Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District, a sprawling district reaching the northwest corner of the state, remains the most competitive congressional race in the state. But national attention has shifted away from the district as outside groups in both parties look to other U.S. House races in the battle for control of Congress.

After winning by a more comfortable margin two years ago, U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes is seeking a fifth term against Republican Chris Shea. He’s a North Haven firefighter and retired Navy SEAL who lives in Cheshire. He also founded the nonprofit Hero to Hero, which encourages military veterans to consider a second career as first responders.

Shea, a first-time candidate, said he wants to bring change to a district that’s been elusive to Republicans for years. He secured his party’s endorsement at the nominating convention earlier this year and went on to win the GOP primary in August.

“What I’m doing is trying to continue to serve,” Shea said, referencing his career in the military. “I’m trying to get into this because having a one-sided delegation does not really represent Connecticut. I don’t think that’s the right representation for Connecticut for a bunch of reasons.”

The race for this district has traditionally been at the center of Connecticut’s political universe when it comes to federal campaigns. This cycle, election analysts who rate competitive races moved the 5th District much closer to Democrats. That’s on top of a midterm year when the party in power historically faces political headwinds.

Hayes had a nail-biter reelection race in 2022 against Republican George Logan, a former state senator. She won by a larger margin in a 2024 rematch. While the general political environment bodes well for Democrats this year — as polls and early voting numbers indicate — she’s not taking this election for granted, though she notices some differences from previous campaigns.

“I’m gaining votes in different communities or holding steady, getting out there,” Hayes said. “So now I don’t have to introduce myself over again, every campaign.”

For his part, Shea said his career prepared him for the job because he worked a lot with Congress and “got a chance to see how things work — or not.” He worked in resourcing at the U.S. Department of Defense, where he said he got the nickname the “mayor of the Pentagon.”

“I got a lot of stuff done just by going around and addressing needs and talking to people face to face,” Shea said. “That’s the approach I would take in Congress.”

Hayes came to Congress after her first election in 2018 with no political experience. She’s a former high school government and history teacher in Waterbury who was awarded the National Teacher of the Year award in 2016.

Nearly a decade later, Hayes feels like there’s a confidence that comes from repeat victories and having a better understanding of how to navigate Congress both on policy and politics.

“I came to this space and I knew why I wanted to do this work and I was really passionate about helping people,” Hayes said. “I think over my last four terms, I’ve learned how to translate that help into action. I know how the Congress works.”

As a first-time candidate, Shea said there’s a learning curve to running for office. Echoing a similar sentiment as Hayes, Shea said a lot of time is devoted to fundraising and feeling like “you’re always in beggar mode.”

During the past two cycles, Connecticut’s 5th District attracted outsized national attention and substantial outside money. That has largely dissipated, though both candidates got an 11th-hour boost from political action committees in the final weeks.

Pro-Choice Majority Action spent $250,000 against Shea in an ad that links Shea to President Donald Trump and “promised to do Trump’s bidding.” Seal the Deal PAC, meanwhile, invested almost $50,000 against Hayes in an ad that criticizes her campaign spending and accuses her of “using Congress to serve herself.”

In 2022, outside groups in both parties spent upwards of $12 million on the race. Two years later, those same groups still invested but not at the same magnitude. A few weeks out from the 2024 election, Republicans’ biggest super PAC cancelled some of its TV ad reservations to spend on other races.

The 5th District also drew a lot of star power in the past. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris discussed reproductive rights with Hayes in New Britain in 2022. And House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., visited the district to fundraise with Logan in 2024.

Republicans, who haven’t had a member of Congress from Connecticut since 2009, had heavily invested in trying to flip the 5th District, especially in the 2022 midterms. That year, Republicans went on to take back the House majority. The Republican National Committee opened multiple community centers to engage with Black and Hispanic voters around the country, including one in New Britain. But it didn’t reopen in 2024.

Shea said the National Republican Congressional Committee, the main committee working to defend the GOP’s majority in the House, helped pay for internal polling, which he noted “came out better than I think people would expect.” He quipped that he’s still waiting for a check from Elon Musk, who recently pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the midterms to boost Republicans.

The NRCC “has been working closely with Chris Shea’s campaign, and we have been actively engaged in the race,” according to spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole.

One of the biggest contrasts between the candidates has been over H.R. 1, Republicans’ party-line tax legislation that passed last year and was dubbed by Trump as the “big beautiful bill.”

Hayes said she’d prioritize trying to rescind cuts to Medicaid and the federal nutrition program known as SNAP that the law will enact through changes like new work requirements. Nearly 63,000 residents in Connecticut have so far lost SNAP benefits since eligibility changed as a result of H.R. 1. Medicaid changes are coming in January.

Shea, on the other hand, said he wants to see the bill’s tax relief measures strengthened or made permanent. He noted his opponent’s opposition to the bill, which also included new federal deductions for overtime pay or tips, as well as an increase on the cap for state and local tax (SALT) deductions. (Hayes pointed out they’re temporary tax breaks that expire in 2028 at the end of Trump’s term.)

When asked specifically about SNAP and Medicaid cuts, Shea said he wants to make sure the programs don’t get abused.

“I’m concerned that the people who need it get it, and the people that don’t need it and are milking the system, so to speak, aren’t getting it,” Shea said.

Both candidates have talked about the importance of addressing cost-of-living issues that have become the common theme in the midterms.

