2026 Candidates

For the first time in over 80 years, Connecticut has a Governor who began his career as a business owner and job creator. Governor Ned Lamont started a family and launched a successful business in our state because he believes in Connecticut: hard work, dedication, and neighbors looking out for one another.

Now, as Governor, he’s rolling out the welcome mat for more families and more businesses to call Connecticut home – with a focused commitment to affordability: lowering taxes, expanding job opportunities, strengthening our schools, and helping families and businesses keep more of what they earn, making it easier for everyone to build their future right here in Connecticut.

Governor Lamont started a business here in Connecticut; as a business owner and job creator, he took on telecom giants because he saw a better way to deliver value to customers, and grew his business to serve more than 400 of the nation’s largest college campuses and over a million students. He brings his business experience to work every day as Governor, and is always finding more ways to attract new, innovative companies, spur job creation, and make Connecticut a place where living and growing a business is both possible and affordable.

Ever since he started his career, Governor Lamont has focused on giving back to those in need. He ran a local newspaper, served in local office, volunteered as a high school teacher in Bridgeport, stood up for his convictions as a U.S. Senate candidate against Joe Lieberman and the war in Iraq in 2006, and served on the boards of Mercy Corps and the Conservation Services Group. He’s always stood up for Connecticut values. As Governor, he’s delivered real results, including the largest income-tax cut in history for middle-income families – putting money back in the pockets of working people.

Governor Lamont is a graduate of Harvard College and earned a Master of Business Administration from the Yale School of Management. He and his wife Annie have been married for over 40 years.

Susan’s top priorities are growing good-paying jobs and investing in public education and job training. During unprecedented and challenging times, she, alongside Governor Ned Lamont, has led with grit and grace, saving lives, putting our state on strong fiscal footing, and rebuilding our economy.

The Lamont-Bysiewicz Administration has delivered results, passing seven balanced budgets, making record investments in education, paying down pension debt, and securing the two biggest tax cuts in the history of Connecticut. She and Governor Lamont have made our state more affordable by capping the cost of insulin, expanding access to high-quality and low-cost child care, and creating a program to assist first-time home buyers.

Susan advocated for Connecticut’s landmark paid leave program, which has helped more than 165,000 workers welcome a new baby, take care of a sick loved one, or recover from an illness. She was a leading voice for legislation to increase the minimum wage to $16.35 an hour with annual automatic increases for inflation, uplifting more than 170,000 families.

As Chair of the Governor’s Council on Women and Girls, Susan led the fight to defend reproductive rights and freedoms, making Connecticut a national leader in women’s health care.

As Secretary of the State from 1999 to 2011, Susan advocated for small businesses and fair elections. She helped thousands of businesses grow, registered thousands of voters, cut bureaucratic red tape, honored veterans, protected voters rights, and modernized voting technology.

As a state representative in the Connecticut General Assembly, representing the towns of Middletown, Middlefield, and Durham, she wrote legislation to ban dangerous “drive-through” mastectomies and ensure that women being treated for breast cancer had proper care. Additionally, she wrote the law to ban lobbyists from giving gifts to legislators.

As a business lawyer and a job creator, she has helped over sixty companies access millions of dollars in capital, expand their businesses, and create thousands of jobs in Connecticut.

Susan was raised in a large Catholic family as the proud granddaughter of immigrants who came to Connecticut from Poland and Greece with nothing but hopes for a better future. After many years of factory work, they saved enough to buy a farm in Middletown that became her childhood home. Growing up and working on the farm, she and her siblings learned the values of hard work, education, and persistence.

Susan’s passion for public service was inspired by her parents. She watched her mother raise four children while teaching law school and becoming the first female tenured professor at UCONN Law School. Her father, a World War II veteran, was the first in his family to go to college by taking advantage of the GI bill. He then ran a successful insurance business while also tending a 40-acre farm.

After graduating from Yale University, Susan met her husband, David Donaldson, at Duke Law School. They live in Middletown where they raised their three children, Ava, Leyna, and Tristan, who, like their mom, attended Middletown public schools and graduated from Middletown High School. She is the author of Ella: A Biography of Ella Grasso, Connecticut’s 83rd governor.

From 2016 to 2024, Luke served as the mayor of Hartford, where he tackled the city’s biggest challenges with honesty and urgency. Luke led the effort to save Hartford from bankruptcy and stabilize its finances. He drove record investments in housing, with thousands of new or rehabilitated affordable and market-rate units. Luke also created the nationally-recognized Hartford Youth Service Corps, led the city through the pandemic, and made public safety a priority.

