When voters go to the polls for the Nov. 8 general election, the Working Families Party will have a candidate on the ballot in the 23rd Senate District in Bridgeport and Stratford.

Juliemar Ortiz announced Saturday that she's received a notice from the Secretary of the State's Office that her campaign collected enough signatures to get a spot on the ballot.

Ortiz said she's joining other petitioning candidates like Joe Grits of the New Movement Party to help level the playing field.

"Volunteers are out knocking on doors, we're going to communities and gathering these signatures because we deserve to have a people-first candidate on the ballot," Ortiz explained.

"The endorsed candidate gets pushed more and obviously funded and backed more and the petitioning candidate has more of a struggle. So this will help us make it a fair match in November," Grits said.

Ortiz added that she hopes to qualify for the Clean Elections Program grant to finance her campaign.

Herron Gaston is the Democratic nominee in the 23rd District Senate race.

Mike Garrett is the Republican.