U.S. Rep. John Larson and his three Democratic challengers squared off in the final debate ahead of the Aug. 11 primary for Connecticut’s 1st District, seeking to draw contrasts on a range of policy issues and how Congress should exert its authority in the Trump era.

After a fiery debate a night earlier, Wednesday’s candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Greater Hartford struck a more conciliatory tone, though the four candidates still threw some direct, and subtle, jabs at one another.

The policy-heavy debate was the only one of the campaign that was live with an audience. That gave Larson and his three opponents — former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, Hartford Board of Education member Ruth Fortune and West Hartford Rep. Jillian Gilchrest — the chance to appeal directly to a crowd of about 100 attendees.

The forum held at the Hartford Public Library had familiar refrains and pitches from Tuesday night’s debate, hosted by WTNH News 8.

Larson’s challengers once again sought to depict a Democratic Party that isn’t acting urgently against the Trump administration, arguing that the congressman plays a role in that. Meanwhile, Larson continued to focus on President Donald Trump as he described a “nation in crisis.”

“I’m going to remain standing and fighting against him,” Larson said. “I hope you’ll stand with me in this fight.”

“I’ve called for his impeachment because of his defiance of the Constitution,” the congressman said later, referring to Trump circumventing Congress on the war with Iran, “and when we’re in charge, we will hold him accountable for what he’s done.”

And like the previous night’s debate, Larson and Bronin took aim at one another on some occasions, while Gilchrest and Fortune doled out ample criticism of both men.

“I do believe that we would be a stronger Democratic Party if more of our leaders recognized that part of leadership is knowing when it’s time to pass the torch,” Bronin said, referring directly to Larson. “The stakes are just too high to not bring a new energy to this fight right now.”

Fortune laid out the stakes for challengers like her and Gilchrest, who haven’t been able to raise as much money as the two other candidates. Both Larson and Bronin are well-financed and have been dominating the airwaves in the final weeks before the primary.

“This is a David and Goliath battle,” Fortune said. “I’m being outraised by people backed by big supporters and PACs, but we know that movements that have made real change in this country are always led by the people most affected first.”

The candidates shared a consensus on a number of issues, such as immigration — calls for abolishing ICE and establishing a pathway to citizenship for immigrants — strengthening public education in the face of the Trump administration seeking to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, and pushback to the war with Iran.

On affordability, the candidates offered a wide range of priorities for how Congress could play a role in lowering costs for Americans. It’s expected to be among the top concerns of voters heading into November’s midterm elections, when control of Congress is at stake.

Larson highlighted the American Affordability Act of 2025, which came out of the House Ways and Means Committee, where he was one of the bill’s main sponsors. It would, among other things, establish a renter tax credit and first-time homebuyer tax credit as well as permanently extend the expired Affordable Care Act’s enhanced subsidies. The Democratic bill has been introduced but hasn’t gone anywhere in a GOP-controlled Congress. He hopes that changes if Democrats win the House.

Fortune wants Congress to build off its work on the recently enacted bipartisan housing bill, raise the minimum wage to $25 and tie it to inflation, and achieve universal health care — something all four candidates have said they support.

Bronin said lawmakers need to “stop this president from doing stupid and reckless things” that have led to rising gas prices as well as higher costs associated with the Trump administration’s tariff agenda.

Gilchrest made multiple references throughout the debate to the need for campaign finance reform, as she argued that money in politics is “connected to every single issue that is impacting people today in the United States.” She noted that Larson gets substantial amounts of money from corporate political action committees, or PACs.

It was in that answer about affordability that Gilchrest took a swipe at Bronin specifically about getting individual donations from billionaires and executives.

“He’s taking money from multiple billionaires. He talks about new energy,” Gilchrest said. “He’s got a new billionaire energy.”

She did so at another point in the debate when the candidates were asked to discuss environmental policy.

Gilchrest argued that Congress can’t achieve things to address the environmental crisis when big money in politics affects those decisions at the federal level. She noted Trump’s decision to roll back emissions standards and the emphasis on AI data centers, arguing that the administration is looking to enrich those special interests.

“I know I sound like a broken record. We can’t get any of those things passed until we get money out of the equation,” Gilchrest said.

“And so right now the biggest concern is AI and data centers, and we’re seeing that data centers are polluting communities,” she continued. “And, unfortunately, we have Luke Bronin here in the race, who is taking billions of dollars from a data center CEO who does not live in Connecticut, who is likely going to try and open one here.”

Bronin briefly acknowledged Gilchrest’s jab to call it untrue, but didn’t harp on it as he also quickly pivoted to his own concerns around AI data centers.

“There’s a lot there that’s not true, but I’m going to spend my time talking about the answer,” Bronin said, adding that he’s called on data centers to “build out their renewable energy and not add a dollar to anyone’s bill, build renewable energy to the grid, and we as a country have to make a massive commitment to renewable energy.”

Other questions explored voting rights, civic engagement and the role of government.

When asked about how Congress can take back its authority as one of the three equal branches of government, Larson’s three challengers were critical of how Democrats are currently operating, even though they are the minority party in both the House and Senate.

Gilchrest called the current legislative body a “zombie Congress.”

Bronin said they need to go beyond just Congress and implement binding ethics laws for the Supreme Court as well as terms for justices.

“So we have to build that movement to make those bigger changes possible, and that’s why it’s so important that, as a Democratic Party, we cannot just keep doing the same thing and thinking that the battle is inside the subcommittee rooms when it’s out there across this country, building a movement,” Bronin said in a reference to Larson, who serves as the ranking member on the House Ways and Mean Subcommittee on Social Security.

When responding to a question about getting more people to vote and civically engaged, Fortune vented at the answer from Democrats who say they need to elect more people from their party to move the needle. She also talked about the need for making elected office more accessible “by having people who look like them and have lived like them run for office.” She noted that she is the only candidate in the race who’s a person of color and an immigrant.

“It’s always striking to me to hear people with more power than I’ve ever had say we need to be in the majority to do something,” Fortune said. “People’s problems are the same regardless of who’s in the majority or the minority of who occupies the White House.”

Larson then made that exact point but said he was in alignment with Fortune.

“We need to elect Democrats who are currently in the minority, but I agree,” Larson said, gesturing at Fortune. “We don’t have time to wait. We have to hold this president accountable.”