Connecticut candidates clash in multiple primaries; Leora Levy faring well for U.S. Senate against Themis Klarides

Conservative Greenwich fundraiser Leora Levy was faring surprisingly well Tuesday night against moderate Themis Klarides in a closer-than-expected race as votes were still being counted in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate.

After Klarides won the party’s convention endorsement with nearly 60% of the vote, many Republicans believed that she would handily win the primary as Levy and immigration attorney Peter Lumaj of Fairfield would split the conservative vote.

But Levy ran a highly spirited campaign, raising more money than her rivals and constantly blasting Klarides in negative television commercials that were shown repeatedly on multiple channels.

In the early results, Levy defeated Klarides in numerous small towns. The unofficial results showed Levy winning in Andover, Ashford, Burlington, Canton, Cromwell, Chester, Clinton, Colebrook, and Columbia.

“I feel like Dorothy right now,’' Levy said on live television as the music got louder at an Old Greenwich hotel.

Klarides won in Beacon Falls, Bridgewater, Cornwall, and Deep River, according to the unofficial results. Despite moving recently to Madison, Klarides needed a huge victory in her former hometown of Derby. She won by 56% to 36% with Lumaj carrying 7%.

The game-changer in the primary came when Levy won the endorsement Thursday of former President Donald J. Trump, who retains major support among Republicans, particularly hard-core primary voters.

Trump held a tele-rally for Levy on Monday night, and the Levy campaign said that 32,679 people listened to the call — a huge number at a time when 450,000 Republicans were eligible to vote Tuesday. Trump arranged the rally and promoted the call to his supporters through social media, and the Levy campaign said that 98% of the callers had been from Connecticut.

Both Klarides and Lumaj downplayed the endorsement from Trump, who is still seen as the most popular candidate in the Republican Party nationally even while no longer holding office.

Despite a call for unity by state party chairman Ben Proto, the candidates hammered each other relentlessly and did not focus their political fire on U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a powerhouse Democrat who has more than $8 million in campaign cash set aside for the November election.

“I’m the only candidate who has a chance to beat Dick Blumenthal,’' Klarides told The Courant in a recent interview. “We are never all going to agree on everything — ever. But we’re going to agree on way more things than what we disagree on. ... I would hope on August 10 that everybody is together.’'

On primary day, Republicans heard Trump’s voice in their homes on a robocall that was delivered after the voting had already begun. Trump’s call came in the afternoon as voters were urged to head to the polls.

“Leora will fight to stop inflation and the Biden administration’s war on American energy like nobody’s ever seen,’' Trump said on the call. “That may be the dumbest war of all. She’ll vote to secure our border and stop illegal immigration. She’ll defend free speech, our great Constitution and the Second Amendment. She will work to crack down on violent crime, support our police officers, and restore public safety. I hope you can all get out and vote for Leora Levy.’'

A narrator after Trump’s statement said the message, which lasted about one minute, was paid by the Connecticut Patriots PAC, an independent Super PAC that is supporting Levy. The committee’s executive director raised millions to elect Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who is now chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a key group fighting to help Republicans win the majority in the U.S. Senate.

Depending on the outcome Tuesday, Klarides had been planning to attend a national fundraiser Wednesday on Nantucket island, at a top price of $50,000 per seat for dinner, with Scott and top Republicans seeking U.S. Senate seats, including former football star Herschel Walker of Georgia and Dr. Mehmet Oz of Pennsylvania.

Gary Rose, a longtime political science professor at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, questioned that more than 32,000 were on Trump’s tele-rally call, saying that it sounded “really, really exaggerated.’’

Rose noted that Lumaj had largely disappeared in the final days of the primary, predicting that Trump’s endorsement of Levy would pull votes away from Lumaj among conservatives.

“Peter Lumaj has no media presence at all,’' Rose said in an interview. “I’m not even sure what has happened to his campaign. It’s almost like he’s becoming irrelevant since that Trump endorsement. I’m not sure many people are taking him very seriously any more. I think it’s over for him, and he knows it.’'

While the number of yard signs is not a scientific indication of the race, Levy had a far more obvious presence at intersections in recent days in places like Farmington, West Hartford, Bloomfield, and Simsbury. Levy’s distinct red-and-white signs were obvious to drivers passing by, while Klarides and Lumaj had few signs in those areas.

Bristol resident Rae Rudzinksi, a Republican voting for Bob Stefanowski for governor in November, said Trump’s endorsement of Levy made her choose Levy over Klarides.

“When I learned Trump backed Levy, I knew I had to vote for her,’' Rudzinski said. “I don’t know a lot about the candidates, but Trump’s endorsement was huge for me because it helps me know what she stands for. That was huge for me.”

She added, “The economy is the biggest issue. I like to bake, and going to the grocery everything is more expensive. Just eggs and milk have gone up. It’s getting too expensive.”

Levy is also supported by Simsbury landscaper Robert Hyde, a major Trump supporter who attended the state party convention but did not qualify for the primary this year after receiving less than 1% of the delegates in the final tally. Instead, he says he is running in 2024 against U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Hartford.

“This is the year for conservatives to run,’' Hyde said in a message. “The national political environment has not been this favorable since 1994.’'

Three Democrats for state treasurer

In a rare open seat as incumbent treasurer Shawn Wooden did not seek reelection, three Democrats battled for the position that is often seen as the second most powerful in the state after the governor.

