In 2012, Barack Obama crushed Mitt Romney in the gritty Connecticut city of New Britain, an expected result given the 5-1 advantage Democrats then enjoyed in voter registration. But the next year, a 26-year-old Republican woman named Erin Stewart was elected mayor.

It was the start of a 12-year run for Stewart. She has been reelected every two years, the beneficiary of her own brand of fusion politics, an aversion to polarizing national issues, and the low turnout in municipal races that tend to blunt a Democratic advantage in voter registration.

On Tuesday, Democrats will try to exploit open seats for mayor or first selectman in New Britain, Norwich and Torrington and the coastal suburbs of Branford and Westport. They are held by Republicans, and all the communities except Torrington have Democratic advantages in voter registration.

More than 150,000 votes already had been cast as of 10 a.m. Saturday in early voting that ends Sunday, with 75,657 ballots cast by Democrats, 33,474 by Republicans and 43,936 by unaffiliated voters.

With no competitive mayoral contests in the larger cities, New Britain is the marquee race. Gov. Ned Lamont, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal headlined a rally there Saturday for the Democratic nominee, state Rep. Bobby Sanchez. 

A victory there would be important to Democrats on two counts: It is home to Stewart, who is exiting city hall to focus on a run for governor in 2026, and it offers a test of the degree to which animosity to President Donald Trump can be used to turn out Democrats who typically vote only in presidential years.

“I’m listening to a lot of individuals throughout the city in New Britain that are not happy with the current administration in Washington, D.C., and I think that’s going to trickle down to our local elections this year,” Sanchez said. “The working poor are really pissed off they are not going to get SNAP benefits.”

The Trump administration ordered the suspension of the SNAP food program, effective on Saturday, the start of the second month of the partial federal shutdown. Two federal judges ordered Friday that payments resume, but it could take days to restart a program that relies on federal vendors using state data to load benefits on electric benefit transfer, or EBT, cards.

Sanchez, 64, is a soft-spoken nonprofit administrator who has been a state lawmaker for 14 years. He trying to become the first Hispanic mayor of a city known for its Polish immigrant heritage but is now 43% Latino or Hispanic and 14% Black.

New Britain is a city of 74,000 where the poverty rate is 20%, median household income is $51,586, nearly 11,000 people rely on SNAP federal assistance for food and 30,000 rely on Medicaid for health care. Democrats are exploiting the interruption of SNAP and threats to Medicaid.

“We’ve made a big point of that in campaigning, that everybody is on the line,” said Don DeFronzo, a former New Britain mayor and state senator supporting Sanchez. Democrats “did a mailing this week that says, ‘Today, it’s SNAP. Tomorrow, it’s Medicaid. Tomorrow, it’s Social Security.’”

GOP voter registration increased during Stewart’s tenure, but Democrats still outnumber Republicans in the city by nearly a 3-1 margin.

The Republican nominee for mayor is Sharon Beloin-Saavedra, 60, an alderwoman who was a Democrat until last year, albeit one who was allied with Stewart and most recently was elected on the GOP line. She bristles at any attempt to associate her with Trump.

“I don’t support Trump, but I support Erin Stewart. I support the city of New Britain,” Beloin-Saavedra said. “Donald Trump has nothing to do with the city of New Britain.”

Ben Proto, the chair of the Connecticut Republican Party, said Trump is a tactical distraction employed by Democrats, not a relevant factor in running a municipality.

“If the most important issue to you is whether or not the pride flag gets flown over town hall, well, I think you’re missing the whole point of municipal government,” Proto said. “I think other people care more about other things, like, more importantly, did my trash get picked up? Did my street get plowed? Did the ambulance show up when my kid fell out of the tree and broke his arm?”

Stewart, anticipating a Republican primary for governor, now embraces Trump after studiously keeping a distance. When she opened an exploratory campaign for governor in January, she announced without prompting that she had voted for Trump in all three of his campaigns for the White House.

“It’s not that she’s necessarily a rabid Trumper, but she empowers him,” DeFronzo said of Beloin-Saavedra. “They all do. By being there, they empower him to do what he’s doing. And no one has the balls to stand up and say, ‘No, stop!’ I think it makes a difference.” 

Speaking at the rally, Blumenthal said, “It’s us vs. them, and you have a right to ask, ‘Who is on my side?’”

Other cities

There are no mayoral races in Bridgeport, Hartford or Waterbury, where mayors are at the midpoint of four year terms.

Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker are heavily favored in their reelection campaigns. There are open mayoral races in Hamden and Norwalk, where Democratic primaries in August determined the likely winners on Tuesday, given the voter registration.

On Saturday, Lamont left the New Britain event to campaign in Torrington, where the Republican mayor, Elinor Carbone, also is leaving office after a dozen years.  Democrat Stephen Ivain, a councilman and Democratic chair, is facing Republican Molly E. Spino, a former Marine who has served on the council and board of education.

Torrington has trended Republican in both voter registration and election results. Trump won handily in 2024, and a long-time Democratic lawmaker was unseated.

In Norwich, Democrat Singh Swarnjit is attempting to become the first Sikh elected as a mayor in Connecticut. He faces Republican Stacy Gould in a city where Democrats have nearly a 2-1 voter registration advantage. Republican Mayor Peter Nystrom did not seek another term.

In Westport, a wealthy Fairfield County town that also has more than a 2-1 Democratic advantage, Republican First Selectwoman Jen Tooker is not running, creating an opening for Democrats. Tooker won four years ago with just 50.03% of the vote. The candidates trying to succeed her are Democrat Kevin Christie, Republican Don O’Day and Independent David Nichan Rosenwaks.

In Branford, Republican First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove is not running, an opportunity in a community where Democrats outnumber Republicans, 7,113 to 4,362. The candidates are Democrat Josh Brooks and Republican Jeff Vailette.

Bristol, a community with a Democratic edge in voter registration and a history of close elections, has a mayoral rematch. Democrat Ellen Zoppo-Sassu is challenging Republican Jeff Caggiano, who narrowly unseated her four years ago. Trump and national politics went unmentioned in a debate last week.

The focus was on property taxes and economic growth.