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FAIRFIELD – Sen. Chris Murphy came out to support Secretary of the State candidate Stephanie Thomas and various state legislature candidates at a Fairfield Democratic Town Committee event, backing the Democratic Party in the midterm elections.
“Every single race matters to me, from the governor to Senator Blumenthal’s race to the congressional races,” Murphy told CT Examiner. “We’ve been a pretty reliably Democratic state – especially as the Republican Party has taken this radical turn – and I think we’ll remain that way after this election.”
A CT Examiner poll put Sen. Richard Blumenthal up just 5 points over Republican candidate Leora Levy, but Murphy said he was confident Blumenthal would win a solid victory.
“I think he’ll do really well,” Murphy said. “He’s obviously running against a real radical. The state is not going to support an election denier for the United States Senate.”
At the event, Murphy emphasized the importance to volunteers of bringing Democrats out on election day to support the candidates standing with him – Thomas, State Rep. Jennifer Leeper, State Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, State Senate candidate Tim Gavin and State Representative candidate Sarah Keitt.
Murphy said that two-thirds of the 600,000 voters who vote in presidential elections — but not midterm elections — are Democrats. He asked attendees to remember Nov. 9, 2016.
“Remember how you felt the day after the 2016 election when you woke up and Donald Trump was elected President of the United States,” Murphy said. “And I think every single one of us thought to ourselves, ‘Did we do enough?’”
Murphy said he felt good about Rep. Jim Himes, Gov. Ned Lamont and Blumenthal, but that he also didn’t think Donald Trump would win. With only six days left until election day, Murphy asked volunteers to commit themselves to pulling out low propensity votes.
“You won’t regret it, because this team behind me is just full of superstars,” Murphy said, referring to the state candidates. “You guys send leaders to the state legislature.”
Murphy said the job of Secretary of the State had always mattered, but it really mattered now – he said Thomas would be Connecticut’s chief democracy defender.
Thomas, a State Representative for District 143, told the audience gathered that democracy was under attack – not just in the country, she said, but in Connecticut as well. She said it was the responsibility of Democrats to correct the record when necessary.
“We’ll continue to see attacks on our right to vote. Whether it’s closing polling locations like happened in Newington last year. Whether it is denying or refuting election results, like I feel certain is going to happen this year,” Thomas said. “We have to be vigilant up until election day and past election day.”
Thomas said that as long as Democrats get out to vote, they would be victorious. She thanked the volunteers for electing the four state legislature candidates in advance.
Leeper said she would miss having Thomas in the legislature, but applauded her deep commitment to democracy.
Leeper, Vahey, Gavin and Keitt all thanked Murphy, Thomas and the 30-plus volunteers for their support and encouraged their push to get voters to the polls.