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Last week, we released a poll, by Change Research, of 887 registered CT Democrats who are likely to vote in August’s primary election between incumbent Governor Ned Lamont and progressive challenger, Josh Elliott. We encourage you to explore the detailed memo, toplines and crosstabs. For more coverage of our poll, see here. As Dan Haar wrote, the core finding is that Lamont is well ahead overall, but Elliott, who is expected to qualify for public financing in the next few day

Memorial Day Weekend kicked off summer and it seems, based on campaign text messages, that Josh Elliott has relaunched his gubernatorial campaign. He hasn’t quite qualified for public campaign financing, but he has a ballot line, a message and a political contrast. The Connecticut Democratic primary is scheduled for August 11 which gives Elliott a short runway from now. Does he have enough time, momentum and savvy to make that contrast mean something to Democratic primary vot

For Republicans, the Convention and the few weeks preceding it were both clarifying and strange. A week ago, it looked like the Convention would formalize a competitive race. Erin Stewart was still a major factor, Ryan Fazio was trying to prove he could consolidate enough support to compete, and Betsy McCaughey was trying to show there was still room for a more explicitly conservative lane. Instead, the primary ended before it started. Stewart suspended her campaign after a r

The State Conventions are behind us and the real campaigning is (maybe?) beginning. The convention answered ballot-access questions but opened a credibility test. Elliott gained a primary competition, but not yet proof of being a credible, statewide threat. Democrats left Hartford with a strong-on-paper incumbent, a validated protest vote, and a primary that is real — even if not yet especially competitive. As expected, Lamont won 1,468 delegates (75%) to 501 (25%) over Josh

Now for the other side. The mechanics are the same but the Republican State Convention will offer a different kind of test, with a competitive primary already taking shape and multiple candidates working to define both themselves and the party. But similarly, this is about organization, alignment, and how candidates position themselves with the most engaged elements of their party. The 15 percent threshold still determines who advances to the primary ballot, and both Erin Ste

State Convention weekend is almost upon us! As delegates gather for the Democratic and Republican state conventions, this is the first real test of the 2026 gubernatorial electoral cycle. A critical juncture in Connecticut’s 2026 primary season, with competitive races in multiple contests, it’s like March Madness for political nerds and insiders. Heading into the weekend, we’re sharing a few observations and some suggestions on what to watch for. Before diving into the jockey

When the Republican platform introduced “Trump Accounts” last year, the framing was effectively a modern marketing pitch for the American Dream: provide households with a tax-advantaged vehicle for their children and let the quiet power of compounding interest handle the rest. The appeal is intuitive: by initiating investments early and maintaining them over time, you build a durable financial foundation. It is a theory we find compelling. ImpactCT is committed to policies th

In modern campaigns, crisis response used to be a secondary skill. Now it’s closer to the job itself. Politics now runs on real-time narrative cycles. Every bystander is a citizen journalist and every public moment can be recorded, clipped, and reframed within minutes. There are no contained missteps anymore. The result is that campaigns increasingly function as continuous stress tests. Voters may not expect perfection, but they do expect something harder to define: competenc

Following a two-week recess, the US Senate is once again debating the original version of the SAVE Act, which the US House passed on February 11. The Trump Administration’s push for it has produced a familiar political fight. Republicans are casting it as a common,sense, election-integrity measure. Democrats are calling it voter suppression. While predictable, neither gets at the more interesting question the debate has exposed. At the center of the Republican case is a claim

If the first half of our conversation with Toby Moffett looked back on an era of party bosses, delegate fights, and old-school political power, the second half turned to a very different question: what kind of politics has replaced it? For Toby, the answer is a modern landscape shaped by social media, isolation, and institutional strain. Voters are more connected than ever, but not necessarily more grounded. Organizing still matters, but it works differently now. And Trump, i

For people of a certain age in CT (we’re looking at you, Boomers) Toby Moffett needs no introduction. Toby first came to prominence in the early 1970s as one of the leaders of “Nader’s Raiders,” a moniker given to those who worked alongside well-known Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader. First elected to Congress in 1974 (in what used to be CT’s 6th Congressional District) as a so-called “Watergate Baby,” Toby was a thorn in the side of the Democratic Party’s establishment from the

As Connecticut’s 2026 Governor’s race begins to take shape, most of the attention has gone to the obvious facts: Gov.

The answer is not as straightforward as it might seem.

Believe it or not, Connecticut’s legislative session is almost entering the home stretch.

A question circulating quietly in Connecticut political circles is whether Representative Josh Elliott poses a real threat to...

James Talarico’s Democratic primary victory in Texas on Tuesday has generated a lot of buzz this week about...

The new public polling on Governor Lamont confirms something many voters have been feeling for months.

Black History Month invites reflection not only on the history and struggles we commemorate, but also on the present...

For decades, Connecticut’s Democratic leadership has been defined by longevity and institutional experience.

On a bitterly cold Tuesday with temperatures in the teens in Fairfield, voters turned out for an unusually off-cycle and...