Rosa DeLauro is seeking a historic 19th term in the U.S. House, with the hopes of reclaiming the top spot on an influential committee if Democrats regain control.

Her opponent, Republican Chris Lancia, is looking to defy the odds as he seeks change in Connecticut’s 3rd Congressional District and more broadly in Congress.

Democrats have had a firm grip on the New Haven-based District since 1983. DeLauro, the longest-serving U.S. House member from Connecticut, is favored to win another two-year term on Nov. 3. But she said she’s starting to see some shifts in the district’s electorate, including in her hometown of New Haven.

“My district is changing. I can feel it,” DeLauro said. “It’s palpable, and there is a move to the right. People in New Haven are not coming out in the numbers that they used to before. The Naugatuck Valley is a much more conservative place.”

At the heart of these political changes, DeLauro says, is the economic anxiety facing constituents and families over how they’ll afford necessities like healthcare and utilities.

While affordability is the buzzword of the midterm elections, DeLauro, 83, is quick to give a reminder that she’s not new to the issue. She said she’s been raising alarms about people living paycheck-to-paycheck for years, particularly in her longtime effort to expand the federal child tax credit.

Lancia, 55, is a former Democrat who said he voted for DeLauro years ago. He changed his political affiliation to become an independent and then switched to the Republican Party around the time of the second Obama administration.

He’s a Coast Guard veteran and former federal law enforcement officer who works as a manager at TNI, a provider of fiber networks. Lancia is a first-time candidate who believes it’s time for a change and a fresh face representing the 3rd District.

“We’re getting hit hard in Connecticut, and my opponent is very out of touch,” Lancia said. “I feel that it’s time we get some new blood down in D.C.”

DeLauro has been around politics her entire life. Both of her parents served as members of the New Haven Board of Aldermen. Before she came to Congress in 1991, DeLauro served as executive director of EMILY’s List, a national group that seeks to elect women to office who support reproductive rights. She also worked as Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd’s campaign manager and chief of staff.

Since taking office in 1991, DeLauro said campaigns look quite different from when she first got into the game. Social media has transformed both campaigning and legislating, and her X account has had some semi-viral moments. And over the last three decades, she’s seen more polarization and less ticket splitting in elections.

Lancia had a similar upbringing, immersed in local politics. His father was active in Democratic politics in Bridgeport. Lancia said he was used to behind-the-scenes work, and this is his first time moving into a front-facing role.

Like a number of his fellow Republican candidates in Connecticut, Lancia wants term limits with no member of Congress serving more than eight years, saying “politics was never made to be a long-term job.”

“That’s like any job you’re at, when you’re there too long,” he said, “you just become complacent. And at 83, how in touch are you with things?”

Questions around age and long-time political careers have emerged as an undercurrent of this year’s primaries in both parties. In Connecticut, 28-year incumbent John Larson lost a four-way primary to Luke Bronin, who largely premised his campaign on generational change without directly talking about age.

While some members lost primaries to younger challengers and first-time candidates, others survived challenges, including 80-year-old Sen. Ed Markey in Massachusetts.

DeLauro counters that age is not an issue and that what matters is whether a lawmaker is willing to fight on behalf of their constituents and stand up to the Trump administration — at least for Democrats.

“I will fight a Trump administration. I have no fear of doing that,” DeLauro said. “And I think people today do want to see you fight. I don’t think it’s a question of any age.”

“That’s what I hear from people on the street,” she added. “It’s not a particular issue or so forth. Just keep fighting. Keep standing up for us, and that’s what people say to me, and I think I do that.”

This time around, it’s a two-pronged fight for DeLauro: winning another term to the 3rd District and seeking to reclaim the gavel of the House Appropriations Committee — if Democrats can win the majority. She said she doesn’t take either race for granted, though she noted she currently doesn’t have a challenger for the Democrats’ top spot on the committee.

The panel crafts spending bills, allocates money and funds the federal government. Her current role as the Democratic ranking member comes during a major strain between the executive and legislative branches regarding federal funding. 

In her quest for the gavel, DeLauro has already started to map out her priorities for next year. She hopes to restore education and job opportunities to help address the higher cost of living and restore her committee’s authority on federal grants. She also envisions handling some oversight by taking a look at where federal dollars are flowing and whether some money “has been transferred illegally.”

“I want to, as I have done in the past, continue to use the appropriations committee as the way to look at how in fact we address this affordability issue, how we put money back into people’s pockets, how we provide the services in all of the areas that have a real effect on their economic security and their lives,” DeLauro said.

