Gary Holder-Winfield resigned Friday from the House of Representatives and immediately took his place in the Connecticut Senate.
Holder-Winfield, a Democrat from New Haven, was elected Tuesday in a special election to succeed Toni Harp, who resigned her Senate seat after her election as mayor of New Haven.
“Thank you all for coming,” Holder-Winfield told an audience of lawmakers and staff member from both chambers after taking the oath of office in the Senate. “I, strangely enough, though it would just be a couple of us here.”
In his first speech in the Senate, Holder-Winfield was brief. He thanked his wife, Natalie, and his assembled colleagues, then said, “I am done. Let’s get to work.”
Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, was a little-known local official when he took the same oath of office after winning a special election in January 1993.
“I think there were five people here,” Williams said. “I think leadership was just relieved I won.”
The stakes were higher then: If Williams had lost, the Senate would have been divided, 18-18.
Holder-Winfield’s election gives the Democrats a majority of 22-14.