STRATFORD — Fresh off of his reelection Tuesday to a third term as chair of the Connecticut Republican Party, Stratford attorney Ben Proto Jr. told CT Examiner on Wednesday that his focus now turns to helping Republicans win this year’s municipal races and next year’s statewide contests, including the governor’s race and General Assembly.
“The role of the party is a lot about creating and building infrastructure for our candidates,” said Proto. “We are greatly increasing our data capabilities, our digital capabilities, our voter contact capabilities. … Working closely with [GOP candidates] in developing those voter contacts and finding those votes that we have to go out and find to win elections.”
Proto, who served as counsel to the House Republican Caucus from 1987 to 1996, said he will be working closely with many of the state’s Republican Town Committee chairs and members of the State Central Committee to put forward “a really good slate of candidates” in 2025 and 2026.
Proto splits his week between the Republican Party’s Middletown office and his Stratford law office, but said he finds time for political work every day.
“I will take phone calls here at my office, I will do donor lunches, I will go to RTC breakfasts,” he said.
Proto recently spoke with CT Examiner about legislation, Gov. Ned Lamont and President Donald Trump.
Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
CT Examiner: Gov. Ned Lamont is expected to announce whether he will run for a third term. How strong is the Republican bench for governor?
Ben Proto Jr.: We have a great bench for governor. Right now we’ve got three candidates, one who is a candidate [Westport First Selectwoman Jen Tooker] and two who are exploring it [New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart and Peter Lumaj]. I think there may be others as we move forward.
The Democrats are in disarray right now. They are fighting amongst themselves over this really stupid housing bill that the far-left progressives, who I think really are probably more attuned with the soon-to-be mayor of New York City, the Democrat socialist [Zohran Mamdani], than they are with the good people of the state of Connecticut. I think it’s going to cause problems for Gov. Lamont. He vetoed the bill and his own people are now coming after him. They’re writing op-eds about why he should just go away. So I think that provides an opportunity for us.
When a door opens, you kind of have to go through it, even if it opens a little bit. That means you’ve got to push harder to get through it, and that’s what we’re going to be doing.
CTEx: What did Lamont get right this past legislative session and what did he get wrong?
Proto: I think the biggest thing he got right was vetoing [Omnibus Housing Bill] 5002. I think the biggest thing he got wrong, among other things, was a budget that does not help the state of Connecticut grow and agreeing to changes to the Trust Act, which really handcuffs law enforcement in the state of Connecticut in so many different ways. [The legislature and Lamont] passed and signed a law that says you can’t ask local law enforcement and local officials can’t interact with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] in regards to immigration issues, so you’re hamstrung because of your own acts. I think that was a huge mistake on [Lamont’s] part, to expand that and to really be at odds every day with the Trump administration.
I get that he’s in a different party. I get you didn’t support him. I get you don’t like a lot of his policies, but at the end of the day, there’s got to be some relationship. And it’s not just Ned Lamont, it’s [U.S. Sen.] Chris Murphy, it’s [U.S. Sen.] Dick Blumenthal, and it’s our five congressional members who, if Donald Trump said the sky was blue today, they would say, “Are you crazy? It’s yellow.”
CTEx: Why do you believe Lamont defeated Republican Bob Stefanowski for governor twice. What were the issues that put Lamont over the finish line?
Proto: I think the last time is because it’s very difficult to beat an incumbent. And of course, that election came out of COVID. [It was] when Gov. Lamont was enjoying very high poll ratings and very high approval ratings coming into the 2022 election cycle. I think that had a great deal to do with it. In 2018, it was a much closer election. It was an open seat. And I think it was also the midterm of Trump’s first term. And of course, the party in power tends not to do as well in the midterms. So I think those are probably two of the biggest reasons. … Whether we all agreed with him or not on what he did, he did have a high approval rating.
CTEx: What are the main issues the future Republican gubernatorial candidate needs to focus on to defeat either the current governor or another Democrat in 2026. Do you think they can be successful this time?
Proto: The number one issue that we hear from people across the state is that Connecticut is not affordable, and the Democrats have made it more and more unaffordable. I think that will be the biggest thing — having a cogent, coherent message on how you’re going to make Connecticut affordable. How are you going to make it better and easier for people who want to stay here, to be able to stay here for our children, our grandchildren, or to want to make their lives here and raise their families here?
I also think issues along the lines of education are going to be key. We continue to see our educational system fail in Connecticut. I think crime is a big issue for a lot of people. When we look at Gov. Lamont’s poll ratings, his latest numbers are out and he had a 52% approval rating, and he was under 50% on re-elect. This was a guy who, just a year or so ago, was in the high 60s.
