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The Honorable Lee Zeldin

Chair, China Policy Initiative & Pathway to 2025

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."

- Abraham Lincoln

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Lee Zeldin is a former United States Congressman, representing New York’s First Congressional District from 2015-2023. Most recently, Zeldin sent shockwaves across the nation after nearly winning the New York Gubernatorial campaign as a Republican, receiving more votes than any Republican statewide since Nelson Rockefeller 52 years earlier. With Lee running strong at the top of the ticket, Republicans were able to flip several suburban House districts across the state which resulted in a Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

Congressman Lee Zeldin grew up in Suffolk County, New York, where he graduated from William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach. Congressman Zeldin graduated from the State University of New York at Albany (SUNY) and then Albany Law School. At just 23 years old, Lee Zeldin was sworn into the New York State Bar, making him the youngest attorney in the state.

Lee Zeldin spent four years on Active Duty with the U.S. Army after completing ROTC, and served in different capacities, including as a Military Intelligence Officer, Prosecutor, and Military Magistrate. In the summer of 2006, while assigned to the Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division, Zeldin deployed to Iraq with an infantry battalion of fellow paratroopers in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He still serves to this day as a Lieutenant Colonel in his 20th year in the United States military. 

In 2010, Lee Zeldin was elected to the New York State Senate. As a State Senator, Congressman Zeldin led the successful effort to repeal the MTA Payroll Tax for 80 percent of employers, a job killing tax that was hurting New York’s small businesses. He also created the PFC Joseph Dwyer Program, a peer-to-peer counseling program for veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI); the program quickly expanded across New York. 

Following four years in the State Senate, Lee Zeldin was elected to Congress in 2014 where he served eight years on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and six years on the House Financial Services Committee. As one of two Jewish Republicans in Congress, Representative Zeldin was a co-chairman of the House Republican Israel Caucus, which had over 100 members. He championed many important local priorities for his district, including the successful effort to save Plum Island, a large number of Army Corps of Engineers projects, and a $2 billion Electron Ion Collider he was able to steer to Brookhaven National Lab. He quickly became a prominent and outspoken national voice on U.S. foreign policy, border security, military affairs, combating antisemitism, and much more. 

In the ensuing months after finishing his four terms in Congress, Zeldin created and is the Chairman of a new charity called Zeldin Cares, joined the Board of the Republican Jewish Coalition, and founded Zeldin Strategies, where he serves as CEO. He otherwise remains active in public service, traveling the state and country to deliver speeches, frequently participating in media interviews, and growing the Republican Party through his Leadership America Needs PAC. Lee currently resides in his hometown of Shirley with his wife, Diana, and their twin daughters, Mikayla and Arianna. 

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Brooke Rollins and Lee Zeldin on China’s Threat to US National Security

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