Kamala Harris wins Connecticut by a wide margin

On November 6, 2024By Littum

Democrat Kamala Harris scored a landslide victory in Connecticut on Tuesday as voters rejected Republican Donald Trump for a third consecutive presidential election.

The Associated Press called the race for Connecticut’s seven Electoral College votes almost immediately after the polls closed at 20. Harris led here by more than 10 percentage points, according to early results.

The national race remained too close to call early Tuesday night, with the contest expected to hinge on key swing states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin.

Although Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas had not predicted turnout when polls closed, her office described Tuesday’s vote as “pretty steady.” And while Election Day voter registration typically presents some challenges, Thomas also noted that with more than 741,000 early voting and 120,000 absentee ballots cast, more than a third of the state’s voters had turned in Tuesday.

(Connecticut election results: President of the United States)

Trump has had a tough time in Connecticut

Since his first campaign for the presidency in 2016, Trump has fared poorly in heavily Democratic Connecticut.

Although he won that campaign, he captured only 41% of the Connecticut vote, losing the state to former first lady Hillary Clinton by nearly 14% points.

Harris had led Trump by 16 percentage points in a Sept. 23 Connecticut Mirror poll.

Trump, whose policies on immigration, taxation, health care and other social issues have drawn considerable criticism here, did worse in 2020 when he lost Connecticut and the national election to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump only had 39% of the vote in Connecticut and lost by 20 percentage points.

Democratic campaigns at the federal and state levels took aim at Trump this fall on the issue of access to abortion services.

Key Trump appointee to US Supreme Court backed Dobbs vs. The Jackson Women’s Health Organization resolution of 2022 that gave the federal and state governments broad discretion to reduce access to abortion services.

“Women are coming out because of his comments,” said Democratic state chairwoman Nancy DiNardo, adding that fear of Trump, combined with excitement over Harris’ agenda, has driven Democratic activism here to new levels.

“Voters think about the personalities and policies of the people at the top of the ticket,” added Sarah Ganong, state director of the Working Families Party, who said Trump’s character — framed by years of offensive comments about women, immigrants and others — made him as unelectable as any political issue. “I think voters are smart and they’re paying attention,” she said.

Briana Bak, 25, an athletic trainer from Farmington and unaffiliated voter, said Trump’s record on reproductive rights, along with offensive comments he has made about women and minorities, convinced her to vote for Harris.

“I don’t really understand what there is to support about him,” she said.

GOP Chair: CT Democrats Focused on Fear Tactics

But Republican state chairman Ben Proto said much of Trump’s struggles in Connecticut may be tied to Democratic fear tactics.

With the national inflation rate hitting a 40-year high in the summer of 2022, and with Connecticut’s taxes and electricity rates remaining some of the highest in the nation, there are plenty of reasons for voters to be frustrated with the Biden/Harris administration, Proto said.

But Democrats narrowed the race here largely to a discussion of reproductive health issues and the former president’s personality, he said.

“Democrats have gotten very good at trying to scare people,” Proto said, adding that more nuanced economic issues “go over people’s heads in a lot of ways.”

Trump has become such a political lightning rod here that Democrats running for all offices, including state legislative races, often focus much of their messaging on their opposition to the former president, noted state Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield.

This means that the Trump campaign here is plagued on all sides.

“Any candidate can bring up any issue they want,” Harding said. But he added that Trump-centric campaign messages from Democrats “take away from having meaningful conversations” about issues.

“It pretty much sucks up all the air,” said Carolyn DeGrand of Farmington, a senior customer with Cigna and a Trump supporter. DeGrand said she could not ignore four years of inflationary impacts and a sluggish economy.

“I definitely feel worse” now than in 2020, she said.

But state Sen. Mae Flexer, a Windham Democrat, said Connecticut voters are more focused than some campaigns realize.

Voters noted that Harris, who entered the presidential race late on July 21 after Biden, 81, dropped out over concerns about his age, quickly developed a plan to help struggling families, Flexer said.

Much of Harris’ plan centered on increasing the federal child tax credit from $2,000 to $3,600 for most children and to $6,000 for newborns.

And Connecticut voters, who overwhelmingly support the abortion access standards established by the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, couldn’t help but notice as dozens of states passed full or partial bans after the Dobbs decision, Flexer said . .

“They understand what’s at stake,” she added. “They understand what people in other parts of the country have lost.”