Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, a Democratic labor organizer who was raised in Hartford and lives in Newtown, said she is filing papers Tuesday opening an exploratory campaign for secretary of the state, a potential first step in an attempt to become the first Hispanic elected to statewide office in Connecticut.
If Zimmerman goes forward with a campaign, she will be attempting to wrest the Democratic nomination from Secretary of the State Denise Merrill, who is seeking re-election to a third term. Zimmerman recently resigned as secretary of the state Democratic Party.
Rep. Chris Soto, D-New London, a member of the legislature’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, will serve as her campaign treasurer. Members of the caucus joined Merrill last week at a press conference announcing a voter drive to register Puerto Ricans who have moved to Connecticut after being displaced by Hurricane Maria.
In 1989, Zimmerman and two siblings were among the 18 school-aged children from Hartford and its suburbs who were plaintiffs in Sheff v. O’Neill, a school desegregation case that led to the construction of dozens of magnet schools in an effort to end racial isolation in the region’s public schools.
Zimmerman unsuccessfully ran for the state House of Representatives in 2016.