Susan Zhuang, Wai Yee Chan, Stanley Ng, Vito LaBella, Ying Tan (l-r)

Three Democrats and two Republican candidates are vying for their respective party nominations in this month’s primary election for the newly redrawn City Council District 43 in Southern Brooklyn.

The district was created last year during the redistricting process following the decennial Census to reflect population shifts, and in this case to give the Asian-American community a chance of greater, more proportionate

A rally for Iwen Chu, center (photo: @Iwen4NY)

This month, Iwen Chu became the first Asian-American woman elected to the New York State Senate, clinching an unexpectedly tight victory over Republican Vito LaBella. Starting in January, Chu will represent the 17th Senate District, a newly-created Asian-plurality district in Southern Brooklyn, redrawn in the recent redistricting process based on demographic trends in the 2020 Census, which saw Asian Americans as the fastest growing group in New York in the last ten years.

Chu’s victory was hard fought, with a margin of just 215 votes as of November 21, and