If Jahana Hayes succeeds in winning a seat in Congress, she will be in a select group of minority lawmakers who represent overwhelmingly white majority districts. Hayes garnered substantial support among white Democrats, winning towns in the district with few minority residents, like Goshen, Litchfield and Southbury, by more than 66 percent of the vote.
Mary Glassman
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Hayes wins ground-breaking victory for 5th District nomination
Jahana Hayes, the political novice whose compelling life story drew national attention, soundly defeated former Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman Tuesday for the Democratic nomination to represent Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District.
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Candidates for Esty’s congressional seat hustle last-minute votes
Both the Democratic and Republican candidates for Rep. Elizabeth Esty’s congressional seat are frantically spending the last hours before the polls close on the primary races Tuesday searching for votes, sometimes one by one and often in towns considered the opposing party’s strongholds. Campaigning in the 5th District poses unique geographical and strategic challenges.
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Independent group aims to tie Hayes to Obama
Jahana Hayes, a Democratic candidate for the sprawling 5th District congressional seat, is getting some last-minute help in the form of campaign videos produced by an independent group that link her to former President Barack Obama.
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Hayes, Glassman, other pols search for votes at Newtown rally
Newtown – In the homestretch of primary races, Sunday’s March for Our Lives rally here was the place to be for Democratic candidates hoping to round up last-minute votes and extol voters to show up at the polls on Tuesday.
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Glassman, Hayes, not too far apart on key issues in heated primary contest
Democrats Mary Glassman and Jahana Hayes, who are in a tough competition to win the Aug. 14 Democratic primary both try to woo activist, liberal leaning Democratic primary voters, their positions on key issues don’t deviate much. But there are nuances.
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Biography and diversity, not issues, separate Democrats in CT-5
Mary Glassman unequivocally supported Israel, while Jahana Hayes called the question complicated. Hayes embraced federal legalization of marijuana, while Glassman called it a state issue. But mainly, the two Democratic candidates for Connecticut’s only open congressional seat disagreed Monday night on what message their victory would send.
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Disclosures show a wealth gap between Glassman and Hayes
WASHINGTON – Jahana Hayes is at least $115,000 in debt because of student loans, while her Democratic rival for the 5th District congressional seat, Mary Glassman, has at least $1.2 million in assets, some jointly with her husband.
That was some of the financial information the candidates filed with the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.
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DeLauro, Larson hold Capitol Hill fundraiser for Glassman
WASHINGTON – Reps. Rosa DeLauro and John Larson hosted a fundraiser on Capitol Hill for Mary Glassman, the state Democratic party’s endorsed candidate for the 5th District congressional seat, cementing establishment support for the former Simsbury first-selectman.
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Dems outpace GOP fundraising in race for Esty’s seat
WASHINGTON – Democrats running for the 5th District congressional seat have vastly outpaced Republican candidates in campaign fundraising, the latest reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show. As if June 30, Mary Glassman raised about $380,000 and her Democratic rival, Jahana Hayes, raised about $295.000.
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Hayes, a passionate educator running for Congress in an outsider’s year
Jahana Hayes took 19 high school students to California during Spring Break this year to help build a Habitat for Humanity house in an area decimated by forest fires and had an epiphany – she should run for Congress.“I wanted to give those kids a voice,” said Hayes, who would be the first black woman Connecticut sends to Congress.
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A heated review of a chaotic end to a congressional convention
The chaotic ending of a Democratic congressional nominating convention last month was intensely dissected Thursday night in a special hearing as delegates and advocates contested unsigned paperwork and other voting irregularities. The party was responding to complaints by Waterbury Mayor Neil O’Leary and Scott X. Esdaile, president of the Connecticut NAACP.
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Glassman running on experience for Esty’s seat
Mary Glassman, a Democrat running for Rep. Elizabeth Esty’s seat in the 5th Congressional District, hopes to fend off primary challenger and political neophyte Jahana Hayes with stories of her political experience, her own hardscrabble upbringing and an intense focus on local issues.
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Shannon Kula, a Democrat, declares for Esty’s seat
Shannon Kula, a former U.S. Senate aide, on Wednesday became the third Democrat, all women, to announce a run for the open 5th District Congressional seat, making a late entrance that will require her to petition for a place in the August primary. She faces a deadline of June 12 to gather signatures from two percent of registered Democrats in the district.
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A collision of insider politics, open primaries and race
At the chaotic conclusion of a congressional nominating convention, teacher Jahana Hayes briefly had at least 171 votes, the minimum necessary to win. Young spectators, some of them Hayes’s former students getting their first peek at politics, wildly cheered Connecticut’s endorsement of a black woman for Congress. It turned into something else, with angry questions from the NAACP, complaints about the role of a U.S. senator — and just a whiff of a voting irregularity.