HARTFORD – Ruth Fortune told CT Examiner Monday that she’s challenging Rep. John Larson for his seat in Congress in an effort to make public her story as an undocumented immigrant for 17 years, saying it’s critical for Democrats to push back against the administration of President Donald Trump on almost every important issue.
“I think there is a real hunger right now and a craving among people to see their elected officials really fight for them and fight for ways to make their lives better and for our democracy and our civil liberties that are under attack,” said Fortune, a 37-year-old member of the Hartford Board of Education and an associate at the Connecticut law firm Wiggin & Dana, where she specializes in trusts and estates.
“I’m not seeing, particularly on our Democratic side, the fight as aggressively as it should be happening. So much is at stake right now that we just have to be more bold. We have to be more audacious with how we not only push back against the Trump administration and fascism, but also advocate for the values we hold dear.”
Fortune is one of three people to announce their intention to primary Larson, a 14-term incumbent Democrat. But she declined to criticize him directly.
Fortune said that – if elected — she’d fight for making “life more affordable for people, assisting families as they support each other, and making our communities safer instead of having masked ICE agents taking people off the streets.”
Fortune moved to the United States when she was 12 years old and spent her high school years in Long Island, New York. Fortune did not become a U.S. citizen until February 2017, 17 years after entering the country with her family from Haiti.
Fortune told CT Examiner that she’d been thinking of running the “past seven or nine months, give or take. I’ve wanted to be in public service through elected office for a really long time because of my [personal] background.”
In addition to Fortune, former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin and Southington Councilman Jack Perry have filed papers to challenge Larson in a primary.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity
CTEx: Your family left Haiti when you were 12 years old and you and your family came to this country as undocumented immigrants. Please tell us how the Trump administration’s plans and policies to crack down on undocumented immigrants affected you personally and what would and could you do – if elected to the U.S. Congress – regarding ICEs efforts throughout the country and in this state related to detaining undocumented immigrants?
Ruth Fortune: The Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration is not only morally wrong, it’s really bad as well for our economy, bad for our country. When I was undocumented with no path to legalization, it wasn’t until a really awful earthquake in Haiti in 2010 that the Obama administration’s response to it was a humanitarian one, a compassionate one. They chose to give Haitians who were living here without documentation, TPS, temporary protected status, that allowed us to work here lawfully and not have to fear deportation. This is the same status that I would have [today]. I would still have TPS. There would have been no path for me to citizenship, but for having fallen in love with a U.S. citizen [husband, former Wall Street Journal reporter David Reynolds] and gotten a Green Card through him and ultimately my citizenship. There are so many immigrants who are here who have some type of temporary status, whether it’s TPS, whether it’s DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals], or a number of other types of temporary status. The Trump administration is cutting those programs, essentially converting these lawful immigrants into undocumented people so that they could meet their quotas of deporting people and getting to name call people illegal aliens.
The way they are approaching immigration enforcement is destabilizing, and it puts all of our constitutional rights at risk. We have to push for a path to citizenship for the hard working immigrants who have been here, who have contributed to our economy, who’ve raised their families here, who’ve made this place their home, who love this country. I could have been one of these people now who would be detained, but for having married a U.S. citizen. There are people who’ve been here for decades, many years, who are such a key part of our fabric. Yes, the only way to protect these people and to not make them vulnerable and expose them to whoever happens to be at the White House is to fight for a path to citizenship
CTEx: What is your biggest qualm and or disagreement with Rep. John Larson –- and please be specific –- and what will you do differently on those policy disagreements?
Fortune: I’m running not because of who represents me in Congress right now, but because of what I know I can do for our district as a mother of young children, a formerly undocumented person who came to this country seeking economic opportunity, seeking the safety of our democracy and the safety that our institutions offer. I’ve had to play offense and defense my whole life, and I want to do that for my country now. I’ve been here [United States] since I was 12. This is the country that I call home. This is where I’m raising my family. I want to give back to this country that has afforded me so many opportunities that I really could not have fathomed back in Haiti. I want to use everything that I have, all that this country has offered me, to fight back, not just to protect our democracy and to protect our civil liberties and expand our constitutional rights, but also to fight to repair the broken systems that have held me down and I’ve that had to overcome because it’s holding other people down in many different ways. Whether it’s not having a living wage; families are struggling more to make ends meet. Housing is becoming less affordable. Health care is more of a privilege. There’s so much that we can do. We need to play defense and play offense to make lives better for so many Americans.
CTEx: By all accounts, your decision to challenge and then defeat a long-time incumbent congressman in a primary is a longshot. Why should people take your candidacy seriously and what is the number one reason the people of the First District should vote for Ruth Fortune over John Larson?
Fortune: I like to say that we don’t only need a new generation of leaders, but we need a new breed of leaders. We need leaders who understand how deeply broken our systems are, and someone like me, who’s been held down by the system and who’ve had to overcome and work my way through the system. I have a deep understanding of how deeply rooted that brokenness is, and what it takes to repair these systems – to allow hard working people to achieve their goals, versus just struggling to get by. And that’s what we need more of in [Washington] D.C. We have so many career politicians with years of experience [and the] same issues that have plagued us for generations – many of them have worsened. And in so, in allowing that to happen, we have someone like Trump who’s exploited these issues and is actually not improving life for anyone. He’s making life harder. He’s terrorizing people in our streets, people are disappearing [because of ICE]. He’s arming ICE as his domestic military force. He’s turning the government against the American people, and we should all be taking that very seriously.