A Rhodes Scholar, Luke served as a Navy intelligence officer and deployed to Afghanistan as part of the U.S. military’s anti-corruption task force. There, Luke saw what happens when corruption replaces the rule of law: trust in government collapses, the well-connected benefit, and everyone else gets hurt. Luke served as a senior official in President Obama’s Treasury Department and was part of the team that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to protect Americans from predatory lending and financial abuse.

Later, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes.

Prior to his terms as Mayor, Luke served as General Counsel to former Governor Dannel Malloy, where he helped enact Connecticut’s common sense gun laws, supported green energy initiatives, and made ending chronic homelessness among veterans a priority. Luke will be the Congressman we need to meet the moment and take our country back.

Dr. Saud Anwar is an American physician, public health leader, and elected statesman whose career represents the intersection of medicine, public service, and humanitarian leadership. For more than three decades, he has dedicated his life to advancing the health and well-being of individuals and communities through patient care, healthcare leadership, legislative innovation, and civic engagement. His work reflects a rare combination of clinical excellence, strategic vision, and an unwavering commitment to improving lives through evidence-based policy and compassionate leadership.

Dr. Jaime S. Foster is serving her third term as State Representative in the Connecticut General Assembly, proudly serving the 57th District of Ellington, East Windsor, and Vernon. She currently serves as the House Chair of the Veterans' and Military Affairs Committee, as well as a member of the Banking Committee and Energy and Technology Committee.

Before being elected to serve in the General Assembly, Dr. Foster served on the Ellington Human Services Commission, the Board of Education, and the State’s Milk Promotion Board. She continues to serve on the Ellington Farmers Market Board of Directors.

Dr. Foster is an alumnus of UCONN’s College of Agriculture Health and Natural Resources; she received her B.S. in Dietetics and subsequently completed the internship and testing requirements to be a Registered Dietitian. She obtained her MS and Doctorate in Nutritional Sciences at UCONN College of Agriculture Health and Natural Resources and completed her post-doctoral training at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

Dr. Foster is the only scientist in the legislature. She's proud to bring a critical and data-driven eye to policies to address CT's biggest challenges. As such, this year, along with the CT Scholar Strategy Network, she convened the first annual Moving Beyond Implications conference which offered researchers and scholars the opportunity to present their policy-minded scholarship to bipartisan legislators interested in evidence-based policymaking.

Dr. Foster is committed to advocating for meaningful change that will improve the lives of those in the community and focuses on district priorities every session. She's championed legislation to improve the lives of children, families, seniors, farmers, emergency services and public safety folks, educators, healthcare providers, and more!

Rick LeBorious is a small business owner, father, and proven public servant who understands the challenges facing working families. As the founder of United Metalworking, former Mayor of Enfield, and Deputy First Selectman of East Windsor, Rick has built a record of service and results. In Hartford, he’ll fight to lower costs, make healthcare more affordable, support local businesses, create good-paying blue-collar jobs, protect farmland, and put hard-working families first.

Stephanie Thomas was sworn in as Connecticut’s Secretary of the State on January 4, 2023. With a distinguished 30-year career advising and problem-solving for nonprofit organizations, running her own business, and serving as a State Representative of the 143rd District (Norwalk, Wilton, Westport), Secretary Thomas brings a unique blend of business expertise and a passion for civics to public service.

Since taking office, Secretary Thomas has led the implementation of significant election reforms in the state, including the successful roll-out of early voting. In September 2023, she secured a historic investment of $25 million to replace the state’s aging tabulators, marking Connecticut’s first voting machine upgrade since 2006. During her term, Secretary Thomas will also institute a new centralized voter registration system, election night reporting system, upgrades to the business.ct.gov portal and oversee the implementation of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of Connecticut, universal access to absentee ballots and automatic voter registration at several Connecticut agencies.

Secretary Thomas believes that a healthy representative democracy relies on regular and active participation in civic life by all. To promote robust civic engagement, she has met Connecticut’s communities in their own spaces, thereby cultivating a nonpartisan dialogue between the people and their government. She has travelled to barbershops and salons around the state as part of her Connect & Cut series, held civic trivia events at local libraries, encouraged businesses and nonprofits to be civic ambassadors through her innovative CEO (Civically Engaged Organization) program, and put the power of civics into the hands of the public by providing training via PowerofCivics.ct.gov and plain-language, civics resources at Civics101.ct.gov.

