Candidate Answers to JOLDC: Wei-Li Tjong for NY Assembly District 65
Candidate Name: Wei-Li Tjong
Office Seeking Election for: NY Assembly District 65
Campaign Website: https://www.voteweili.com/
1. Based upon your life experiences and accomplishments, why do you believe you are best qualified to represent your district?
I have lived in this district for over 50 years. I am the son of immigrants who arrived in New York with very little, worked multiple jobs, became public school teachers, and built a life here through sacrifice, education, and community. My story is not unusual for this district — it is the story of the Lower East Side and Chinatown itself. I grew up in the evolving diversity of downtown Manhattan, attending PS 124 at Confucius Plaza, riding bikes through Loisaida, and growing alongside Jewish, Chinese, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Irish, Italian, and immigrant families from every background.
That experience gave me not only a personal connection to this district, but a lifelong understanding of the challenges working families face: housing affordability, immigration, public education, healthcare access, and economic opportunity.
Professionally, I bring 25 years of legal and leadership experience that directly prepares me for legislative service. I have practiced law at major firms, worked in-house at a global investment company, served as an NYC Administrative Law Judge, and built my own successful small law firm from the ground up. I understand how laws are written, interpreted, enforced, and where they fail ordinary people. I believe Albany needs more legislators who can navigate complex policy while still remaining grounded in the real-world impacts on working families and small businesses.
Just as importantly, I have spent decades serving this community directly. For over 25 years, I have helped lead Seward Park Cooperative — home to more than 5,000 residents and dozens of small businesses — including as its current President. That experience required balancing budgets, resolving disputes, building consensus across diverse constituencies, and protecting affordable housing in practice, not just in theory.
I have also already demonstrated a willingness to advocate for reform and accountability through my work as State Committee Member for AD 65, where I pushed for greater transparency, stronger communication between members, educational reforms, and respect for democratic processes within the party. That role has also given me firsthand experience working within the Democratic Party structure, building relationships with elected officials and organizers across the state, and gaining familiarity with how Albany operates in practice. At the same time, serving in a party position reinforced for me the limits of what can be accomplished without legislative authority. It strengthened my desire to run for Assembly because I want the opportunity to move beyond advocacy and organizing alone and directly help shape legislation and deliver results for the communities I have spent my life serving
I know this community because it made me who I am. I have spent my life here, built my career here, and dedicated decades to serving the people who live here. I would bring that same commitment, seriousness, and sense of responsibility to Albany every single day.
2. What LGBTQ+ organizations have you been involved with, either on a volunteer basis or professionally?
While I haven’t had formal organizational involvement, my campaign is focused on LGBTQ+ equity, from protecting trans rights to expanding access to housing and healthcare. I am committed to partnering and working closely with LGBTQ+ organizations moving forward.
3. What press conferences, demonstrations, rallies and protests in support of LGBTQ+ issues, pro-choice legislation, racial justice, criminal justice have you attended, including rallies specifically against Donald Trump and his policies?
I have attended many rallies, demonstrations and protests, including No Kings, No More 24, and Planned Parenthood events, and have always taken my place as an ally to the LGBTQ+ community in my personal and professional life, despite not being as visible in organized protesting as I would like to be on these important issues. I would welcome the opportunity to have your input on how to be better and more impactfully involved when I am in the Assembly.
4. In light of the Trump Administration’s war on women, the LGBTQ+ community, minorities and immigrants, what are your plans to organize and combat the Trump agenda?
In these troubling times, we have to make New York a real firewall against Trump-era attacks by protecting abortion and gender-affirming care, funding providers, and shielding patients and doctors from out-of-state prosecutions. We can also strengthen anti-discrimination laws for our LGBTQ+ neighbors, immigrants, and communities of color, and fully fund legal services so immigrants have representation. Expanding language access so people can actually get the help they’re entitled to and ensuring that state agencies don’t cooperate with federal overreach is also key.
5. Will you seek or accept endorsements from individuals who oppose LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights?
No.
6. Do you support the unrestricted right to reproductive care and abortion?
Yes.
