Congressman Jim Himes, D-Connecticut, told CT Examiner Thursday that when he visits the state he gets an earful from residents in the state’s 4th Congressional District on two main topics.
Himes, who has represented the district since 2009, said it’s the economy and President Donald Trump.
“Number 1 is, broadly speaking, economic,” said the 58-year-old Himes, whose district includes most of the southwest corner of the state. High housing prices and high electricity rates. People are hurt by inflation, you know food and that sort of thing. And, I hear from a lot of people who are very concerned about the state of our democracy. Is it going to survive? Fairfield County, my district, has become a pretty blue place. Not everybody, but a lot of people, are really freaked out about a president who believes that he shouldn’t be bound by the Constitution or the courts.”
Himes said he spends more time – about two-third of his time – in Connecticut visiting with constituents. He spends one-third of his time in the nation’s Capital.
Himes is the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and a member of the House Financial Services Committee.
Himes discussed a variety of issues – from Iran and Israel to Presidents Trump and Biden and abortion and gun safety – in a wide-ranging interview Thursday with CT Examiner.
Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
CTEx: In a post on X this past week, you wrote that “preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is critical to the security of the United States, Israel and the world.” But with Iran closer than ever to becoming a nuclear power, do you believe there is still a diplomatic solution? Do you support current military actions by Israel against Iran? Is there a red line in terms of actions by the U.S. or Israel that you would not support?
U.S. Rep. Jim Himes: Let’s start by saying what is true, which is that Iran can’t get a nuclear weapon. They are no closer today than they were four weeks ago or three months ago. You know, the Prime Minister of Israel [Benjamin Netanyahu] decided to do this for a whole bunch of reasons. He’s been looking to do this for decades, and I do think that a diplomatic solution is still possible for two reasons. Number one: The one thing that has ever kept Iran from making progress on the development of nuclear capability was the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]; the deal that was struck during Obama. The Iranians shipped their uranium to Russia; they shut down their centrifuges. So we know that that can work, whereas a military solution is very, very risky and may not work. So, you know, the Iranians are obviously back on their heels right now. And so if I were advising the president, I would say the Iranians are on their heels. Call them up and say, this all stops. If you agree to give up enrichment, that’s the deal. And I think that there’s some chance they might take it, but I’m not sure the Israeli prime minister would go along with that. His objective here is regime change. And well, that might be nice to see. You know, attempts at regime change in the Middle East very rarely work out as happily as you would like.
CTEx: 800,000 Connecticut residents rely on Medicaid. In 2023, 46 percent of all federal funding to the state – $5 billion – went to providing those residents with healthcare. How do you see the state faring in the current Congress with regard to Medicaid funding? As you know, last month Gov. Ned Lamont declared an emergency to fill a possible $284 million Medicaid shortfall.
Himes: You should really ask a local hospital or a local health center. And, what they will tell you is that the planned Medicaid cut will be devastating for them. The Republicans are being dishonest in saying that you can cut hundreds of millions of dollars from Medicaid using only waste, fraud and abuse. That’s just a flat out lie. It will put tremendous pressure on our health centers, our hospitals, and it will – the numbers show that – it will kick between five and 10 million Americans off of their Medicaid health insurance. Look in the House bill and you’ll see that the Republicans have made these cuts to kick in on the other side of the midterm election. Wow, that’s not an accident. They’ve done that because they know that this is going to be devastating. And by the way, really devastating in red states. Connecticut – a pretty affluent state – our state legislature will try to make up some of the cuts.
CTEx: Gun control has been a big issue for you during your political career. You were supportive of several measures since the 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook, most notably the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which included provisions to strengthen red flag laws and background checks for gun buyers under the age of 21. In your view, what’s left to do on the issue, and what do you think can get done over the next four years?
Himes: Connecticut has actually done a really good job at putting in place a really well-balanced set of gun regulations that are keeping Connecticut people safe without impinging on people’s Second Amendment rights. Nationally, we have work to do. There’s still way too much availability of assault rifles. And, I wish we would spend more time focused on safe storage. Some two-thirds of the gun deaths in this country are not Sandy-Hook-style massacres. Two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides. We don’t talk nearly enough about how we can either encourage or require that people who are exercising their Second Amendment rights to not ever provide the opportunity for a weapon to be stolen or used for a crime or for suicide. And it frustrates me, frankly, that we don’t spend more time on that because as horrible as these awful massacres are, we could really reduce a lot of carnage if we focused on things like safe storage or even trigger locks. We could save a lot of lives.
CTEx: In the last five months, has there been anything that the Trump administration has gotten right? And, what’s your single biggest concern about what they’ve gotten wrong?
Himes: In terms of right. I would point to Syria. Now, Americans are famously uninterested in foreign policy, but Syria was one of the world’s ugliest and most violent hell holes. And, the president, by being open to the new leader of Syria, who admittedly has a pretty ugly past, may provide the opportunity for a stable and growing Syria. And, that’s really important in the region I’ve got to give the president kudos for being open to supporting the new regime in Syria.
