Jessica Hill/AP Photo
Republican U.S. House candidate George Logan, right, speaks during a debate against Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT), October 18, 2022, in Waterbury, Connecticut.
DANBURY, CONNECTICUT – “In Danbury we have a red city council, our mayor is a Republican, and our school board is majority-Republican,” said William Sweeney, a lifelong resident of this city of nearly 90,000. “And it’s interesting because all of our representatives to Hartford and on a federal level are blue.”
This is a phenomenon that seems to span key cities and towns throughout Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District. New Britain voted for Joe Biden over Donald Trump by 35 points in 2020. Yet it has a five-term Republican mayor, and the GOP has a supermajority on the city council. Cheshire, a +14 Biden town, also has a Republican mayor and the GOP has comfortable majorities on the town council and board of education. Farmington, which went for Biden by 22, has, you guessed it, a Republican mayor.
While old-line New England Republicanism has been vanquished from Connecticut’s congressional delegation, it could make a comeback in the Fifth District this year. George Logan, a two-term state senator, would become the first Republican to represent this area in the House of Representatives in 18 years. Currently, there are no members of the GOP elected to the House of Representatives in all of New England.
Logan is trying to reverse the historical trend, and defeat two-term Democrat Jahana Hayes, by presenting himself as an outsider. The race, as Logan put it in an October 20th debate against Hayes, features “Washington vs. Connecticut.”
Why does Connecticut go for so many local Republicans? Turnout is partially to blame. Only 33.55 percent of Danbury voters reportedly turned out in off-year local elections in 2021, which were a big success for the GOP. As the local Danbury News-Times reported, Democratic leadership in the area blamed their losses squarely on the turnout numbers.
However, turnout is not the only factor. There is a sense among some voters that Republicans better represent their interests locally than Democrats. “Education is a really hot topic here in Danbury,” said Sweeney, who is supporting and volunteering for Hayes in the election. As an example, he told me about an ongoing charter school controversy taking place in the community.
“A lot of people are in support of this charter school. And that is what [local Republicans] are running on in 2022,” Sweeney said. He adds that, while local Democratic Party leadership is united in their opposition to the school (Gov. Ned Lamont has held off on providing funding), some “people who usually vote Democratic here are now going to vote Republican because they want this charter school.”
On the flip side, it is apparent that many CT-05 voters respond well to national Democratic Party policy. Hayes canvassers tell me in particular that folks on doorsteps are receptive and enthused when told about action on infrastructure and the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act. Furthermore, district voters are favorable to national Democratic Party positioning on issues like abortion, Social Security, and health care.
Nonetheless, there is concern among Democrats that, after two double-digit victories, Congresswoman Hayes appears to be quite vulnerable this time around. A poll last week from Emerson College showed the race essentially tied. Outside groups have poured millions of dollars into the race, with both the Democratic and Republican campaign arms and super PACs spending upward of $4 million. The Cook Political Report rates the seat as a toss-up. Logan’s go-local strategy, while self-serving, could work in a tough year for Democrats.
There is a sense among some voters that Republicans better represent their interests locally than Democrats.
HAYES IS AN IMPRESSIVE AND SHARP political figure with a compelling backstory. She was raised by a single mother, who suffered from drug addiction. Mother and daughter went back and forth between living at the Berkeley Heights housing projects in Waterbury and out on the streets. Hayes gave birth to her daughter Asia at 17 and had to work several night jobs while attending school. She still made the honor roll, and was able to attend college a few years later.
After college, Hayes became a high school history and government teacher, working with at-risk students at JFK High School in Waterbury. In 2016, Hayes was lauded for her efforts, named both the Connecticut and National Teacher of the Year.
Congresswoman Hayes serves on the House Agriculture and Education Committees. She has sponsored enacted legislation related to veteran mental health and supply chain shortages, and has been a particularly vociferous supporter of the Inflation Reduction Act. She appears to be someone in politics for the right reasons: genuinely passionate about policy, and with a strong desire to replenish the depleted American social safety net.
Hayes’s focus in the campaign has very much been on national issues, while Logan has sought to frame things locally as much as possible, even when it could be construed as misleading.
During an October 20th debate in New Britain, Hayes expressed support for codifying Roe v. Wade. Logan at first appeared to go against the consensus of his party, saying that he, too, supported the right to choose … in the state of Connecticut, which currently upholds abortion rights as state law.
“Washington vs. Connecticut,” said Logan, responding to Hayes’s assertion that his position was a dressed-up way of saying he supported leaving abortion policy to the states. “My focus is on the Fifth Congressional District. I support a women’s right to choose as codified in Connecticut state law, and I will defend that in Washington.”
“This is not Washington vs. Connecticut,” responded Hayes. “I support a woman’s right to choose, full stop. I have voted for it, I will continue to vote for it. It doesn’t mean that state legislators can decide. It means that the individual can decide for themself, all the time, regardless of the geography, what decisions they want to make over their personal and reproductive health. It has nothing to do with Washington vs. Connecticut.”
Logan, the son of Guatemalan and Jamaican immigrants, has stressed high inflation and Democratic mismanagement in his campaign, always with a nod to local concerns. “I was in Torrington last weekend, and I met a couple,” he said, while answering a question about Joe Biden’s economic agenda. “And they said to me that they voted for President Barack Obama twice, but they’ve had it with the current Democrat [sic] leadership now in Washington.”
In the debate, Logan appeared reluctant to associate himself with his national party, and did not mention Donald Trump’s name once (though his repeated use of the intentionally inflammatory “Democrat Party” terminology undermined his claim to independence). He was most aggressive in trying to differentiate himself from the national GOP on Social Security.
“I am not going to Washington to satisfy any party leadership. I want to represent the people of the Fifth Congressional District. I am not interested in sunsetting the benefit of Social Security … I will fight hard to maintain Social Security. From the inside! There is nothing wrong with having a Republican on the inside fighting for the Fifth Congressional District!”
While presenting oneself as an outsider is a common campaign tactic, Logan is of course running to become part of the national legislative body, and if he wins, his votes will have national consequences. As Hayes campaign manager Barbara Ellis told the Stamford Advocate, “A vote for George Logan is a vote to give people like Marjorie Taylor Greene direct power over our lives.”
Hayes has attempted to link Logan to the national GOP as well, explaining that a single legislator cannot counteract the tide of the party they represent. And her debate answer on trans athletes competing in K-12 sports, one of her strongest of the night, turned the tables on Logan’s “Washington vs. Connecticut” strategy.
“On every other issue Mr. Logan says the state should decide. Well, Connecticut has decided. Transgender athletes can play high school sports … There’s a lot about the biological journey that I don’t understand when it comes to trans athletes or trans students. But what I do understand is discrimination … In this role, your job is to be the voice for all your constituents. Even the ones you don’t understand, you don’t agree with. All of them.”
But whatever Hayes’s strengths and integrity, Logan may ultimately win this race because he has positioned himself somewhat ingeniously for this particular part of New England, and this particular political cycle. He has attempted to align himself perfectly with this suburban, 70 percent white district. He leans to the “left”—with plenty of sneaky caveats—on Social Security, abortion, and gun control (the Fifth District contains Newtown, site of the horrific Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012, and locals say that even Republicans do not dare be explicitly pro-gun in the area); and to the right—while often lacking specifics—on inflation, trans athletes, and police funding.
Hayes will win re-election if voters see through her opponent and value her continued efforts in shaping national policy. It’s the kind of give-and-take that could be decisive in races featuring Democratic incumbents facing Republican challengers throughout the country next week. It is also the kind of give-and-take that does not generally go well for incumbent parties during midterm cycles.
