Current Elected Officials
Lester Chang
New York State Assemblymember, District 49
Lester Chang is the New York State Assemblymember for the 49th district, who unseated a 35-year incumbent in 2022 in the signature win of Brooklyn’s Asian-American Republican shift.
Born on Manhattan’s Lower East Side to Chinese immigrant parents and raised in Midwood, Brooklyn, Chang attended Brooklyn College (BS accounting) and SUNY Maritime (MS). He is a retired U.S. Navy Reserve Chief Warrant Officer who deployed to Bagram, Afghanistan after 9/11, and a member of the New York Naval Militia.
In 2022 he unseated 35-year incumbent Peter Abbate Jr. by 668 votes in the new majority-Asian AD-49 (Dyker Heights, Sunset Park, Borough Park, Bensonhurst). He survived a Democratic-led residency challenge — an Assembly probe concluded he met the requirements — and was re-elected unopposed in 2024 with 97.3%.
Sources
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