7. Have you hosted, funded or otherwise supported Drag Story Hours in your community?
I have not had the opportunity to do so yet, but would be thrilled to! I am an active supporter and booster of the burlesque, drag, circus and variety theatre community throughout the city, and regularly support and promote queer and LGBTQ+ performing artists. I look forward to hosting and sponsoring Drag Story Hours in my community.
8. How will you work to enhance protections for immigrants and uphold New York’s role as a “Sanctuary City”?
Immigrant communities are the heart of AD 65 and of New York City itself. I believe New York must continue to serve as a place where immigrant families can live with dignity, safety, and due process protections, regardless of immigration status.
I support strengthening New York’s sanctuary protections through measures like the New York for All Act, including limiting the use of local and state resources for federal civil immigration enforcement absent a judicial warrant, prohibiting 287(g) agreements, and increasing transparency and accountability around cooperation with ICE. I also strongly support the Access to Representation Act because the right to counsel is fundamental to due process, especially for vulnerable immigrants navigating an increasingly complex legal system.
Beyond legislation, protecting immigrant communities also means protecting the neighborhoods and small businesses they built. I will advocate for affordable housing protections, language access, healthcare access, labor protections, and support for immigrant-owned small businesses that are essential to the cultural and economic life of our district.
9. Do you support New York becoming a Transgender Sanctuary State?
Yes.
10. If elected, will you commit to supporting legislation that raises taxes on the richest New Yorkers and large corporations in order to fund the services and investments our communities need?
Yes.
11. How will you represent the most vulnerable, including individuals experiencing homelessness and asylum seekers? Have you ever opposed any shelter in your district?
I believe government is ultimately judged by how it treats the most vulnerable. That includes individuals experiencing homelessness, asylum seekers, seniors, people struggling with mental illness or addiction, and working families on the brink of displacement. They deserve dignity, safety, and real support not political scapegoating.
Addressing homelessness requires expanded supportive housing, greater investment in mental health and substance abuse treatment, stronger rental assistance programs, preservation of existing affordable housing, and better coordination between city and state agencies. I also support increasing access to preventative services so fewer New Yorkers fall into homelessness in the first place.
For asylum seekers and immigrant families, I support maintaining New York’s commitment to due process, language access, legal representation, and humane treatment. Many families arriving here today are seeking the same opportunity and stability that previous generations of immigrants — including my own family — came to New York searching for. I support policies that help connect asylum seekers to legal services, healthcare, education, and pathways toward stability and employment while ensuring communities receive the resources necessary to support that work responsibly.
I have not opposed shelters simply for serving vulnerable populations. I believe every community must do its part. At the same time, I believe communities deserve meaningful input regarding siting, scale, transparency, safety planning, and operational accountability. Supporting vulnerable people and listening to neighborhood concerns are not mutually exclusive responsibilities. Effective government must be capable of doing both.
12. Will you sponsor and support legislation which will ensure that state and local resources are not used to facilitate or cooperate with federal immigration enforcement (New York for All Act) to prevent the funneling of people into ICE custody, and the sharing of sensitive information with ICE?
Yes.
13. To advance safety and justice, New York must address our archaic sentencing and parole laws. Do you support the following key legislation: 1) Second Look Act (S.158/A.1283), which would allow judges to review and reconsider excessive sentences by considering if incarcerated people have transformed while incarcerated or based on changes in law and norms; 2) Earned Time Act (S.342/A.1085), which would strengthen and expand “good time” and “merit time” programs in prison that encourage personal transformation and reunite families?; 3) Marvin Mayfield Act (S.1209/A.1297), which would eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, thereby allowing judges to consider individual factors in a case?; 4) Elder Parole (S.454/A.514), which would allow incarcerated people over age 55 who have served 15 years the opportunity to go before the parole board?
Yes to all.
14. Do you oppose the death penalty?
Yes.
15. Do you support outlawing solitary confinement?
Yes.
16. Do you commit to visit constituents who are incarcerated? Will you work to secure the release of individuals who have demonstrated sincere remorse, worked toward rehabilitation and are not deemed a threat to society?
Yes.
17. Do you commit to make applications for clemencies available to your constituency including a link to an application in a constituent newsletter? Will you submit it to our club?
