This district hasn’t supported a Republican candidate since 2006, much like most of the rest of New England. Yet the GQP is trying really hard to unseat this incumbent, pouring tons of dark money in an attempt to wrest this district away from us. In the second entry for Defending Seats Week, I head to Connecticut’s 5th district to profile Rep. Jahana Hayes!
If you want to find my previous entries in this series, I recommend following me or searching for #MajoritySavers as a tag! Majority Savers is also a group now, thanks to 2thanks!
Jahana Hayes for Connecticut-5!
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Candidate Background
Rep. Jahana Hayes is an American success story, escaping the poverty and violence of her upbringing. She even had a child as a teenager, and still overcame that obstacle!
- She went to Southern Connecticut State University for her teaching degree, and then went to St. Joseph’s University for her master’s in curriculum and instruction. She did this in spite of raising a small child during the process.
- She returned home to teach government and history at a high school in her home town of Waterbury. She was also in charge of the gifted program at the school, as well as on the review board.
- Barrack Obama selected her as National Teacher of the Year in 2016, and she toured the country and talk shows promoting her vision of what schools should look like in the 21st Century. This gave her the platform to eventually make it to Congress two years later.
Signature Issues
Rep. Jahana Hayes is right in the middle of the Democratic caucus, which puts her firmly in the progressive camp. She votes for Joe Biden’s agenda nearly 100% of the time, just like other representatives. Her only caucus membership is the Congressional Black Caucus.
In terms of ideology, Hayes has a DW Nominate score of -0.368 for her first dimension. She also is in the middle of the caucus with her second dimension score. Hayes is more liberal than 71% of the entire House membership, while also being a hair more moderate than her Democratic colleagues.
Education: Naturally, given her background, this is a critical issue for her. She supports rebuilding school infrastructure, fully funding the IDEA which helps children with disabilities, expanding preschool opportunities, as well as making higher education more affordable.
Gun Safety: Sandy Hook is in this district, meaning gun safety is another critical issue for Hayes. She has a myriad of commonsense gun reforms including banning ghost guns and assault weapons, improving firearm storage requirements, and tackling community violence and mental health.
Food Insecurity: Not many talk about this issue, but as a part of a subcommittee that looks at this issue, Hayes takes it very seriously. She wants to end child hunger through a restoration of the Child Tax Credit. She also is for improved SNAP benefits and for funding various food programs for disadvantaged people.
Elections History
Recent Elections —
2020 President: Joe Biden (D) 54.6%, TFG (R-inc) 43.9%
2020 House: Jahana Hayes (D-inc) 55.1%, David Sullivan (R) 43.5%
2022 PVI: D+3
2022 Race Rating: Leans Democratic
This district is tucked into the northwestern corner of Connecticut, which tends to be the most conservative area of the entire state. For example, Hillary Clinton only won this district 50-46 in 2016, in an unexpectedly close race. Biden restored the margins to the spread above, but this district is still at risk as the GQP smells an opening here.
The area covered by the 6th district used to be very friendly to the Republican Party. Between 1982 and 2006, Rep. Nancy Johnson held this northwestern corner district fairly comfortably. That is why the 2006 blue wave was such a shocking election for everyone. Chris Murphy (now a senator) defeated her 56-44, which was an amazingly wide margin for this district.
Murphy handed off the seat to Rep. Elizabeth Esty, who held the district between 2012 and 2018. A minor scandal made her retire in 2018, and that allowed Rep. Jahana Hayes to claim this seat. Hayes has yet to be seriously challenged for the district, which means that her prospects now that she has a serious challenger are unknown. Hopefully, I am worrying about nothing.
Political Tour of the District
This district has a few cities, but it also has some more rural areas attached to it as well. It is those rural areas that make it a district worth watching, even though Rep. Jahana Hayes should be a slight favorite.
Here’s where this race will be won in the 5th district.
- New Britain: This suburb of Hartford is reliably blue, and it is critical to the chances of Rep. Jahana Hayes. She will need super turnout from this city if she is to entertain being re-elected in 2022.
- Waterbury and Meriden: These cities close to one another are also a rich source of Democratic votes, and Hayes is from Waterbury. This is her home base, and she will need it to turnout for her in order to win the district once more.
Here’s where we need to keep the margins down, or we lose.
- Danbury: This city leans Democratic, but not by a whole lot. Jahana Hayes will have to get at least 55% of the vote in this area, which is achievable considering Biden got 59% of the vote in this city.
- Rural Areas: There are some townships that are blue, but many of the more rural areas of the district are a pale red to modest red. Places like Newtown need to be close to 50-50 for her to win, while other places are all about damage mitigation.
Activism — Help How You Can!
Rep. Jahana Hayes definitely did not raise as much as she could in the 2nd quarter. She raised $348k, which added to her war chest of $1.69 MILLION dollars at the end of June. In the 3rd quarter, she raised $726k and has $1.56 MILLION to spend. Dark money is sensing weakness and is on the attack here.
Her GQP opposition, State Sen. George Logan, did not raise much in the 2nd quarter, only getting $122k for his campaign account. He ended June with $205k in cash. His fundraising for the 3rd quarter was hardly better, netting $305k. He only has $246k to spend in the final weeks.
DONATE TO REP. JAHANA HAYES HERE
Hayes is all about using your talents to volunteer for her campaign. Whether it be knocking on doors, phone or text banking, promoting her on social media, or fixing voter databases, there could easily be a spot for you to shine. The need for volunteers is acute now, as this truly is the mad rush before election day. Please volunteer if you are anywhere near this district!
VOLUNTEER FOR HER CAMPAIGN HERE
In terms of social media, I have one criticism to make — the buttons that exist on nearly every campaign site weren’t on her campaign site. I did a quick google search to find the links, but it is a little frustrating that I had to do that.
The good news is that even with that handicap, she has a robust number of followers on every platform. On Twitter, she has 40.3k followers, which is excellent for a sophomore representative. She also has about 19k followers on her Facebook account, which is another excellent number. Finally, she also has an Instagram account, but I did not go in and check that at all. Here’s her warning that Marjorie Traitor Greene will be a part of Congress instead of ostracized if the GQP wins.
Rep. Jahana Hayes is an excellent representative (and I am very hard to please). It would be a tragedy if she were ousted from Congress because we weren’t prepared for her to have a competitive race. That is the point of raising awareness of critical races for the House and Senate. If my articles spur one person to volunteer or donate to a campaign, I figure it is a success!
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Jahana Hayes for Connecticut-5!
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