Republican state Sen. Tony Hwang failed to unseat Fairfield’s Democratic First Selectwoman Christine Vitale in a special election Tuesday — another worrisome sign for the GOP ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The loss by a 56% to 44% margin in the well-to-do Bridgeport suburb comes three months after Democrats made broad gains in the November municipal elections, Connecticut’s first general election since Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Unofficial results posted on the secretary of the state’s elections web site from the town’s 10 precincts showed Vitale winning by about 2,000 votes. Turnout was about 42%, unusually high for a special election.
Hwang had carried Fairfield, the largest of the five towns in his 28th Senate District, in five of his six Senate races. In 2022, he lost there by 2 percentage points but prevailed overall. Hwang rebounded in 2024, winning with 54% of the vote.
Vitale, 57, was a selectwoman when she succeeded Democratic First Selectman Bill Gerber after his death last summer in the second year of his four-year term. Hwang, 61, forced a special selection through a petition drive.
“This town used to be pretty purple,” said Selectwoman Brenda Kupchik, a Republican who served in the House and preceded Gerber as first selectwoman. Gerber unseated her in 2023 with 50.1% of the vote.
Laura Devlin, the Republican town chair and a former state representative, called the loss “disappointing” as voters did not respond to GOP messaging about higher taxes and the urbanization of some parts of town.
“Right now, it looks like national issues are driving people out” to vote, she said.
Steve Sheinberg, the Democratic town chairman, said Vitale benefitted from her performance since Gerber’s death.
“Over the past seven months, Christine has led with collaboration, compassion, and competence,” Sheinberg said. “She governs with honor and integrity and will continue to do so as she moves forward in this next chapter of service.”
The office of first selectwoman in Fairfield was not on the ballot in November, but Democrats outpolled Republicans in down-ballot contests such as the Board of Finance, Board of Education and Zoning Board of Appeals.
Voter registration in Fairfield has flipped over 20 years as Democratic rolls grew significantly and the number of registered Republicans shrank. Democrats now outnumber Republicans, 13,808 to 9,498. The biggest voting bloc are the 16,916 unaffiliated voters.
In addition to hostile election trends, Hwang faced dissension in his own party. A one-time ally, former Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst, who was a candidate for governor in 2018, wrote a scathing assessment of Hwang published by Patch last month.
He called Hwang a self-promoter unfit to run a town.
“Fairfield needs a First Selectman who governs with integrity and responsibility, not someone who measures success by headlines or personal branding,” Herbst wrote. “I do not believe Tony Hwang is capable of that. Fairfield voters should weigh that reality carefully — regardless of party.”
Neither Hwang nor Vitale were immediately available for comment.