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Election Day is this Tuesday, November 8th. It has been the honor of my life to represent Connecticut’s First District in Congress. I am running for re-election because I am proud of what we have accomplished together and hope to continue to be your advocate in Washington to build on the progress we made, so we can expand Social Security and protect it against Republicans threatening to cut it, continue to fight inflation, and stand as the firewall against extremism.
I am a lifelong resident of East Hartford, and was a high school teacher and small business owner in my community before serving in Congress. I was previously elected to the East Hartford Board of Education and Town Council. I also served in the Connecticut State Senate, where I was proud to pass the nation’s first laws guaranteeing family and medical leave and protecting abortion rights.
More than a decade after Democrats fought to make the Affordable Care Act law, we built on that achievement to lower health insurance premiums and the cost of prescription drugs. Our Inflation Reduction Act will ensure no American pays more than 8.5% of their income on their premiums. The average Connecticut resident enrolled through the Access Health CT insurance exchange will save more than $1,600 and seniors will see lower Medicare premiums for the first time in over a decade. To lower prescription drug costs, Medicare will finally be authorized to negotiate prices on behalf of its beneficiaries. Additionally, insulin costs will be capped at $35 per month for Medicare recipients and no senior will pay more than $2,000 in annual out-of-pocket prescription drug costs. I am proud that we were able to pass real savings for Connecticut families without raising taxes on small businesses or anyone making less than $400,000 per year, but instead ensuring billion-dollar corporations pay their fair share. In fact, our efforts have reduced the deficit by $1.4 trillion this year, the largest one-year reduction in our nation’s history.
For the last two years, I’ve worked with my Democratic colleagues in Washington to get our economy moving again, lower costs to help families fight inflation, and invest in our crumbling infrastructure. At the height of the pandemic, we passed COVID relief legislation to get vaccines in arms, kids back in school, money in people’s wallets, and America back to work. We sent critical resources directly to every town and city in the state to bounce back from the pandemic – ensuring each community had the resources they needed to support their schools, fire and police departments, and small businesses. I worked with Rep. Rosa DeLauro and the entire Connecticut delegation to expand the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit, cutting taxes for more than 350,000 Connecticut families.
We then passed a historic infrastructure investment – $6 billion in Connecticut’s future. With this funding, we now have the resources to fix the I-84/I-91 interchange, New England’s traffic chokehold, close the digital divide so every home and business in the state will have access to the internet, and make much-needed repairs to our roads and bridges. These projects are already underway, bolstering the long-term economic growth, health, and well-being of our region.
If re-elected, my top priority in Congress will be to protect and expand Social Security. There are over 146,000 residents in Connecticut’s First District that receive Social Security benefits. We must ensure these benefits keep up with the needs of Americans on Social Security, yet Congress has not enhanced the program in 50 years. What is even more troubling is that many Republicans have come out with plans to cut, privatize, and even end Social Security.
As our nation combats the COVID pandemic and addresses rising prices, we should enhance the program American workers pay into with each and every paycheck, not cut it! My plan, Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust, will provide an across-the-board benefit increase, allow public servants like teachers and police officers to receive the full benefits they’ve earned, improve the annual Cost-of-Living adjustment so benefits keep pace with inflation, and cut taxes for 23 million low and middle-income earners. I am proud that more than 200 of my colleagues have signed on to my proposal, which is paid in full with no new taxes on any annual income below $400,000. According to the independent, nonpartisan Social Security Chief Actuary, Social Security 2100 will permanently improve the fiscal health of the Trust Fund. I will do everything I can to expand this program and protect it from Republican-led cuts.
The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade ignored almost 50 years of precedent and put the government in between a woman and her doctor when making health care decisions about her own body. We must ensure every American in every state can access the reproductive care they need. Extreme Republicans have pledged to pass a nationwide abortion ban if they take control of Congress, and threaten to limit access to birth control and outlaw same-sex marriages. I’ve cosponsored and voted for legislation in Congress to guarantee the right to safe and legal abortion, protect access to contraception, and affirm marriage equality, and will continue to advocate for these protections if re-elected.
There is no question in my mind that this is the most consequential midterm election in recent memory. We cannot afford to put extreme Republicans back in charge again. The last time they were in charge, rather than deliver results for working-class Americans, they ballooned the deficit so the top 1% of Americans could get a tax cut. Democrats are the firewall against their extreme agenda to roll back the progress we’ve made for working families.
Make no mistake about it, women’s reproductive rights are on the ballot. The future of Social Security is on the ballot. Access to affordable health care is on the ballot.
If re-elected, I will continue to be your advocate, fighting to lower costs for you and your family, expanding Social Security and protecting it against Republicans who seek to cut, privatize, and end this vital program, and standing up to an extreme agenda in Washington. I would be honored to earn your vote on Tuesday.
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Larson, a Democrat, is the incumbent representative for 1st Congressional District