Born and raised in New Haven, Erick grew up in a community where people relied on one another to get by. Working in his family’s small store, he saw firsthand how hard families worked, how financial instability affected every part of a person’s life, and how invisible people can feel when their government fails to show up for them.

Since being elected Treasurer, Erick has put his values into action and delivered results that will improve life in Connecticut for generations. He has reformed the state’s pension funds, achieving the strongest investment performance in years while reducing the crushing debt inherited by taxpayers. By stabilizing the state’s finances, Erick helped end an era of fiscal uncertainty so Connecticut can stop paying for past mistakes and begin investing in its people.

Under his leadership, the Treasurer’s Office has reunited residents with millions of dollars in unclaimed property, helped families save for college, expanded access to financial literacy, and leveraged private donations to protect access to reproductive and gender-affirming care. Erick has also cost-effectively financed the construction of roads, bridges, schools, clean energy projects, and other critical infrastructure in every corner of the state.

All of Erick’s work as Treasurer is guided by a simple vision for Connecticut’s future. Opportunity should be universal, and every resident should have the resources and knowledge they need to build the life they want for themselves.

Sean Scanlon is a husband, dad of two boys and the 67th State Comptroller of Connecticut. 

The son of a police officer and small business owner, Sean grew up in Guilford and attended Guilford public schools. Raised by his single mother, Sean saw firsthand how hard families work to make ends meet and how difficult it can be to afford healthcare and prescription drugs. He worked his way through high school and Boston College, and those experiences shaped his commitment to making Connecticut more affordable and giving every family a fair shot.

From 2015 to 2023, Sean served as the State Representative for the 98th District in the Connecticut General Assembly. He went to Hartford with a simple goal: to make life a little easier for the families who work hard, play by the rules, and deserve a government that works for them. As as a legislator, Sean wrote and passed legislation protecting people with pre-existing conditions from insurance discrimination, established the lowest monthly co-pay cap for insulin in the nation at $25, prevented insurance companies from covering mental health different than physical health, required health insurance plans to cover ten "Essential Health Benefits" such as maternity care and hospital visits, and created Connecticut's first prescription drug price transparency law requiring drug companies to justify large price increases. As chairman of the Finance Committee in his final term, he fought for tax relief for working families and helped pass the largest tax cut in state history.

As Comptroller, Sean has continued fighting to lower costs, protect taxpayers, and make government work better. He led the first meaningful municipal pension reforms in 80 years, helping save Connecticut towns $800 million, and has helped the state save nearly $1 billion through pension and healthcare reforms. His audits have exposed waste and fraud, including the misuse of state-issued credit cards and abuse of the disability pension system, while his investigations have helped protect tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money. He created the state’s first prescription drug discount card, dramatically expanded Connecticut’s small business retirement program, MyCTSavings, and has championed efforts to make healthcare more affordable and accessible.

Over the past eight years, Connecticut has stood up to the biggest bad actors and the most powerful forces. Attorney General Tong is fighting and winning and he will never back down when it comes to protecting Connecticut families.

Attorney General Tong has filed more than 50 lawsuits to stop Donald Trump from defunding the police, schools and medical research–hurting our families and damaging our economy. He has stood up to our state’s utilities to stop $700 million in rate increases. He has taken on the opioid and addiction industry and secured $50 billion for treatment and prevention nationwide. Now he’s taking the fight to Big Tech and the social media giants to hold them accountable for their harm to our children.

He is fighting hard against extremist threats to our reproductive freedom and healthcare and challenges to our post-Sandy Hook gun laws and he will never back down.

At a time when so many levels of government are paralyzed by dysfunction, Attorney General Tong’s bipartisan national leadership as President of the National Association of Attorneys General has placed Connecticut front and center in the most consequential legal battles of our time.

Mary received her B.A. in Psychology from Bates College in 2016, and she graduated cum laude with her J.D. from Western New England University School of Law in 2020. Mary was admitted to the Connecticut Bar in 2020 and the Massachusetts Bar in 2021. She is a member of the Connecticut Bar Association, Massachusetts Bar Association, Hartford County Bar Association, and Hampden County Bar Association. Mary is also Judge of the Greater Windsor Probate District, which serves the towns of East Windsor, South Windsor and Windsor.