Gov. Ned Lamont defeats Ryan Fazio, winning 3rd term

Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat buoyed by Connecticut’s extraordinary string of budget surpluses after a lost decade of chronic fiscal crisis, won a third term Tuesday over Republican Ryan Fazio in a midterm election dominated by the policies and unpopularity of President Donald Trump.

The Associated Press called the race for Lamont shortly after 9:15 p.m. on a night when the only drama in Connecticut was expected to turn on the degree to which Democrats would increase their General Assembly majorities the day after the 10th anniversary of Trump’s first election, the beginning of a difficult era for the state’s GOP.

Early results suggested a Democratic sweep by the six statewide constitutional officers: the ticket of Lamont and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, and Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas, Comptroller Sean Scanlon, Treasurer Erick Russell and Attorney General William Tong.

House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said his staff projected Democrats would pick up at least nine seats in the House, giving them a majority of at least 111-40. Democrats gained at least one seat in the state Senate.

“This is going to be a great night to be a Democrat,” said Roberto Alves, the state Democratic chair.

The victory positions Lamont, 72, a Greenwich businessman who came to national prominence 20 years ago as a left-wing U.S. Senate candidate opposed to the war in Iraq, to become Connecticut’s longest-serving governor since statehood. It the leaves 36-year-old Fazio to contemplate a second run in 2030.

“I think we’ve made real progress in the state in the last eight years. We still have our work to do,” Lamont said before the polls closed. 

Lamont never trailed in any public poll, even nearly every survey found voters rattled by the high cost of living and many uncertain about their own economic security. With high gas prices driven by the war on Iran and the president’s on-again, off-again trade tariffs, voter animus was directed at Trump.

Their race was run under the shadow of the intense national fight over control of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, and the insistence by the president that voters treat him as being on the ballot — an invitation embraced by Democrats and ignored by Republican candidates in Connecticut.

“I think some people are paying attention to that,” a relaxed Lamont said. “I’m paying particular attention to Connecticut, everything we can do to make life a little more affordable for all our people.”

Speaking to reporters following his concession speech in Stamford, Fazio described his call with Lamont as “cordial.” He gave no indication about his future plans, other than his upcoming nuptials with his fiancée, Amy Orser.

“I think, you know, after any election, you need to take time to reflect, and that’s what we should do,” Fazio said. “I have a very busy month or so. We’re getting married, and, you know, we’ll move on from there.”

But Fred Camillo, the Republican First Selectman in Greenwich, predicted an eventual comeback.

“You always have to have a beginning of something,” Camillo said. “And what Ryan Fazio brought was an excitement that I haven’t seen in Connecticut in years.”

Lamont’s third term begins on Jan. 6, three days after his 73rd birthday. He has all but ruled out seeking a fourth term in 2030, smiling and saying, “Time marches on.”

Democrats were expecting another overwhelmingly victory in the suburbs that lined up behind the governor in 2022, giving him 56% to 43% win after a nail biter for the open seat in 2018.

Fazio was aiming to become Connecticut’s youngest governor, running on a relatively thin resume of five years representing Greenwich in the state Senate. 

Three of the state’s last four governors, Lamont included, failed in their first runs for the office. The exception was Gov. M. Jodi Rell, whose first and only run came after she succeeded John G. Rowland after his resignation. She won with 63% of the vote in 2006, then did not seek another term in 2010.

Polling showed Fazio struggled to make impression on voters. His campaign was tightly focused on the high cost of taxes, electricity and housing in Connecticut, and he never leaned into telling a story about his own biography.

“It’s never my instinct to talk about myself, my background,” Fazio said as he campaigned Tuesday. “It’s just not who I am. I’m running to do the job, and I’m running to accomplish goals to improve the state economy, to deliver opportunity to people. So it’s just not my instinct.

“That said, I tried to make an effort towards the closing weeks of the campaign to talk a little bit more from the heart about why I chose to run, what motivates me,” Fazio said.

Fazio was an assured candidate in his two televised debates with the governor, both of which most likely served as audition for 2030.

He avoided publicly complaining about having to run against a headwind generated by Trump, but he acknowledged a difficult day was coming.

“It’ll be a challenging Election Day, I think, for Republicans across the country,” Fazio said.

“But I also hear, ‘I’m voting for you, even though I’m a Democrat,’” Fazio said on a stop outside a polling place in Fairfield. “So I think there is going to be split ticketing, and I think you’ll see our campaign perform very well.”

Zachary Rairan, a first-time voter who emerged from the polling site a short while later, was not among those ticket splitters. 

The 19-year-old from Fairfield said his support for Lamont was driven by issues such as abortion as well as the governor’s support for a 2019 law that introduced regular minimum wage increases. But, he said, the national mood around the Trump administration was also a factor in his vote. 

“You can’t really disregard what’s happening at the national level,” Rairan said. “I don’t want to support a party that, at a higher level, takes advantage of people.” 

Another Fairfield voter, 67-year-old Matthew Benjamin, a Republican, was less enthusiastic about the prospect of four more years of Democratic leadership in Connecticut.

“I came for the cookies,” he joked, holding up a boxes of Thin Mints and Somoas purchased from a local Girl Scout troop. 

For the first time in his life, Benjamin said, he voted a straight GOP ticket. His chief concern, he said, was “fraud” and candidates lot living up their promises. 

“I’m just tired of all the B.S.,” Benjamin said.