Weihua Yan, a businessman from Great Neck, has tossed his hat into the ring for Nassau County’s 10th Legislative District on the Democratic line, running on a platform of tax reassessment, public safety, school funding and addressing climate change.

Yan, who previously served as president of the Great Neck Library Board of Trustees, is challenging District 10 Legislator Mazi Melesa Pilip.

While political office is a new venture for him, Yan said he is in the race to give back to his community after immigrating to the United States 36 years ago and receiving community support in order to achieve his American dream.

“I want to contribute to our communities,” Yan told Blank Slate Media.

Yan said that in recent years he has witnessed division within the country and middle-class families and small businesses struggling.

“So I want to do my part to help heal that divide by adding diversity, a different voice to government,” Yan said.

He said he finds his political efforts personal as he works for the betterment of his community and to provide for the future of the children.

“I believe that even though I’m on the Democratic line, when I’m elected I represent everyone in my district,” Yan said. “Nothing is too small for me. I want to make sure I serve every resident and every business in my district.”

As a legislator, Yan said he can achieve those goals by ensuring resources are allocated to the communities and areas that need them, enacting laws that impact the quality of life for residents and businesses, and serving as a bridge between the community and the government.

“When I’m elected I want to make sure that people know where they can reach out to me to share their concerns solving their problems,” Yan said. “If I can’t solve their problems, I will make sure they find the proper channel to do that.”

Yan said over the past 25 years he has founded multiple companies, including diapers.com which was acquired by Amazon, and that experience has lent him the keys to success: hard work, collaboration, transparency and accountability. All of these skills, he said, are also necessary in government.

“So when I become a legislator, I want to bring this to the county Legislature to make sure that our government is accountable, it’s transparent,” Yan said.

He said his experience in technology and business is key in developing the county further and creating opportunities for residents and local businesses.

Yan’s campaign is running on four major platforms: tax reassessment, public safety, school funding and addressing climate change.

One issue Yan said he would plan to address after being elected is the county’s frozen tax assessment. He said he wants to “modernize and solve inefficiencies” to fix the system and demand that a reassessment is done.

Yan said he is also concerned about public safety, advocating for increased measures to lower crime rates.

Recently, Yan said, a 14-year-old Asian-American canvasser and intern for his campaign was punched in the face, pushed and subjected to derogatory racially charged comments on Oct. 2 by a Village of Thomaston resident on Colonial Road.

“Luckily the intern was not seriously injured physically, but I know that the scar of that hateful attack will stay with him and his family.”

He said the canvasser, accompanied by an adult, was dropping off Yan’s campaign fliers at the door when they were attacked.

“They were essentially exercising their constitutional right to canvass,” Yan said, but instead the boy was met with “hate and violence.”

Yan denounced the attack.

“This kind of violent attack, especially on the youth, is not tolerable,” Yan said. “Whatever the ethnicity, he is a youth member of our community. They need to be protected.”

Other issues Yan is advocating for include increasing housing, and addressing the migrant crisis and the opioid crisis.

While Yan said that Nassau County needs to expand housing, he did not agree with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposals because he found the “one size fits all proposal” as not adequate for the varying villages and towns.

“We need to increase some housing to accommodate people who want to move here and live here and the way to do that is not by forcing the villages to do certain things,” Yan said. “We have to ensure that each village can decide how to do that more appropriately.”

Yan said he does not oppose zoning changes to increase housing, but that it needs to be done with the community’s needs and abilities in mind.

As an immigrant himself, Yan said the emerging migrant crisis in New York needs to be addressed but that the responsibility falls on the federal government.

Yan said Nassau County is not equipped to handle the migrant issue and he supports the county-wide push to not house migrants.

“I blame the federal government for this disaster,” Yan said.

He said that opioid usage in Nassau is a crisis that the county needs to address, and it should start by distributing the money given to the county through pharmaceutical company settlements.

“I think that’s a missed opportunity,” Yan said. “Everyday that we are not putting the money into use, people’s lives will be lost.”

Yan said voters should vote for him because of the experience and skills he would bring to the Legislature.

“We need people in the government who understand technology trends, technology innovations, have business sense and understand transparency and accountability,” Yan said. “I hold that kind of value very highly.”