“Tax the rich! Tax the rich! Tax the rich!”

Josh Elliott broadly smiled Thursday night at the chant by supporters packed into a small restaurant and bar across the street from Edgewood Park in the Westville neighborhood of New Haven for a rally kicking off a new phase in his unlikely campaign for governor.

Elliott eventually would get to the stump speech the Democratic state lawmaker has refined over 10 months: An argument that Gov. Ned Lamont is a rich man disconnected from working-class struggles, and Elliott is a viable progressive alternative in the Aug. 11 primary.

But first, as Elliott told supporters, he wanted to indulge himself and acknowledge having defied expectations, including a few of his own, in two ways: He’s on the ballot for the first primary challenge to a governor in 48 years, and his paperwork for a $3.75 million campaign grant was being filed Friday.

“Let’s just live in this for a minute,” said Elliott, wearing a light summer-weight suit and dress shirt open at the collar on a hot, muggy night. “Thank you so much for being here. I’m so, so, so excited for this race, the moment that we’re in. I am just — ” 

Elliott paused.

“I cannot believe that we’re here,” he said finally. “I really truly cannot believe that we’re here.”

Elliott, 41, a state lawmaker for a decade, opened his campaign for governor last summer with even political sympathizers uncertain about its mission: Was he trying to nudge Lamont to the left, or was he actually trying to deny the governor the Democratic nomination for a third term?

The challenger says there no longer should be any doubt: Now on the ballot, and on the way to public financing, he is a serious candidate, albeit one still widely seen as a long shot with a narrow path to victory.

A new poll of likely primary voters commissioned by a left-leaning independent expenditure group, Impact Connecticut, shows Lamont preferred over Elliott, 58% to 20%. After two terms, the governor is a known entity, with 71% of Democrats viewing him favorably and 14% unfavorably.

“Elliott is far less defined, as 41% have never heard of him,” wrote the pollsters, Change Research. “However, those who have formed an impression lean positive: 22% favorable to 8% unfavorable. He is particularly strong with voters under 50.”

Lamont’s campaign has made little effort to define Elliott ahead of his getting his public grant.

The governor indicated he is inclined to talk more about his own record.

“Look where the state was 10 years ago, lurching from deficit to deficit, and jobs leaving the state, and people leaving the state,” Lamont said Wednesday. “I think today we’re in a better place. More important, what are we going to do going forward to reduce electric costs? What are we going to do to bring down health care costs? I’m going to talk about my campaign.”

The application Elliott filed Friday documented his raising more than $350,000 in small-dollar donations — the $335,500 required to qualify for public financing under the Citizens’ Election Program, plus another $16,000 collected as a buffer against some contributions inevitably being deemed ineligible.

Every contribution must come with paperwork attesting to its source. State contractors are barred. Most of the money must come from in-state donors, who can give between $5 and $340. Once the State Elections Enforcement Commission validates every contribution, Elliott’s resources instantly will grow tenfold.

If he comes up short, he has until July 17 to submit additional contributions or documentation.

Elliott says finishing fundraising marks his campaign’s new phase, ending outreach to the limited universe of potential delegates to last month’s nominating convention and donors willing to help him unlock public financing. Delegates voted 75% to 25% to endorse Lamont, but Elliott exceeded the 15% necessary to make the ballot.

“The last 10 months was really internal, focusing onto the party, and it was about making sure that we had ballot access,” Elliott said in an interview Thursday. “It was about making sure that party insiders knew that I was serious. It was about raising the money.”

The rally in New Haven was the first of 13 scheduled over six days: He’s hitting Waterbury on Friday night; Danbury, Stamford, Norwalk and Bridgeport on Saturday; New Britain, Hartford and Middletown on Sunday; New London on Monday; Willimantic and Storrs on Tuesday; and Torrington on Wednesday.

Elliott is casting his campaign as centered on economic justice. He would seek a 4% income tax surcharge on Connecticut’s highest-earning 1 percent, producing revenue that could bolster state spending for special education and provide property tax relief and possibly fund a child tax credit. He favors the state providing universal health care.

“Let me explain something that I’m pretty sure that everybody in this room already knows — that when the top 4,500 income earners in our state pay less than 8% of their income to state and local taxes, and the bottom 1.2 million pay over 20% — this is a system that we have chosen, and we don’t have to choose it anymore,” Elliott said.

One of the speakers introducing Elliott was Sana Shah, the vice chair of the Democratic town committee in Hamden, where the candidate lives. She is the director of policy and advocacy for The Connecticut Project, a progressive group.

“Working in public policy, I have learned that budgets — every budget — is a choice,” Shah said. “It reflects who we invest in, who we ask to sacrifice, what kind of future we’re trying to build, and Josh Elliot believes Connecticut’s priorities should be working families. It means fully funding our public schools, because every child’s future should not depend on their ZIP code.”

Elliott said Connecticut needs to empower the powerless, a challenge the state’s wealthy governor is unwilling or unable to meet.

“We need to be constantly thinking about how are we treating those who don’t have power, the people who don’t have money, the people who aren’t … a white, cisgendered, able-bodied neurotypical male like this,” he said, pointing to himself. “And I recognize the privilege that I have.”

What infuriates him, he said, is that Lamont has that same privilege and is “just not doing anything with it.”

“I want to do the best possible job I can do to make a society that works for everybody,” Elliott said. “So know that when I am angry and I am relentless and I’m obnoxious and I speak out of turn, I’m doing this all in the pursuit of finding a system and working toward a system that is better for all of us.”

If Elliott falls short and Lamont is reelected, he intends to continue to the press in a different way: Elliott is simultaneously seeking reelection to an 11th term representing Hamden in the state House of Representatives. In that race, Elliott is the favorite.