Michael Henry announces run for NYS GOP Chairman

ALBANY, N.Y. (WTEN) -- Another candidate has thrown his hat in the ring for New York State’s GOP Chair position. Michael Henry, who ran against Attorney General Letitia James this past election said he has the support, experience and strategy needed to win this seat and unify New York.  The new Chairman will replace Nick Langworthy, who won a Congressional seat this past November.

Henry, who owns a commercial law firm in the city says, he’s received large support from party leaders and donors which led to his official announcement on Thursday, "But I’ve seen what the issues are, and how we can move forward as a party, and what we need to do to diversify the party and make it look like the state of New York, so we can get across this hump once and for also take back the majorities in the Legislature."

Henry said as State GOP Chair he’d want to focus on fundraising, implementing an apparatus for small donors and hone in on the GOP message. He said that’s partially why Republicans lost votes during the midterms. "We didn’t have a candidate school, we didn’t have them trained on message of discipline, how to interact with the media, maybe going to an editorial board and understanding the preparation that’s needed with that," he said.

Henry also said Republicans have a big disadvantage when it comes to voter registration which is why they need a voter registration drive. "Who do we target? We target, ethnic and immigrant communities who have started to come our way because the Democratic Party is out of stuff with their cultural values. We need to target women, we need to target the youth, we need to target low propensity Democrats in the big cities, and we also need to target second amendment supporters in upstate New York," said Henry.

Additionally, he said Republicans need to gain early votes and canvas absentee ballots. "These are things that are put in place that can help us with our turnout, help us makeup that gap, that three to four hundred thousand votes, but it also costs money which is why I needed to know that donors are willing to invest into this," he explained.

Another candidate who announced his bid for the position is Lawrence Garvey, GOP Chairman for Rockland County. Candidates running for the position will need to be backed by majority support from the Committee.