A Democrat will fill the 120th District Connecticut House seat for the first time in 44 years.

The seat was left vacant in January after Laura Hoydick became Stratford's mayor.

After a five-week campaign, Phil Young defeated Republican Bill Cabral by just over 60 votes. Young says that while he wasn't sure he could take a longtime Republican seat, running a good, clean and issues-based campaign was important to him.

"Nobody really gave me a chance," Young says. "I wouldn't have done this if I didn't think I had more than a 50-50 chance. And we worked really hard and we prevailed."

Young is expected to be sworn in next week. When he gets to Hartford, he says he wants to fight for school funding that was cut from Stratford.

The head of the Democratic National Committee congratulated Young on his victory, saying Democrats have flipped 39 legislative seats across the country since President Donald Trump took office.