Inside the packed NY Young Republicans gala

The line outside Cipriani Wall Street wrapped around the block Sunday night as hundreds of people in tuxes, ballgowns and MAGA hats prepared to celebrate a successful year for the GOP at the 112th Annual New York Young Republican Club Gala. 

Spirits were high throughout the evening – both due to Republicans’ success in New York on election night, carried in large part by President-elect Donald Trump, and, at the local level, last week’s acquittal of Daniel Penny, the ex-Marine accused of killing Jordan Neely after putting him on a chokehold on an F train last spring. 

“Daniel Penny became the folk hero that we need in a post-constitutional America besieged by existential, internal threats,” club President Gavin Wax told the crowd. He added, “Penny received about as fair a trial as he could have gotten in New York City …Thankfully, the jury, a Manhattan jury, thankfully did not buy their nonsense. Four years ago, standing up to this sort of ideology would have been unthinkable, but something has changed.”

(By the way, I – Sophie – was one of a handful of press assigned a chaperone for the entire evening, and, when said chaperone went to use the restroom and Austin and I were invited by another member of the club into the VIP section, I was berated for being away from my chaperone and was called “crazy” by a club spokesperson. But with the rest of the party oblivious to that exchange, the room remained abuzz as speeches began a few minutes later, with chants of “USA! USA!” breaking out at the end of the national anthem.) 

Unlike last year, Trump was not in attendance Sunday night, but he did make sure to record a video commending Wax and the club for their hard work. 

“Gavin has been amazing. He’s an amazing young guy with a big future, and it’s really an honor to just be giving this little salutation,” the president-elect said. “But I feel I have to do that because you’ve been so good to me. We had a big victory. … And I just want to say that I couldn’t have done it without you. You did such an unbelievable job long beyond New York, all over the country, the word got out what you were doing, and I appreciate it.” 

Throughout his remarks, Wax framed the next four years as a new dawn for the GOP, having just endured four much more trying ones for the party. 

“Those of us from the populist right – we have been vindicated,” he said. “We have said for nearly a decade, we must emulate President Trump. We must project strength and confidence that we must never back down from a fight.”

Gavin McInnes, founder of the Proud Boys, a far-right militant organization famed for its actions during Jan. 6, 2021, said that Republicans felt more emboldened than ever after Trump’s win in November and to a degree, relieved.   

“I feel like this is our last kick at the can. If Kamala won, this country was doomed forever, and if America is doomed the world is doomed,” McInnes said. “So it was an apocalyptic election and Trump won, and I'm not naive, but I really feel like this could be a way to save not just America but the West.”

He later compared the surge of Trump voters in New York City to an adulterous partner coming to grips with their choices. 

“Yeah it's like you have a crazy bitch girlfriend and then she goes and fucks other people and she realizes, ‘Oh my god it’s not you, it’s me I’m the psycho,’ and then she comes back home. I’m not sure we should take her back,” he told City & State in the VIP section. 

While the New York Young Republican Club is based in a Democratic stronghold, its members revelled in an unapologetically MAGA flavor of conservatism that didn’t exactly work in the state’s swing districts. 

Rep. Marc Molinaro lost a tight race in upstate New York while attempting to appeal to the right of the party while Rep. Mike Lawler surged to a commanding victory while linking himself to the center. Trump’s hold on the party is definitive, but in New York, candidates display a need to cater to their district rather than to the president-elect. The ramifications of a second term for the Queens native aren’t immediately obvious, but Wax’s assertion of moderation having no palace in the modern party isn’t a fairy tale either, the Empire State maybe just hasn’t caught up to the rest of the country, yet.

Also among the night’s speakers were Steve Bannon, Trump administration adviser Corey Lewandowski and British MP Nigel Farage, but perhaps more memorable were the remarks from Trump campaign adviser Alex Bruesewitz, who collapsed, falling over the lectern and off the stage. British conservative commentator Raheem Kassam, the emcee for the program, soon after told the crowd that Bruesewitz was OK and that his “knees locked.”