On election eve, all eyes on Connecticut race that could swing control of Congress
Both parties have spent more than $6 million on the 5th Congressional District, which covers northwestern Connecticut. The candidates spent Election Eve focusing on turnout.
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With just hours to go before Election Day, campaigns across the state made hundreds of phone calls in hopes of driving up turnout.
But the most intense focus is on sleepy northwestern Connecticut, where one race could tip the balance of power in Congress.
“CAN’T TAKE OUR FOOT OFF THE GAS”
Jahana Hayes has been in Congress for five years, but she’s running like the underdog.
“Can’t take our foot off the gas,” she told a campaign volunteer on Monday. “Not yet.”
That’s because Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District is a top target for Republicans, who have poured millions of dollars into the swing district.
Hayes spent election eve at her campaign headquarters in Waterbury, helping volunteers work the phones to line up drivers to get voters to the polls.
In this race, it’s all about turnout.
“To own the ground. To get out, to knock on as many doors, continue making phone calls,” Hayes said. “Every eligible voter – let them know their vote matters.”
EXPENSIVE REMATCH
For Hayes’ Republican challenger, this is a re-match. In 2022, former state Sen. George Logan lost by just 2,000 votes.
He spent Monday crisscrossing the district, including an afternoon phone bank in Danbury.
“We’re still knocking on doors. We're still phone banking,” he said Monday. “I’m still having folks who have already voted to talk to their friends, talk to their family. Get out the vote.”
A Republican hasn’t won the 5th District in two decades. Logan also faces other headwinds, including more New York transplants moving to the district and Donald Trump at the top of the ticket. Trump lost Connecticut by 20 points in 2020, but won Litchfield Co. by five points.
Hayes has painted Logan as a rubber-stamp for Trump on issues like reproductive rights.
“This is the seat – one of the seats that will decide the majority in the House,” she said. “And the majority sets the agenda.”
Logan acknowledged that he voted for Trump, but said he is not afraid to stand up to the former president.
“I want to be part of the solution,” he said. “I want to go down to Washington and work in a bipartisan basis – with Democrats, with Republicans.”
NATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
With Congress almost evenly split, this contest is one of the most closely watched in the country – and one of the most expensive. Both sides have poured more than $6 million into this race.
“This could be the district that makes the difference for the majority,” said Logan. “That’s why we’re getting so much attention.”
It all means that every vote counts.
“This is a battleground district. It always has been,” Hayes said. “And I knew coming into this that I’d have to work for it every single time.” Hayes will spend Election Night in Waterbury, but Logan is not holding any event on Tuesday.
EARLY VOTING
Many Connecticut voters have already cast a ballot. A third of all registered voters – 850,097 – voted by mail or in-person using Early Voting as of Monday morning, according to the Secretary of the State’s office.
Polls are open Tuesday from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. Click HERE to see where your polling location is.
