Amy Romano, the chair of the Shelton Board of Education, won a special election Tuesday to the state House of Representatives, maintaining Republican control of a seat held by the GOP for more than half a century. 

Unofficial results showed Romano defeating Democrat Mike Duncan, a member of the Water Pollution Control Authority, by a vote of 1,638 to 1,479 in the 113th House District of Shelton, succeeding Jason Perillo.

Perillo resigned in February after winning a special election for the state Senate seat vacated by Republican Kevin C. Kelly of Stratford, who left the Senate to become a judge of the Superior Court.

The contest in the 113th House District comes as special elections in some parts of the U.S. have been a test of the degree to which the falling approval rate of President Donald J. Trump has harmed the GOP.

Not so in Shelton, a community in the Naugatuck Valley carried by Trump in all three of his presidential runs, though Duncan ran stronger than any Democrat in the previous 52 years, losing by six percentage points: 53% to 47%.

Turnout was just 17% of registered voters.

Perillo was unopposed in 2024 and 2022. He won with 64% of the vote in 2020, the closest of his six contested races. The 113th House District has been represented by two Republicans for 50 years: Perillo for 18 years and Richard O. Belden for 32.

Belden’s tightest race was his first, winning 55% to 45% in 1974, succeeding a one-term Republican, James S. Connery. The last Democrat to win was Albert R. Webber in 1970.

The victory does little to change to the balance of power in the General Assembly, where Democrats won a 102-49 majority in November.