Democrats across the country hope for a blue wave on Election Day. In Connecticut, several delegation members could head to powerful committee leadership positions if Dems take the House.

WSHU’s Ebong Udoma spoke with CT Mirror’s Lisa Hagen about Connecticut’s five congressional races as part of the collaborative podcast Long Story Short. Read Lisa’s coverage here.

WSHU: Hello, Lisa.

LH: Hey, thanks for having me.

WSHU: Okay, well, polls and early voting numbers indicate November 3 might be a good night for Democrats. You’ve investigated five races in Connecticut based on a combination of factors, including district makeup, incumbency, fundraising advantage, and the state’s swing toward Democrats in the Trump era. What did you find? Let’s start with the first district, the only one without an incumbent on the ballot.

LH: Yeah, it’s an interesting one because the state’s delegation has been pretty stable, you know, at least since I’ve covered it, and has been the same membership since pretty much 2018, and so this is the first time in a long time, and especially in the first district based around Hartford, that constituents and voters will have a new member. And so Congressman John Larson (D-CT-1), who’s been there for 28 years, lost the Democratic primary, and so now it is former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin (D) who is favored to get the seat, given the district’s makeup again, how it is one of the bluest in the state, and he faces Republican Amy Chai, who is a doctor. She actually has run before as an independent in the third district. She doesn’t live in the first, but says she would move there if she won. And so it’s between Bronin and Chai. There’s also a Green Party nominee and a write-in candidate. On November 3, a new member will represent the first district, and based on how it’s looking, it will be former Mayor Luke Bronin.

WSHU: Okay, now let’s move over to the second district in eastern Connecticut. What do you see there?

LH: It’s an interesting one. It makes up the entire eastern part of the state. It’s on its face a pretty competitive district. But Joe Courtney (D-CT-2) has held it since 2006, and he won by 83 votes. And now he’s won re-election pretty easily. He’s been able to kind of cobble together a pretty diverse voting coalition. I mean, there’s clearly ticket splitting that happens. People vote Republican in local offices but still vote for a Democratic member in Congress. And so he faces Republican George Austin. He’s a contractor. He’s a first-time candidate, and so he’s trying to kind of cut into, you know, Joe Courtney’s advantages there. Maybe pull some of those Republicans back into the fold, and he’s going for more low-propensity voters. That’s worked for Republicans, especially President Trump, nationally. So we’ll see if he can kind of replicate that on a more local level.

WSHU: And now let’s turn to the third district, where we have the longest-serving member of the Connecticut delegation, Democrat Rosa DeLauro, and she’s running for a historic 19th term. How does it look for Rosa DeLauro?

LH: She still looks favored to win. It’s the district based around New Haven. It is also a pretty blue district, though, you know, as someone who’s been there since she won in 1990, she says, based on how she’s been looking at her district, things are starting to change a little bit. She feels like people are, you know, maybe Democrats aren’t coming out in large numbers like they have been in the past in cities like New Haven, and maybe things are swinging a little bit. But on the whole, it looks like she is poised to get that historic 19th term. And you know, for her and a lot of members who are running for re-election in the delegation, they have their eyes on chairmanships of their committees. If Democrats take back the House, which, at least as things stand right now, looks pretty good for them. And so, as part of her pitch to voters for having another term, she really wants to be chair of the House Appropriations Committee. It is arguably the most influential one, and it makes all the decisions about how the federal government spends money and how money is allocated to agencies. And at a time when there’s been a lot of cutbacks to federal funding, I think she sees herself as someone who would come in if Democrats are in power and try to make up for some of that lost funding. And she faces Republican Chris Lancia, also a first-time candidate, someone who was a Democrat back in the day, but is a Republican Party member now, and you know has kind of made the calls for change for someone who’s been again serving for decades at this point, and has also kind of talked about her age a little bit since she is also the oldest in the delegation.

WSHU: Yeah, now talking about seniority, we have Representative Jim Himes (D-CT-4) in the fourth district in Connecticut, and he’s the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee right now. So he stands a chance of being the chair if the Democrats win. What’s his race looking like?

LH: Yeah, he’s making again a very similar pitch to the rest of his colleagues in the delegation that if he gets reelected again, which again it looks likely in the southwestern part of the state, that he would be seeking the top role on the Intelligence Committee. He’s currently the ranking member for Democrats, but he would stand to become chair if Democrats take back the House. All these committees have very different roles, but there’s a through line in all of them, and it’s an oversight of the Trump administration. So he very much sees himself playing a role in that. He faces Republican Michael Goldstein in a rematch. Goldstein is a doctor and an attorney. And then also an independent nominee, Benjamin Wesley, who has run in the past, and they’re kind of running on opposite sides of the spectrum of Congressman Himes.

WSHU: And now, Lisa, the most contested seat so far has been the fifth congressional district held by Jahana Hayes (D-CT-5). What does it look like for Hayes this time around?

LH: Yeah, the fifth district will always, I think, remain the most competitive. Republicans have had their eye on that for a long time. Hayes was first elected in 2018, and so 2022, that re-election race was her closest. Republican George Logan got very close. That was a year where Republicans did well and took back the House. She managed to survive that, and she faced a rematch from him in 2024, and the margin was just not that close, and that was not a good year for Democrats. So now the party in power faces headwinds in the midterm election. This is a good time for Democrats to be running, and things are definitely pointing in her favor. She faces a Republican, Chris Shea. He’s a retired Navy SEAL. He’s a firefighter. It has gotten less national attention than it has in quite some time, but there is some kind of last-minute outside spending that has been happening on behalf of both candidates. So maybe there’s a little bit of movement. Maybe there’s a little bit of hope left that the needle can move in the last week before the election. But it’s always a tough one, and I don’t think either party ever takes that one for granted.

WSHU: Okay, well, we’ll see what happens November 3. Thank you so much, Lisa.

LH: Thanks for having me.