Kamala Harris wins Connecticut by a wide margin

Democrat Kamala Harris won a stunning victory in Connecticut on Tuesday as voters rejected Republican Donald Trump in the presidential election for the third straight time.

The Associated Press called the race for Connecticut's seven Electoral College votes almost immediately after polls closed at 8 p.m. According to the initial results, Harris was in the lead here by almost 10 percentage points.

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

Although Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas had not yet provided a turnout forecast when the polls closed, her office described Tuesday's vote as “fairly stable.” And while voter registration typically presents some challenges on Election Day, Thomas also noted that with more than 741,000 early ballots cast and 120,000 mail-in ballots cast, more than a third of the state's voters were in the polls as of Tuesday.

(Election results in Connecticut: US President)

Trump had big problems in Connecticut

Since his first presidential campaign in 2016, Trump has performed poorly in heavily Democratic Connecticut.

Although he won that election, he received only 41% of the vote in Connecticut and lost the state by nearly 14% to former first lady Hillary Clinton.

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

Trump, whose policies on immigration, taxes, health care and other social issues have drawn significant criticism here, performed even worse in 2020, losing Connecticut and the national election to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump received only 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 appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court supported the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, which gave federal and state governments broad discretion to restrict access to abortion services.

“Women are coming out because of his comments,” said Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo, adding that fear of Trump, coupled with excitement over Harris's agenda, had pushed Democratic activism here to new levels.

“Voters are thinking about the personalities and policies of the people at the top of the voting rolls,” added Sarah Ganong, national director of the Working Families Party, who said Trump's character – framed by years of offensive comments about women, Immigrants, etc. – made it as unelectable as any other political issue. “I think voters are smart and thoughtful,” she said.

Briana Bak, 25, an athletic trainer from Farmington and independent voter, said Trump's track record on reproductive rights as well as his offensive comments 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 Chairman: CT Democrats focused on scare tactics

But Republican leader Ben Proto said much of Trump's struggles in Connecticut could be tied to Democrats' fear tactics.

With the national inflation rate reaching its highest level in 40 years in the summer of 2022 and Connecticut's taxes and electric rates remaining among the highest in the country, there are many reasons for voter frustration with the Biden/Harris administration. Proto said.

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

“Democrats have gotten very good at scaring people,” Proto said, adding that more nuanced economic issues “in many ways go over people’s heads.”

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

That means the Trump campaign is being pressured from all sides here.

“Any candidate can address any issue they want,” Harding said. But he added that Trump-centric campaign messages from Democrats are “hampering the ability to have meaningful conversations about issues.”

“This pretty much sucks up all the air,” said Carolyn DeGrand of Farmington, a customer manager at Cigna and a Trump supporter. DeGrand said she can't ignore four years of inflationary impacts and a sluggish economy.

“I’m definitely worse off now” than I was in 2020, she said.

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

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

Much of Harris' plan focused 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 set forth in the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973, we couldn't help but notice that dozens of states passed full or partial bans after the Dobbs decision, Flexer said.

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

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