(Additional reporting by Owen Doody)
It was a night to remember for local Democrats, who won nearly all of their races in convincing fashion.
Rosa DeLauro will be returning to Washington, D.C., having won re-election by earning more than double the total votes earned by her challenger, Republican Margaret Streicker.
Hamden voters also elected to send former Vice-President Joe Biden to the White House, again with Biden winning more than double the total of votes earned by incumbent President Donald J. Trump.
In terms of state races, incumbent Martin Looney will return to Hartford, having earned slightly more than 2,000 votes over the Republican challenger, Jameson White, and Alexander Taubes, a petitioning candidate who came away with just over 100 votes.
Jorge Cabrera narrowly defeated Republican George Logan to win the 17th Senatorial District.
Running for the state House of Representatives, incumbent Josh Elliott earned another term in Hartford, winning his campaign by nearly 1,000 votes.
Michael D’Agostino won his race for the 91st House District by nearly 1,100 votes against petitioning candidate Weruche U. George.
Sean Grace, chair of the Hamden Democratic town committee, was grateful for the work of volunteers who helped make the tremendous level of success happen.
“I’m grateful for all of the volunteers that spent countless hours knocking on doors, making calls and poll standing to bring our message directly to the voters,” Grace said.
Grace added that the town experienced near-record levels of turnout, and this supported not only the presidential candidates, but candidates up and down the ballot.
“It’s clear we had a very large turn out as one would expect in a presidential election year and it’s also clear that this turn out benefited Democratic candidates up and down the ballot,” Grace said.
He added that it is important Democrats who won their races come through and provide results for the citizens who elected them.
“With strong Democratic majority in both chambers and with a clear mandate for progressive change and with so much uncertainty in Washington I think we are going to see very far reaching legislation that will touch the lives of everyone in our state,” Grace said.
On the other side, Republicans didn’t have a fantastic showing in Connecticut elections, but there is hope for the future. State senate race in the 17th district came down to a 2% win by Democrat Jorge Cabrera.
Alexander Burns, a senior political science major at Quinnipiac and one of Hoyts campaign assistants, explained that though Hoyt may not have won, she definitely made a dent in a race that was already leaning Democratic.
“I’m happy with the numbers that came up for Kathy,” Burns said. “The 88th district has always been pretty strong Democrat leaning, and I think the fact that she was able to pull 35% of the vote when in the previous election the Republican candidate pulled just under 30% is a big gain. I think had the (general) election not been so focused on the Trump administration, Hoyt would’ve been able to take the win and represent the 88th.”
Burns also said that he was a bit shocked when he finally reviewed the voting outcome in Connecticut.
“Connecticut’s been very blue for a long time. The congressional seats did not surprise me, but the extent that the Democrats were able to flip a lot of Republican seats in the Connecticut state house did.”
However, what surprised everyone was the local voter turnout. Toward the end of election night, voter turnout was closing in on 80%, which was a whole 5% higher than the last election.
“I believe that local and state elections are more important in your daily life (than general elections),” said Jeremy Gustafson, volunteer coordinator and a campaign manager for Kathy Hoyt. “Yes, the federal government does pass a lot of laws and regulations that affect the country as a whole, but when you need help cutting a tree down, or putting in a new sidewalk somewhere, fixing the road, you don’t go to the federal government, you go to the locals. It really does help the state because they do a lot of things revolving around budgets, and making sure sectors are fully funded and function within the state.”