Council members don’t run as members of a political party, so Wang didn’t appear on the ballot as a Republican when he won his council seat in 2022, becoming the city’s first Chinese-American council member. That’s not to say Wang hasn’t received some raised eyebrows from Union City voters, who routinely elect Democrats for Congress and the state Legislature.
“People say, ‘Oh, you’re a Trump supporter?’ I say, ‘I’m not denying that, yes. What’s the problem?’” Wang said.
His answer to voters: I’m not looking to change your mind about national politics.
“Tell me, what are the policies at the local [level], and if you don’t like it?” Wang added. “Because in the local [level], I don’t need to be the Republican, I don’t need to be the Trump.”
Wang’s journey to elected office began on July 4, 1984, when he arrived in America from Shanghai, as he recalled, “with only $40 and two suitcases.”
Though Wang landed in San Francisco, he soon headed to Madison, Wisconsin, where he would eventually receive a Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the University of Wisconsin.
That makes the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee something of a homecoming for Wang, a return to the place where he first fostered his conservative politics.
“When I was in the Midwest, I was looking for my family values, and so I’m very conservative, very like the Republicans,” Wang remembered. “I registered Republican in 1989 — never changed.”