, spearheaded by a friend of the Club and member of our Board of Advisors, Alex Bruesewitz, he won more than half of all men under 30. President Trump opened the door for new, previously unfathomable coalitions.
This organization was instrumental in leading the charge to grow President Trump’s coalition. In fact, the idea of a Trump Rally in the South Bronx was forged right here in this very room, one year ago today, at our 111th Annual Gala. That historic rally, which many thought would be impossible to pull off, brought out almost 20,000 people from one of the bluest areas, in one of the bluest cities in the entire country, to hear President Trump speak. No other President has been able to successfully visit the South Bronx to such acclaim and fanfare. Bush couldn’t do it, Reagan couldn’t do it, Carter couldn’t do it, but President Trump did, and he did it bigly. With the help of our friends at the Bodega Association and the National Supermarket Association, our Club distributed nearly 15,000 bilingual flyers promoting the Bronx Rally across the entire borough. We also ran ads promoting the rally on electronic billboards across the South Bronx. And despite the torrential rain, the condemnations, and the pathetic left-wing protests, the rally went off without a hitch. Our volunteers even managed to register hundreds of new Republican voters in the Bronx, building on our citywide efforts to grow the Republican party through voter registration drives.
But even before the Bronx Rally, this Club worked to bring President Trump uptown, to Harlem, to the bodega where Jose Alba once worked. Jose Alba, a man whom the corrupt slimebag District Attorney Alvin Bragg targeted and prosecuted for defending himself against a violent thug. President Trump visited that bodega to discuss the rampant crime wave impacting our city. He was received by massive crowds cheering him, hanging from their fire escapes to see him, and pouring onto the streets to wave at him. No Republican could have received a welcome like that in Harlem.
I want to thank Hispanic Caucus Chairman Argillio Rodriguez and Black Caucus Chairman Adam Solis for being instrumental in organizing both the Harlem bodega visit and the Bronx Rally. In addition, I want to thank Club member and Minority Leader of the City Council Joe Borelli for pushing through the city’s bureaucracy to secure the permits needed to host the Trump Bronx Rally at Crotona Park.
Beyond the urban and minority vote, President Trump also won one of the highest percentages of union voters of any Republican in over a generation. Solidifying the Republican Party’s shift towards being the party of the working man and woman. I am happy that our good friends at the Steamfitters Union came out with their bold endorsement of President Trump, marking one of the first, if not the first, trade union endorsements of President Trump. The Club is proud to have launched our labor caucus in conjunction with the Steamfitters and worked to secure that endorsement. I want to give a shoutout to their business manager, Bobby Bartles Jr., who worked on the Wollman Ice Skating rink as a young man, and Union President Brian Kearney, who are both here in the audience tonight.
The new Republican Party under President Trump is the party of the American worker.
Now, all of these efforts were not in vain. In fact, some of the largest electoral shifts toward President Trump happened right here in New York City. Every borough of this city shifted by double digits towards President Trump. The Bronx shifted almost 22 points to the right, one of the most significant shifts of any single county in the entire country. Queens, President Trump’s home borough, also shifted 22 points to the right, and even here in Manhattan, the borough shifted almost 11 points to the right. Because of these monumental gains in New York City, President Trump had the highest percentage of any Republican in the Empire State in 36 years.
It was fitting that one of the last rallies of President Trump’s campaign took place not too far from here, in the beating heart of New York City, at Madison Square Garden. I want to thank the 200 volunteers of this Club who worked tirelessly to ensure the success of that amazing event.
Now, every Republican who has wanted to moderate himself, to echo politically correct platitudes in a dumb attempt to pander or to waffle on key principles to gain votes, has been permanently disgraced and discredited. Those of us on the Populist Right—we have been vindicated. We have said for nearly a decade that we must emulate President Trump; we must project strength and confidence, we must never back down from a fight, and we must double down on our values boldly and without reservation. This is the blueprint for Republican success. This is the strain of Republicanism forged by President Trump and refined right here at the New York Young Republican Club. And now, there is only one path forward for Republican success, and that is through Trumpism. The momentum behind our movement must not be squandered. Republican Representatives and Senators in Washington, D.C., must know that they will not just be primaried if they refuse to hold up President Trump’s democratically mandated agenda; they will be scorned, humiliated, and permanently disgraced in the eyes of their own constituents. They must wear the Scarlet Letter for the rest of their days for their transgressions against the MAGA movement.
This is not just hot air from aggrieved grassroots Republicans, which has been loud but mostly ineffectual noise since the rise of the Tea Party movement. A new day has dawned. We have Elon Musk on our side now, who represents the equivalent of 7 George Soros-es working on behalf of the Populist MAGA Right. Elon Musk has modernized the infrastructure behind the Republican Party. We are no longer running 20th-century campaigns dictated by the greed of crony consultants and the laziness of paycheck-driven operatives. We are on the cutting edge, running ballot-harvesting operations that are on par with the Democrats. With Elon behind us, Republican Senators should be terrified to go against any one of President Trump’s excellent executive nominees – Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Kash Patel and Pete Hegseth all must be, and will be confirmed. Any RINO Senator who fails to deliver on this should know that they will be electorally devastated in 2026 and beyond.
I was beyond proud of the work of our Club’s Campaigns Committee, which helped make over 100,000 phone calls targeting swing state voters, focusing on encouraging early voting through collaboration with Trump Force 47. This Club was the country’s second-largest Trump phone banking team. The Club also led a 100-person deployment to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where it made over 10,000 voter contacts a week before election day. For these efforts, I want to thank Mario Nicoletto, the Chairman of our Campaigns Committee, for his fantastic work spearheading these initiatives. I also want to recognize our Law Committee Chairman Phil Leggio, who oversaw dozens of young lawyers who volunteered their time to monitor polling places during both early voting and election day, helping to ensure fair and transparent elections.
So, in conclusion, the state of this 1,600-person and 113-year-old club is strong. We have the highest membership number in decades thanks to the great work of Membership Chairwoman Corrie Newman and Recruitment Chairwoman Gianna Prignano.
This gala is a testament to our Club’s success. To that end, I must give special thanks to my entire Executive Committee and Board of Governors, but specifically to our Gala Chairman Brent Morden, for all the hard work he has put in to make this event a success.
I also would like to recognize three members of the Board of Governors who will depart from the Club’s leadership at the conclusion of their term. Our Executive Secretary, Vish Burra, my longtime friend and colleague, who helped us take over this Club five years ago and turn it into the organization it is today. As well as Ilana Marcus, our Corresponding Secretary, who has served the Club with distinction for 5 years, and her amazing boyfriend Jude Somefun, our Philanthropy Chairman. You have all been instrumental parts of this organization and will be missed.
Now, the future of MAGA is being forged before our very eyes. All the strife and heartache we experienced over the past four years was more than worth it. The MAGA movement now has total dominance over Republican politics. We have proven the doubters wrong. They stand on the wrong side of history—nullified, broken, and irrelevant. We stand on the right side of history—battle-tested, valiant, and ready to dominate. Over the next four years, we will make our enemies afraid again. We will seek and gain our retribution by making America prosperous, safe, and strong again. And we will make America greater than it has ever been for all the future generations of Americans. Thank you all, and God bless you!