Quick Facts
Biography
Allan Wai-Ket Fung (born February 25, 1970) is an American attorney, politician and member of the Republican Party who has served as the Mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island since 2009 and sat as the Republican nominee for Governor of Rhode Island in the 2014 election.
Elected mayor in 2008, Fung became the first mayor of Chinese ancestry in Rhode Island. Fung previously served as a state prosecutor and attorney on legislative and regulatory affairs before serving on the Cranston City Council as a citywide councilman.
He lost the gubernatorial race in Rhode Island during 2014 to Gina Raimondo.
Early life and education
Allan W. Fung (Cantonese: 馮偉傑), born on February 25, 1970 at Providence Lying-In Hospital (now known as Women & Infants Hospital), Fung is the eldest of Kwong Wen and Tan Ping's three children. Crown colony Chinese immigrants from British Hong Kong, his family settled in Rhode Island in 1969, and ran a small business on Cranston Street and Gansett Avenue, Cranston, RI.
Fung graduated from Classical High School in Providence, RI in 1988. He earned a B.A. from Rhode Island College in 1992. He received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) law degree from Suffolk University Law School in 1995. He received the Classical High School Distinguished Alumni Award in 2009.
Political career
Prior to his municipal leadership career, from 1999 to 2001, Fung served as a prosecutor, acting as Special Assistant, for the Rhode Island Attorney General. Fung served from 2001 to 2009 as the government relations counsel for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company MetLife. In 2003, he was elected to the Cranston, RI City Council. In 2004, Fung was honored as a Rhode Island Bar Foundation Fellow. He is also a Providence Business News 40 Under Forty honoree. Fung was chairman of the Rhode Island Governor’s Insurance Council from 2005 to 2008.
A Republican, he was elected Mayor in November 2008, beating Democrat Cynthia M. Fogarty by 63% to 37%. He is the first Chinese American elected as mayor in the state. He succeeded Michael Napolitano, who defeated him for the position in the 2006 election by 79 votes. Fung was re-elected in 2010 against Richard R. Tomlins by 76% to 24% and in 2012 against only write-in opponents by 97% to 3%. Fung is a council member for the Republican National Committee's Asian Pacific American Advisory Council.
2014 gubernatorial election
In November 2013, Fung announced his candidacy for Governor of Rhode Island in the 2014 election. He received several high-profile Republican endorsements during the campaign, including former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Almond, former Massachusetts Governor and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney and former Massachusetts Governor William Weld. On September 9, 2014, Fung defeated Ken Block in the Republican primary, with a 55% majority. Soon thereafter, the Republican Governors Association President also endorsed him.Democrat Gina Raimondo would go on to win the election in a three-way split of votes.
Fung won re-election to a fourth term as Cranston mayor in November 2016, by a landslide ratio of 2 to 1.