Lancia and other opponents of DeLauro have questioned her effectiveness on the Appropriations Committee, including when she served at the helm during part of the Biden administration. Lancia noted the post-pandemic inflation that hit during that stretch and argued that she was “rubber stamping the checks” — though he also blamed Republicans for doing the same thing.

“I’d rather focus on the things that are going to help the state of Connecticut,” he said.

DeLauro views her committee work entirely different. All of it benefits Connecticut, she argues, and it also extends to the rest of the country.

“Everything I do is for Connecticut but has national reverberations,” she said.

When she was Appropriations chairwoman between 2021 and 2023, DeLauro said she increased federal funding for the Head Start program, which provides early childhood services that serve low-income children.

She helped revive earmarks — under a new name and with more limitations and accountability. In recent years, when Congress passed annual appropriations bills, Connecticut and other states have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for local projects requested by members of their state’s delegations. That includes money for local law enforcement, infrastructure projects and nonprofits. (But not all lawmakers participate, and some view it as pork barrel spending for pet projects. The practice of earmarks was banned in 2011 for about a decade.)

For his part, Lancia wants to prevent transgender athletes from playing in women’s sports, expand small business loan options beyond those that help someone start up a business, expand school choice and trade schools, and address military pensions.

Lancia also said he wanted to see larger raises for Social Security benefits — one of the few areas of agreement between the two candidates. He said he wants to see at least a 5% or 6% boost in the next few years to keep up better with the rate of inflation. (DeLauro has co-sponsored a past version of U.S. Rep. John Larson’s legislation that would increase Social Security benefits and bolster its solvency by requiring higher earners to contribute more to payroll taxes.)

He has some differences with the Republican Party and President Donald Trump, but he applauded the president for supporting law enforcement and veterans and closing the southern border.

As a veteran, Lancia wants to see an end to the war in Iran, which has driven up costs like gas prices. He said he wants Congress to reassert itself, since it is the only body that has the authority to declare war. (There have been multiple efforts by Democrats on war powers resolutions to rein in Trump on further military actions, but they have failed to make it through the GOP-controlled Congress.)

“I don’t agree on the constant nonsense of talking so much on TV,” Lancia said about Trump. “I don’t like the idea we’re over in Iran right now, with again no ending.”

Both DeLauro and Lancia avoided primaries in August.

At Democrats’ spring nominating convention, Andrew Rice narrowly fell short of the 15% threshold to make the August primary ballot. Rice, a scientist seeking to run to the left of the congresswoman, has raised policy disagreements on Israel’s actions in Gaza and abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (DeLauro has pushed back against new funding for ICE without implementing guardrails, but she doesn’t back abolishing the agency because of the need for border protection.)

Rice, who’s gotten involved in community organizing, sought to challenge the convention results and asked for a redo, but his complaint was dismissed by a panel with the state Democratic Party. He’s now running as a write-in candidate for the seat.

“I have no delusions that a write-in campaign has any likelihood of succeeding in the sense of winning the seat away from Rosa DeLauro. But I think it’s important that we still send a message,” Rice said. He said one of those messages is that “voting for Rosa DeLauro, voting for the Republican — the establishment has not given us any genuine change and has not been working for the American people.”

DeLauro continues to hold a significant cash advantage over her opponents.

Given his scant resources, Lancia said his focus has been on meeting voters where they are, especially through door knocking at the homes of all voters, regardless of political affiliation. He said candidates are too focused on fundraising and bemoaned the lack of help from Republicans, statewide and nationally.

But resources are spread thin in both parties. New England’s entire congressional delegation is Democratic, except for U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican in Maine who’s heavily targeted in her reelection race this year.

“Nobody wants to donate money. They want you to make change, but we have no help from the national party. Trump has not helped us raise money,” Lancia said. “The national Republican Party says that we’re useless, that we can’t do anything.”

“Let us get strong again,” he continued. “How do we get the party back up again if you don’t come in and invest with us?”

No debate or forum appears to be planned for the 3rd District race.

Along with DeLauro and Lancia, Thomas Egan, a lawyer who has run unsuccessfully for mayor and state representative, is also on the ballot as the Independent Party nominee.

In-person early voting began Monday, Oct. 19 and runs through Sunday, Nov. 1. The last day to request an absentee ballot is Nov. 2.