I think people are beginning to understand that his and the Democrat policies are really causing them a lot of issues, particularly financial issues. It’s becoming more and more difficult to retire here. And more and more people who are looking at retirement are now saying: I can’t retire, I have to continue to work because my Social Security, my pension, just isn’t going to cut it. … Those are issues at the end of the day. Pocketbook issues are there. I think there’s some social issues out there [like] the transgender women’s sports issue.
CTEx: Republican lawmakers have recently come out in support of some of Trump’s policies. Do you think they are more aligned with Trump now than they were during his first term?
Proto: [Senate Minority Leader] Steve Harding and [House Minority Leader] Vin Candelora are very good leaders. They look at what’s going on and they look at legislation from a very good perspective … and they say how does it impact Connecticut? I think a lot of the things that President Trump is doing do positively impact Connecticut. And I think Vin and Steve look at that and say, ”‘If these policies are good for Connecticut, we’re in for them.” And we’ll go help push them, and we’ll go push legislation in Hartford to piggyback on what the president wants to do federally, and move that legislation forward.
[Democrats] would blame Trump if it started to rain. They keep telling us the Republicans are the party of no. But the Democrats are the party of no. Trump can do nothing right, as far as the Democrats here and across the country are concerned. And when you look at some of the policies that he’s put in place, they are positive policies, particularly some of the stuff that’s come out in the big, beautiful bill. Take the $40,000 SALT [state and local tax] deduction. I don’t know of any legislator here in Connecticut, or a member of Congress who says that’s a bad thing.
CTEx: What are the biggest challenges of being the state Republican Party chair in a deep blue state and how do you overcome that?
Proto: It’s funny, I don’t think Connecticut is a deep blue state. I think Connecticut is a deep purple state. When we look at some of our legislative races over the last few years, we had state senate races that we lost by fewer than 200 votes out of 10,000 or 15,000 votes. Those are close elections. … You can look at the number of seats in the House that were decided by fewer than 100 votes; there are a number of them. And I think that speaks really to where the electorate is moving.
When you look at the data, Republicans turn out at a much higher percentage than Democrats do. Republicans have gained about 7.5% registration since 2020. And Democrats have lost registrations. Now the Democrats have moved predominantly to unaffiliated. [Republicans are] getting a lot of new voters that are coming in as Republicans. What that tells me is that these people are leaving the Democratic Party because they no longer believe in what they’re doing here in Connecticut. So those are people we can talk to, and those are people that we can convince that there’s another way to do this.
CTEx: Talk about your time working for late Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, the kind of person he was and what he would think of the current Republican Party.
Proto: I had the privilege of being Sen. McCain’s coordinator in 2000 and again in 2008 when he was the nominee. I look at John McCain, and you know what he sacrificed for this country, both physically, mentally and emotionally, as a POW. I think John McCain would look at the Republican Party, and like I think a lot of people, would say it’s not the Republican Party I may have grown up in, but it’s a Republican Party that stands on the principles of what I believe in. It’s the belief in our Constitution, the belief in the individual. I think John McCain would look at today’s Connecticut Republican Party and say it’s a party that stands on principle and values,
CTEx: Do you agree with Trump’s bombing of Iran’s three nuclear sites and do you agree with how the president has tried to facilitate a ceasefire?
Proto: I think the president gave the Iranian government an opportunity to come to the table, to have a conversation and find a diplomatic solution. The Iranian government said no, basically shove it. The president had said he was not going to allow Iran to have nuclear capabilities, and that if they were unwilling to find a diplomatic solution, that he would find another solution to that problem. And he did. We talk a lot about the president’s actions. What we don’t talk about are those guys who sat in a plane for 37 hours and flew that mission, and all the support staff and the men and women of our military who put that mission together, who flew that mission, who hit their targets, who came home safely. And what’s interesting is there has been no indication that there were any human casualties. We destroyed their ability to create a nuclear bomb without injuring or killing a single Iranian person. I don’t know how much better you could get at engaging in a military operation that doesn’t hurt or kill anybody. So kudos to the president on that.
CTEx: What is the one area of policy that you disagree the most with Trump on?
Proto: It’s not so much I disagree with him, but I would like to see him sometimes better explain his policies. His love of social media, that’s great. But you are very constrained in social media, and so maybe sometimes policies that we know work are important, but I’d like to maybe see him explain them to the American people. Explain that better to the American people than just a couple of 100 characters on Truth Social or Twitter or something. Sometimes a little bit better explanation [would be helpful]. But I think for the most part, his policies are right on.