Connecticut

Ned Lamont won a third term as governor, 59.6% to 40.4% over Republican Ryan Fazio, in a state Kamala Harris carried by 14.5 points.¹ There was no U.S. Senate race. Democrats kept all five U.S. House seats; the closest was the Fifth District, where Jahana Hayes won by 15.7 points in a district Harris carried by 5.5. The four other statewide offices on the ballot also went to Democrats, a sweep CT Mirror reported on election night.²

With no Senate race, the governor’s race is the one set against the 2024 presidential vote, and the change was modest. Lamont’s margin, D+19.2, was 4.6 points wider than Harris’s. Both parties drew fewer votes than they had for president: Lamont 78 for every 100 of Harris’s, Fazio 71 for every 100 of Donald Trump’s. The race drew 74% as many votes as the 2024 presidential election and 102% of the 2022 midterm’s. Down the ballot the shift was larger: the U.S. House vote, all districts added together, went from D+17.5 to D+27.0.

The New Haven metro area moved most, 7.1 points, from D+20.1 to D+27.2. The Hartford area, which casts 33% of the vote, and the Bridgeport area moved about the same, 4.3 and 4.0 points. The Norwich area moved least, 3.6. The Waterbury area stayed Republican, but by 2.9 points instead of 7.4.

Of the state’s nine planning regions, one changed sides. The Northwest Hills Planning Region, in the Torrington area, voted for Trump by 1.3 points and for Lamont by 1.8, on 50,257 votes. The South Central Connecticut Planning Region moved furthest, 7.1 points, to D+27.2. The Northeastern Connecticut Planning Region, in the Putnam area, moved 6.2 and stayed Republican at R+9.3. The Capitol Planning Region, the largest, went from D+21.9 to D+26.9. No planning region moved toward the Republicans.

The larger change came in the Legislature. Democrats went from 25 of 36 state Senate seats to 33, and from 102 of 151 House seats to 116, a House majority CT Mirror said had not been seen since just after Watergate.^{3, 4} The last Senate seat in doubt, the 34th District, went to Democrat Brandi Mandato after a recount of Wallingford’s ballots, WFSB reported.^{5, 6} Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding was among the Republicans who lost.¹ CT Mirror’s town-by-town comparison found the largest shift in Fairfield, where the Democratic share rose 35 points and a Senate district changed hands, and called the result the party’s worst showing in the state House since 1974 and its worst ever in the state Senate.⁷

A vetoed bill becomes law if two-thirds of the members of each house pass it again, 24 senators and 101 representatives, and Democrats were above that line before the election.⁸ They have not overridden a Lamont veto, NBC Connecticut reported; a professor the station quoted, Jonathan Wharton, said progressive Democrats could push to tax the wealthy or loosen the state’s fiscal guardrails, ideas Lamont has opposed.⁹ Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, endorsed by his caucus to become president pro tem, said: “We’ve been duly elected, and we have a mandate to improve affordability.” House Majority Leader Jason Rojas said the numbers let House Democrats be more assertive with the governor, who says the state needs more taxpayers, not more taxes. The 2027 session convenes January 6.^{3, 4} Lamont described his third term this way: “Build on what we got. Early childhood education and bring down the cost of healthcare.”¹

The General Assembly draws both congressional and legislative districts, and a plan needs the votes of two-thirds of the members of each house, a margin Democrats now hold in both. If the legislature misses its deadline, a commission named by the four legislative leaders takes over. The Secretary of the State is elected every four years with the governor.⁸ Democrat Stephanie Thomas, who held the office, won it again in our count.²

Connecticut does not elect its Supreme Court judges or its prosecutors. Supreme Court judges are nominated by the governor and appointed by the General Assembly for eight-year terms, and a commission appoints the state’s attorney for each judicial district.⁸ Mayors, first selectmen, town councils and boards of education may be up for election in odd-numbered years, according to the Secretary of the State.¹⁰

Republicans had no U.S. House seat or statewide office to defend, CT Mirror noted, and Fazio carried two of the nine planning regions. Three Republicans remain in the state Senate: Rob Sampson, chosen as the next minority leader, Eric Berthel and Henri Martin. Their districts cover parts of Southington, Bristol, Watertown and 19 other municipalities in the Naugatuck Valley region, and CT Mirror describes all three as in west-central Connecticut.^{7, 11} House Republicans re-elected Vincent Candelora as their leader.³

Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s seat will be on the ballot in 2028, in a state that voted Democratic by 14.5 points for president in 2024 and by 19.2 for governor this year. On November 4 he said he had no formal announcement but looked forward to being on the ballot that year.¹² The governor and the other statewide officers are next elected in 2030; the term Lamont won runs from January 2027 to January 2031. After the 2030 census the General Assembly must appoint a reapportionment committee by February 15 of the following year and adopt a new plan by September 15.⁸