Greenwich hedge fund manager Dita Bhargava ran a spirited campaign with two eye-catching commercials and a late endorsement from Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, who remain highly popular among Democratic primary voters.

As a former vice chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, Bhargava ran against another former party vice chairman, attorney Erick A. Russell of New Haven, and Karen Dubois-Walton, a Yale graduate who serves as New Haven’s public housing authority leader and chairwoman of the state board of education.

Russell was leading in the early, unofficial results.

Secretary of the State for Democrats

With the retirement of Secretary of the State Denise Merrill after 12 years, more than 10 candidates stepped forward to fill the open seat as the state’s top elections official.

State Rep. Stephanie Thomas of Norwalk defeated New Haven health director Maritza Bond in a race that became increasingly bitter as Bond started running negative television commercials on a steady basis.

Thomas won the party’s convention endorsement in a five-person race and rolled up more than 125 endorsements that included Merrill and more than 40 state legislators. Bond relied on the support of a wide array of unions for door-knocking and phone-banking, including the state AFL-CIO, the United Auto Workers Region 9 A, the Connecticut Employees Union Independent, and others that she said are the backbone of the Democratic Party.

Secretary of the State for Republicans

The convention-endorsed candidate, Dominic Rapini, defeated state Rep. Terrie E. Wood of Darien, a legislator who has won seven elections and has the most experience at the state Capitol of any candidate running to be the top elections official.

A longtime sales executive for Apple and local football coach, Rapini notes that he has coached more than 1,000 young players in the Pop Warner program in New Haven County over the past three decades. He taped a video with former GOP party Chairwoman Sue Hatfield, a former athlete who was carrying a football in front of a scoreboard as she endorsed Rapini.

Wood was endorsed by House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford, Bolton First Selectman Pam Sawyer, and Pauline Kezer, the last Republican who held the secretary of the state’s office in the early 1990s before losing a primary for governor against John G. Rowland in 1994. Democrats have dominated the constitutional office for decades, but Kezer broke the logjam as the only Republican winner over the past 60 years.

West Haven

Rep. Trenee McGee, an African American freshman legislator who has served less than one year in Hartford, defeated Joe Miller, a 24-year-old abortion rights advocate, in a contest that focused on abortion. Miller said he decided to challenge McGee after she made an impassioned speech on the floor of the state House of Representatives against an abortion bill that was later signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont.

“I’m proud of it,” said McGee, noting she knocked on doors and talked to many West Haven residents. “I worked very hard. I’m a boots-on-the-ground person.”

McGee knocked on doors with fellow members of the legislature’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus during the campaign.

The top issues she heard from people were taxes and the economy. “One of the things I heard about is how can we restore transparency and integrity. People are still reeling from the precious representative,” she said, referring to Michael DiMassa, who was indicted in the theft of federal COVID-relief funds.

Miller conceded before the town’s absentee ballots were counted.

“It’s an unfortunate result for the women of West Haven and the women of Connecticut,” he said. “I’m going to take this message from the Democrats home with me tonight.”

Asked if he might run as an independent, Miller said, “I haven’t ruled anything out. We built a movement and gave people hope.”

Abortion, McGee said, has been “destructive to my community” in urban neighborhoods, and she wanted to “speak the fearless truth” about too many abortions in minority communities.

The intra-party clash was the most interesting legislative contest of the primary season, said state Republican chairman Ben Proto.

Simsbury

In the Simsbury race to fill the seat of outgoing state Rep. John Hampton, petitioning candidate Melissa Osborne defeated party-endorsed Eric Wellman by 34 votes, securing the Democratic nomination for the 16th District General Assembly seat with 1,086 votes to Wellman’s 1,052.

Osborne, an attorney and alternate zoning commissioner who previously served on the town’s Charter Revision Commission, said that she is confident Simsbury Democrats will come together as she prepares to face off against Republican nominee Mike Paine this November.

“I know that the number one priority for Democrats has got to be making sure that we maintain a strong majority in the House to protect all of the rights and the core democratic values that we share,” Osborne said.

Wellman, Simsbury’s former first selectman and a current board of selectmen member, said that despite the loss, he is proud of what his campaign accomplished and wished Osborne the best.

“I told her that what she’s been given is a gift and a blessing. There’s really no higher honor than, you know, serving, being a public servant, and representing your hometown at the state legislature,” Wellman said.

An hour before the polls closed, Simsbury election officials reported a combined in-person and absentee voter turnout of about 31% for Democrats. About 19% of registered Republicans had also participated in the primary.

Democrats exiting the voting booths Tuesday said that preserving abortion access and maintaining a Democratic hold on the state government weighed heavy on their minds as they cast their ballot for either Wellman or Osborne.

Earlier today, Geoff Luxenberg, the majority caucus chair and deputy majority leader for the Connecticut House representing the 12th House District, campaigned for Osborne outside the polls.

“She is a brilliant attorney, a mom, a cancer survivor. She has been an outstanding Democrat, for Simsbury, and even beyond Simsbury, her entire adult life,” Luxenberg said. “She really impressed a lot of people. And I think that’s why you saw John Hampton, the person who’s vacating the seat, endorse her…And I think that says a lot about what a good job she’ll do. She’s also the strongest Democrat to beat the Republicans this fall.”

See courant.com for full results.

Courant staff writers Stephen Underwood and Pam McLoughlin contributed to this story.

Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com