Sliwa helps launch Queens GOP club in progressive bastion
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By Ryan Schwach
Guardian Angels founder and former mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa is backing a new Republican club in Astoria aiming to challenge progressive politicians in Western Queens.
The Ronald Reagan Republican Club, which held its first meeting this week, is looking to challenge the progressive and Democratic Socialists of America foothold in Astoria and Long Island City, which are heavily represented by progressive and DSA-backed elected officials. One portion of the district is represented by DSA-backed elected officials at all levels of government.
The goal of the club is not just to organize Republican voters in Western Queens, but also moderate Democrats who may be unhappy with the progressive movement in the area, which has become one of the most successful progressive movements nationwide.
“People just don't don't feel comfortable there anymore,” said Robert Hornak, the vice president of the club. “Our target audience is people that are really invested in the community who really want to see something positive happen and they're not happy with the way things are going and the way that the future prospects of their investment, whether it's business or owning property [are going].”
Hornak, who previously served as campaign manager for Sliwa’s mayoral run in 2022, says the club is a resurrection of an old club that disbanded around the start pandemic.
On Tuesday, the club had an inaugural meeting with around 40 attendees, according to Hornak, with the keynote speaker being Sliwa.
“[Hornak] has an urban Republican agenda that I agree with, it's very much a bipartisan approach to Republican politics,” Sliwa said in a phone conversation with the Eagle. “It's not Trump.”
Sliwa also supports the idea of attracting moderate Democrats to the club and to the New York City Republican movement in general.
“There are a lot of moderate Democrats who still live within that district, but they're the silent minority,” he said.
The club is specifically targeting progressive politicians in the area who they want to “muscle out,” specifically Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán.
"We’re going into the belly of the beast of the Democratic Socialists of America in New York City,” Sliwa said in a statement.
Cabán tweeted Wednesday morning: “The UWS’s most deranged right winger wants to come to Queens and tell us how to live…He’s scared of [AOC] and my vision for democracy, economic stability, and true public safety.”
Cabán also called Sliwa a “deluded bigot” in the same tweet.
“Everyone should be scared of your and [AOC’s] vision for public safety because it eliminates the police,” Sliwa tweetwed in response.
Cabán is up for reelection this November, and Sliwa and Hornak said the club will be working to put up a Republican candidate to run against her.
“We're working very hard right now to reach out to people through all of our networks to see if we can find a candidate to run against her as a Republican,” said Hornak.
Cabán faced a Republican challenger in 2021 and won out the race with over 63 percent of the vote. Ocasio-Cortez won over 71 percent in her race against a Republican challenger last year.
In 2022, Sliwa did win a small section of the Ditmars-Steinway neighborhood directly adjacent to LaGuardia Airport, but two years prior, presidential candidate and Queens-native Donald Trump did not prevail in a single voting district anywhere in Western Queens.