Hayes said Democrats can’t be singularly focused on affordability, as important as it is. And with the limited leverage they might have even if her party takes the majority, she argues that Democrats need to show voters that they’re working to address their concerns.

“This is where the challenge is and where we have to manage expectations, because even if you can’t completely fix the problem, people need to know that you’re working on it,” Hayes said. “People want to know that you’re doing something about it or at least trying to, and that’s what they haven’t seen.”

Hayes identified some areas where she feels Democrats have previously fallen short. At a Connecticut AFL-CIO event around Labor Day weekend, she mused about how they should have done more for labor when they held all levels of power. And in a recent interview, she highlighted the need for conducting oversight, which she believes “Democrats failed to do when we took the majority.”

“There were some things that we could have addressed to make sure that the government was working in a way that the people needed it to, so that individuals couldn’t take advantage of the government or make money off the government, and we failed to do that,” Hayes said.

On top of seeking reelection, Hayes will also make a run for the top spot on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. So far, Hayes and Oregon Rep. Suzanne Bonamici are challenging the current top Democrat, U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia.

A top motivation for her to seek that leadership role is the Trump administration’s push to dismantle and relocate offices within the U.S. Department of Education. She said she’s also been calling for a hearing on addressing school shootings.

But as much as Democrats are planning for a possible return to power and what their roles might look like as committee chairs, Hayes said the future feels a bit unclear.

“We’re not even sure, if we were to take the majority, what we would be walking into, because they haven’t really responded to subpoenas. They haven’t turned over data or documents,” Hayes said. “We’d have to call people in and kind of see where we stand on all these things.”

Shea said he’d like to serve on a committee with jurisdiction over veterans or defense issues, which would be a “no-brainer” given his experience. But he would also want to broaden his interests, citing the House Agriculture Committee, which is one of Hayes’ current assignments.

When asked what he’d like to tackle if he’s elected to Congress, Shea said he didn’t want to overpromise, like candidates tend to do before they get to Washington. He didn’t have a general vision but went on to describe some work he’d like to get done for veterans and the military.

“There’s things about vets — I definitely would like to see the processes for folks to get their claims in, done and processed faster, better,” Shea said. “Anything we can do to get vets from sleeping on the street is a big concern of mine.”

“Having a military that’s properly funded to do the jobs that they are tasked with going forward and accomplishing,” he continued, “that’s a big priority of mine.”

Hayes and Shea squared off earlier this month in the one and only debate of the campaign. They shared contrasting views on Trump administration policies, immigration and the war in Iran.

Following the debate, Hayes argued in a post on social media that her opponent is “clearly not ready for this work.”

Shea pushed back on her characterization, arguing that the congresswoman sounded like she was playing “buzzword bingo” with government jargon at the debate.

“I have some insight that most civilians would not have, spending five-plus years in the Pentagon doing resourcing and working with Congress, at least on the Department of Defense side,” Shea said.

He knocked Hayes for repeatedly working into the debate that Trump isn’t a king.

“I think people are smarter than that,” Shea said. “And I think they can see substance and the genuine nature from where I approach this.”

Hayes argued that it’s more than understanding terms and memorizing bill numbers — those are all things that can easily be learned on the job and aren’t a requirement coming into Congress as a first-time candidate.

“He’s not prepared, and prepared doesn’t mean having a full understanding of policy. Prepared means understanding the people and the needs of this district,” Hayes said. “He has a very narrow vision of who needs help in this district.”

The two candidates also disagreed over the authority of the executive and the legislative branches in relation to the president’s tariff agenda and a war in Iran that has stretched into its eighth month.

Early voting is underway in Connecticut. In the first few days, Democrats outnumbered Republicans in the state. 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.

Republicans are pushing their party to take advantage of all of their voting options, despite Trump seeking to rein in mail-in voting.

“Republicans are notorious for saying, ‘I’m just voting on Election Day, this is BS,'” Shea said. “It’s like, ‘Hey man, Election Day is just a little bit longer this year, so take advantage of it.'”

Hayes is on two ballot lines, cross-endorsed by the Working Families Party. Jonathan De Barros, who lost the Republican primary to Shea, is also running as a write-in candidate on Nov. 3.

When asked about her future goals and political life, Hayes told The Connecticut Mirror that serving in Congress is not a long-term ambition, though she doesn’t have an exact timeline. “No one will have to kick me out of this job,” she said, with a laugh.

Hayes was recently asked by WTNH whether she’d be interested in running for the Senate in 2028 if U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal decided to retire. She talked about her strong preference for the House, comparing it to public school, while saying the Senate’s more akin to private school. “I’m not title shopping,” she said.

WTNH political anchor Dennis House pointed out that Connecticut has never had a woman serve as a U.S. senator. Hayes said she’s “humbled” she made history as the first Black woman to represent the state in Congress. But she offered a quick aside, while laughing, that “I also think I’d be a great senator.”

She told CT Mirror that serving in Congress gave her a taste of what government can accomplish, whether that’s passing the PACT Act to expand veterans benefits or providing summer meals for students.

Because of the pandemic, Hayes said she feels like they lost time to make more progress, and she feels “fully invested” in getting more done on her committees. But she also relishes the thought of one day going back to the classroom to “have some very different discussions in a much less hypothetical way about the workings of Congress.”

“They try to push me out every two years,” she said, referring to her reelection races, “but it won’t be because I’ve overstayed my welcome.”