The defeat of liberal U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York in a Democratic primary made national news in June, inviting speculation of a shift towards the center, just as his victory four years ago was cited as evidence of an ascendant left.
Neither party in Connecticut sees similar tests of party identification or ideology in the limited primaries this month, when no congressional incumbent faces a challenge and local divisions frame contests for the General Assembly.
Five of the 11 Democratic primaries in state House districts involve incumbents on the outs, with town committees that declined to endorse them. Two of the five are in Stamford, where Democrats have seen factional fights for at least two years.
“The ones that we have, it’s just local politics,” said House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford. “That’s all it is. So there’s no theme.”
Connecticut’s primaries are on Aug. 13, with seven days of early voting beginning Aug. 5. Unaffiliated voters can participate in a primary if they enroll in that party by noon on Aug. 12. The deadline for enrolled voters to switch parties has passed.
[CT 2024 primary elections: How to vote and who’s running]
Republicans have the only primaries for congressional or U.S. Senate nominations.
Gerry Smith of Beacon Falls, the convention-endorsed candidate, and Matthew Corey of Manchester are competing for the U.S. Senate nomination and the right to face the heavily favored U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy in November.
In the 4th Congressional District of lower Fairfield County, Bob MacGuffie won the convention endorsement but is challenged by Michael Goldstein. The winner faces U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, a Democrat seeking his ninth term in a district that has gone from competitive to one of the two safest Democratic seats in Connecticut.
[Got questions about the upcoming election? Check out CT Mirror's 2024 voter guide here]
Republicans have two state legislative primaries, only one in a race that solidly favors the GOP: A contest for the nomination in the open 69th House District, where state Rep. Cindy Harrison, R-Southbury, is retiring. Jason Buchsbaum is the endorsed candidate; Edwin Cady is the challenger.
In the 29th state Senate District, which includes Democratic strongholds in Willimantic and around UConn, Republican Susanne Witkowski won 47.3% of the vote two years ago in a three candidate race that Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Windham, won with 50.6%.
To qualify for a rematch, Witkowski must defeat the convention-endorsed candidate, Chris Reddy.
The primaries are more meaningful for Democrats.
All but one of their 15 General Assembly primaries — four Senate and 11 House contests — are in districts where Democrats now hold the seat and the eventual nominee will be favored in November.
The exception is in the 7th Senate District, where Democrats Cynthia Mangini of Enfield and Nathan Wolliston of Windsor are competing for the right to oppose Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, who has held the seat for nearly 32 years.
The three other Democratic state Senate primaries are urban, one focused on Hartford and two others on Bridgeport.
Sen. Douglas McCrory, D-Hartford, a school administrator and former public school teacher whose fiery support for charter schools last year put him at odds with teacher unions, is in a three-way race in the 2nd Senate District. (Charter schools also are an issue in Danbury, where Rep. Bob Godfrey, a Democrat, is being challenged by a charter school supporter, Melissa B. Santana.)
McCrory's district covers the North End of Hartford and portions of the city’s two racially diverse northern suburbs, Bloomfield and Windsor. It has been a base of Black political power for more than half a century.
Both of his opponents are women from Windsor: Shellye Davis, secretary-treasurer of the Connecticut AFL-CIO and president of an AFT local that represents paraprofessional educators in Hartford, and Ayana Taylor, a school board member.
Despite her leadership post, Davis was unable to win the endorsement of the AFL-CIO at its political convention last week. An endorsement requires a two-thirds vote, and the labor federation did not back anyone opposing an Democratic incumbent in a primary.
Sen. Herron Gaston, D-Bridgeport, is being challenged in the 23rd Senate District of Bridgeport and Stratford by councilman and former Sen. Ernest Newton II. In the 22nd of Bridgeport, Monroe and Trumbull, there is a four-way fight for the nomination to succeed Sen. Marilyn Moore, D-Bridgeport, who is retiring.
McCrory and Gaston are party-endorsed. There was no endorsement in the 22nd.
In Stamford, two of the five state representatives who live in the city had to petition to qualify for primaries, a consequence of an opposing faction favored by Mayor Caroline Simmons winning control of the Democratic city committee.
Simmons and her allies prevailed in a bitter referendum fight last year over proposed charter revisions that would have shifted some powers from the mayor to the Board of Representatives.
The party-endorsed candidates, Eilish Collins Main and Jonathan Jacobson, are trying to unseat two incumbents, David Michel and Anabel Figueroa. Main ran the successful campaign to defeat a charter change opposed by Simmons.
Four of the Democratic House primaries are for open seats where a Democratic incumbent did not seek reelection: Peter Tercyak of New Britain in the 26th, Tom Arnone of Enfield in the 58th, Michael D’Agostino of Hamden in the 91st and Robyn Porter of New Haven in the 94th.
In the 58th, the challenger is former Rep. David Alexander, a Democrat who lost the seat to a Republican in 2016 after two DUI arrests and two confrontations with his parents that also led to arrests. The endorsed candidate is John Santanella, an Enfield council member.
In the 140th District of Norwalk, Democrats declined to make an endorsement, a snub to Rep. Travis Sims, a former boxer who is seeking reelection. He is opposed in the primary by Carleton Giles, a pastor, former police officer and former chair of the Board of Pardons and Paroles.