And then the single biggest, single concern about what he’s gotten wrong.
Tariffs. In the next couple of months, Americans are going to really start really feeling those tariffs. It’s going to show up in automobile prices, show up in avocado prices. It’s going to start hurting Americans at the supermarket and in the car dealership. And I think that both going to be very bad for the economy, but also politically pretty catastrophic for the president.
CTEx: Has your party’s message on immigration changed since the 2024 election, and is there a consensus among Democrats about how to approach the issue in 2026? In the meantime, do you plan on responding to the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants? I know you’ve been a staunch supporter of so-called “Dreamers” – undocumented immigrants who crossed the border illegally as children with other family members.
Himes: I don’t want to try to characterize the whole party, because there’s a lot of people with a lot of different views. I feel very strongly about two things. Number one, we need a secure border. And, I think, the Biden administration can be held to account for not securing the border faster. Number two, we need more, a lot more legal immigration. There’s a reason the President [Trump] temporarily halted the enforcement actions in hotels and agriculture. You know, practically every tech firm in America is either founded by or run by immigrants. So what I think we need to do is secure the border to make sure that you don’t have millions of undocumented people in this country. That, by the way, will involve a path to citizenship for certain of those undocumented. And then we need a much more streamlined immigration system where we invite the world – the best and the brightest in the world – to come be American.
CTEx: Prior to serving in Congress, you ran the New York City branch of the Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit dedicated to addressing the challenges of urban poverty. From your seat in Congress, how do you plan to help residents living in Connecticut cities? What’s your party’s message for the urban poor?
Himes: I think we have a pretty good track record over the years addressing that. For example, the Inflation Reduction Act passed four years ago. It reduced the price for the 10 most popular prescription drugs. It capped seniors out of pocket expenses. And Medicare. That makes a huge difference for people, and so we’re going to keep looking to find ways to bring down expenses for people. One of the things we need to do in this country is build a lot more housing, especially in places like Fairfield County. It is almost impossible to climb out of poverty if you’re paying two-thirds of your income in rent. Why do I say that’s hard? Because the problems that exist in the housing market are municipal and state problems. They’re zoning and land use, and the federal government doesn’t have a lot of jurisdiction there. But we can really encourage cities to do what Stamford’s doing right now. Stamford has added thousands of units.
CTEx: On July 11, 2024 you were the first Connecticut lawmaker to call on then-President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race. Do you think withdrawing earlier would have affected the 2024 outcome and – do you believe – that the press and those meeting with Biden were complicit in keeping information about his faltering health from the public?
Himes: I think that if Joe Biden had gotten out of the race a lot earlier, we would have stood a better chance. I think [Vice President Kamala] Harris worked very, very hard. But, Joe Biden stayed in the race way too long, which is why I came out and said what I did. I never understood why more people in the White House weren’t comfortable saying, “You know, sir, this may not work.” But, I don’t have any insight into that. I mean, I’d only seen the President five or six times over the course of his administration. I could tell that there was a problem there. I saw him showing signs of age. I was in a meeting with him once, an important meeting, where he was listless and unfocused. And, I just thought this is the hardest job in the universe. This is a 24/7 job, and it’s nothing against somebody in their 80s. This would be a hard job for a 35-year-old.
CTEx: Just five years ago legal abortion was a third-rail of American politics. Two years later, Roe v. Wade was essentially overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. This year, abortion rights are barely mentioned in the press. During an October 4th Congressional Debate sponsored by CT Examiner, you said on the topic of abortion: “If I have anything to do with it” the Congress “will pass a National Right for Women” to make their own reproductive decisions on their reproductive health care. Do you see any chance of that happening? Do you see abortion rights as a key to winning back the House and Senate?
Himes: There’s no chance that we see a national reproductive rights bill with a Republican Congress, no chance at all. We will see the reverse, which is more and more states trying to restrict a woman’s right to make her own decisions. Do I think that’s important in the elections? I do think it’s important, and I do think that we need to beat that drum. But I also think it’s really, really critical that we don’t take our eyes off the economic story. You know, James Carville was right. It’s the economy stupid, right? You know, people really do care about reproductive rights, and I think we’re on the right side of that issue. But, we can’t ever forget that for most people, paying the bills is probably their number one issue.
CTEx: Who was your political hero in national politics and why and who was your political hero in state politics and why?
Himes: I’ve always had Bobby Kennedy as a hero, not because he was an icon of the progressive Democratic Party, but because he evolved so much from being a kind of in-the-background hatchet man for his brother [President John F. Kennedy], to being a man of deep compassion. I really have always admired the transformation of Bobby Kennedy into what he became, and then obviously was so sadly murdered.
I have deep personal admiration for Chris Dodd. He’s probably the most human and humble public servant I’ve worked with. I admire his humanity in a very big way.