CTEx: As a current Hartford Board of Education member and as someone who was only able to attend the $4,000 annual in-state tuition to Baruch College in New York by waitressing, what – specific – education policies would you like to see implemented in the U.S. Congress that would have a positive impact on children in the state. And, do you support charter schools – seen by some Connecticut Democrats and union leaders as taking away resources from a public school education?
Fortune: We have to start fully funding our public schools. Whether or not you have a quality public education should not be affected by what zip code a child has, whether you live in an urban area, a rural or suburban area. All of our schools are the path right to equalizing our society, to giving every child a fair chance. And the reality is, the children who have the least opportunity are the ones who really, really need this equal opportunity the most in our schools. I probably would not be here, but for having had a really great public education, from middle school through college through law school. I’ve gone through public schools my entire life. My children now are at Hartford Public Schools, and what I see on the [school] board is that because of the lack of funding, we’re faced with very difficult decisions.
CTEx: Do you support charter schools?
Fortune: I am in favor of really making sure all of our public schools are quality. Public Schools first. It should not be that some schools are great, some schools are not so great, and other schools are failing out. All of our public schools should be fully funded so that every child in public school gets a great education. And if other parents choose to do something else for their children, that is absolutely their decision. It is up to those parents, but when it comes to our public dollars, we’re paying federal taxes, paying state taxes, those funds should really be making sure that our public schools are well funded.
CTEx: What political leader – from statewide or national politics and alive or deceased – do you most admire and would like to emulate and please be specific
Fortune: The first person who came to mind is Shirley Chisholm. She was the first woman of color to run for Congress, just such a bold leader, but also someone who had such a strong moral compass. I sometimes would imagine what she would say right now, and how fearless she would be, how strong she has been to advocate for people who have struggled. She just embodies the American spirit. I absolutely admire Shirley Chisholm.
CTEx: President Trump and Russian President Putin are scheduled to meet Friday in Alaska in an effort to come up with a plan to resolve the conflict in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Do you think Ukraine needs to be a part of that conversation and what – specifically – would you want to see in the region that would accelerate peace for both sides?
Fortune: I absolutely think President [Volodymyr] Zelensky should be part of any conversation that includes Ukraine. He’s the leader of that country, and also because of President Putin’s misleading approaches, it’s detrimental to Ukraine to not have their own representative there. To really talk about a country, their leaders should be present. Absolutely.
CTEx: In the last seven 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?
Fortune: It is hard to think of what the Trump administration has gotten right in the last seven months, because what they’ve done is terrorize people on our streets. People are disappearing off of our streets. They have economic policies that are, it’s hard to even really call them policy, they’re just such discombobulated ideas. Tariffs that seem to be driven more by how he feels and who he happens to like at any given moment. It’s just the lack of long-term planning and a strategic approach to all of these policies that are really affecting Americans, affecting our economy and affecting where we stand in the world. We’re alienating our allies. We’re imposing tariffs arbitrarily, it seems, on our partners and it’s detrimental to our long term health as a country.
CTEx: Gov. Ned Lamont declared an emergency to fill a possible $284 million Medicaid shortfall in May. How would you tackle this issue if elected to Congress?
Fortune: We need to have health care as a right in this country, not as a privilege. We should have – instead of quotas that this administration has for how many deportations should happen every day or quotas on how many people need to be arrested and detained today – goals for how many Americans who are uninsured or underinsured will get access to health insurance in this country. Why don’t we have new goals about how many of our public schools that are struggling, because of lack of funding, we will fully fund so that we can educate our children. And Medicaid is a great program. We need to expand Medicaid, but we need federal dollars to do that. The state doesn’t have unlimited funds. It’s great what we’re doing in Connecticut that we have the ability to do that [fill Medicaid shortfall] and within Medicaid as well, we need to be supporting our older Americans who need long term care right now.
CTEx: Your biography on your law firm’s website says you are committed to pro bono services, particularly the representation of underserved and marginalized children. From your seat in Congress – if elected – how do you plan to help address the challenges of urban poverty – especially as it relates to children?
Fortune: My pro bono representation right now has mostly been with migrant children or children who’ve lost a parent and now need to have a guardian appointed so that they can have a safe home to be in. We need to really fund our public schools. Our public schools, for many kids, this is where they get their meals. That’s not only where they receive their education, it is where their support network is. This is where they find role models who can guide them. The more resources we can provide to children in school, the stronger we are, and that’s an investment in our country and in our economy. We will have a more educated, more civically engaged population in the future. We’re educating our next generation of leaders. In addition to that, we need to have other services in place for children in all communities. It’s summer programs to keep them engaged, sports to keep them active, and other ways for them to be engaged in the community. All of these things can be so local and offer opportunities, but can [also] come from federal funding into our communities.