Absolutely. I look forward to being a conduit and advocate for my district constituency in seeking clemencies, if the application to my office were bona fide and in good faith, and would certainly include a link in my newsletter and submit to you.
18. Did you rank Andrew Cuomo on your Democratic primary ballot in 2025? Who did you support for mayor in the 2025 Democratic primary and general election?
No, I did not rank Andrew Cuomo. I supported Zohran Mamdani, Adrienne Adams, Brad Lander and Scott Stringer.
19. In view of the fact that Ed Koch has been documented to have caused the deaths of scores of people with AIDS, excused city council members who voted against the gay rights bill and was blatantly racist, would you support and sponsor a bill to rename the former Queensboro Bridge?
Yes.
20. Do you support naming the soon to be reconstructed 42nd street bus terminal the Bella Abzug Port Authority?
Yes.
21. What is your legislative remedy to secure the building of low and moderate-income housing around the state?
This is a very complex question about which I have thought a lot, because New York faces a shortage of over 650,000 affordable units statewide, with nearly half of low-income New Yorkers spending more than half their income on rent.
We need to focus on three aspects, each of which have pending legislation and some of which need it:
1. Supply Creation
Statewide Fair Share Mandates (S6958 – NY Fair Housing Act) — Modeled on New Jersey and California, requires every municipality to meet its regional affordable housing obligation, with a Builder's Remedy for non-compliance. The most structurally powerful tool available; worth Assembly co-sponsorship.
Zoning Override for Affordable Projects (S4058) — Bars local zoning boards from rejecting qualifying low/moderate income developments unless they can demonstrate specific, unmitigable public health or safety harm. Directly attacks exclusionary zoning.
NY Social Housing Development Authority (A6265) — Creates a state-level public developer empowered to acquire land, rehabilitate buildings, and construct new permanently affordable housing — the long-sought "Mitchell-Lama 2.0."
Double SLIHC — The Governor's proposal to double the state low-income housing tax credit is already moving, but the Assembly should pair it with deeper income-targeting requirements at 30–40% AMI, not just 60%.
2. Preservation
Statewide TOPA/COPA — Give tenants and community land trusts a right of first opportunity to purchase multifamily buildings when owners sell. NYC's COPA was passed by the Council but vetoed by Mayor Adams; a statewide version would benefit communities like Two Bridges and Chinatown directly.
.CLT Acquisition Fund (S5501) — Creates a state acquisition fund through the Housing Finance Agency to help the now 20+ NYC-area community land trusts purchase land and distressed buildings, removing the highest barrier to CLT growth: upfront acquisition cost.
3. Public Land & Financing
Public Land for Public Good — Require state agencies disposing of surplus land to offer right of first negotiation to CLTs and nonprofit developers, removing land cost from the affordable housing equation entirely.
Revolving Loan Fund — Seed a state fund for mixed-income project financing that recycles repaid principal, generating sustained production without annual budget dependence.
Affordable Homebuyer Tax Incentive — Reinstate the Governor's proposed 25–50% assessed value reduction for homes sold to low-income buyers under nonprofit or CLT regulatory agreements, but remove the local opt-in that let resistant municipalities simply decline to participate.
Institutional Investor Surcharge — Go beyond the Governor's proposed 75-day waiting period; enact a transfer tax surcharge on bulk residential acquisitions by institutional investors, with proceeds dedicated to the affordable housing trust fund.
22. Will you refuse donations from AIPAC, SolidarityPAC, police and corrections associations, the fossil fuel industry, and the charter school industry?
Yes.
23. Do you support removing criminal penalties for consensual commercial sex work between adults? Also known as Cecilia's Act for Rights in the Sex Trades (S2513 Salazar / A3251 Forrest).
Yes.
24. There is an effort to have mandatory inclusion of the New York State proposal that would require public schools to teach about the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, commonly described in the bill text as an “insurrection.” Do you support this proposal?
Yes.
25. What additional information would you like the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club to consider when we are making our endorsement decision?
I have lived my life in this district always believing that LGBTQ+ rights are human rights, and as a person who has himself and seen his friends and family suffer discrimination and bias, I will do everything I can to support the club’s agenda in the Assembly.
26. If you receive our endorsement, do you agree to identify the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club on all appropriate literature and electronic materials?
100%!