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February 24, 2023 Political Note #542 Jahana Hayes Connecticut 05
2024 General Election
Jahana Hayes
Twenty-one months seems a long way off. Nevertheless, we need to start making donations to Congressional candidates now. Democrats cannot retake the House if they cannot keep the seats they already have. Start with the incumbents who just barely won.
Two Political Notes have already looked at Democrats who won by less than 2,000 votes in 2022: Gabe Vasquez NM 02 (Len’s Political Note #536) and Yadira Caraveo CO 08 (Len’s Political Note #537). Now look at Democrats who won by less than 3,000 votes. There were two of those: Jahana Hayes CT 05 and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez WA 03. These are four people from different ends of the country. Three Hispanics and a Black woman. All born poor. All young. Their average age is 41. Not one of them is an attorney.
Jahana Hayes was a teacher. Still is. She was born and raised in Waterbury, Connecticut, with the odds against her. Raised in a public housing project, she has campaigned telling people “I know what it is like to go to bed to gunshots outside; what it is like to wake up in the morning to a dead body in the hallway.”
Jahana Hayes found her way. She worked hard. She was compliant. She was a student. By the time she was in high school, she was a favorite. She was in honors classes. An outsider looking on might picture her being accepted at Yale or some other school not far away – Connecticut College or Wesleyan. She might have had a full scholarship and been on her way to a better life.
Whether it was because she could not picture that life or for some other reason, Jahana Hayes went off course. At age 17, she was pregnant. Removed from the honors classes, considering dropping out of school, she wound up in classes for pregnant girls. Education that was saving her the first time had to save her again, but differently.
Some teachers remained supporters. They encouraged her to keep at it. She graduated from high school in 1990 and went to work. She could not prepare to become a teacher and raise a child alone.
Encouragement continued. So did Janaha Hayes’ determination. Part-time, she attended Naugatuck Valley Community College where she got an Associates’ Degree. She worked some more and gradually got her BA from Southern Connecticut State. She got a job at the Southbury Training School – a school serving adults with mental disabilities, some of whom were capable of working toward a high school diploma. The school was so shorthanded for teaching staff, it decided to require a double shift from its teachers. Jahana Hayes, single mother, was unwilling. Instead of quitting, she got help from her union. By 2007, she was back home in Waterbury, teaching at John F. Kennedy High School.
Jahana Hayes kept on studying. She was good at that. She got her Master’s Degree in 2012 from the University of St. Joseph, her Sixth-Year certificate from the University of Bridgeport in 2014. Her student teacher supervisor, Burton Saxton, was a former Teacher of the Year for Connecticut. He tells a story about Jahana Hayes captivating a classroom so powerfully one Friday afternoon that when he returned to class the kids told him to come back on Monday. They wanted Jahana Hayes to finish what the class was working on.
She earned statewide recognition as Connecticut’s Teacher of the Year and, in 2016, national recognition as the country’s Teacher of the Year. By then, she might not describe her pregnancy at age 17 as a setback. She had a daughter, after all.
Encouraged by Burton Saxton. More importantly, encouraged by US Senator Chris Murphy and by Governor Ned Lamont, she looked at running for Congress in 2018. Connecticut’s fifth District is the only truly competitive district in the state. The incumbent Democrat had failed to confront and, instead, written a positive reference, for her chief of staff who had been accused of sexual harassment. In danger of not being reelected, the incumbent decided not to run. Mary Glassman – Simsbury First Selectman and two-time candidate for Lt. Governor – announced her candidacy in April, 2018. Jahana Hayes announced on May 2. The Democratic endorsement convention would be on May 14.
Mary Glassman was endorsed by odd bedfellows — the national Chamber of Commerce, Move On, and the local branch of Our Revolution. In an interview, Jahana Hayes expressed support for single payer health care, a $15 per hour minimum wage, and tuition-free public colleges. Outside the nominating convention, the Berkeley Knights middle school Drill Team and Drum Corps marched and danced to encourage Democrats to nominate a woman who could be Connecticut’s first Black Member of Congress.
Shockingly, when the votes were counted the first time, Jahana Hayes was ahead 172-168. Thomas McDonough, the convention chair, kept voting open. Some delegates went home; some switched their votes. A third candidate released his delegates to vote their conscience, he said. They mostly voted for Glassman, who, in the middle of what appeared to participants and observers alike as chaos, won the endorsement 173-167.
Jahana Hayes’ supporters saw the process as racial injustice. The energy created by the loss combined set Jahana Hayes and her supporters on the way to a rare primary win by a candidate not endorsed by the party convention. She raised as much money as Glassman. Governor Lamont did not endorse for the primary but acknowledged he had encouraged Jahana Hayes to run. Jahana Hayes was endorsed by Kamala Harris, by the Working Families Party, and by the Connecticut Education Association, which pitched in to support one of their own.
Nominated by a 62-38 vote in the primary and elected 56-44 to Congress, Jahana Hayes had an unusual battle with the local press. Intentional or not, they jeopardized her reelection by identifying Jahana Hayes as a member of The Squad. Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District was no place for a radical. Jahana Hayes was clear she was not one. She said she was a work horse. Her committee assignments were a clue. She was appointed to the Agriculture Committee, no small matter for a district with a lot of dairy cows. She was appointed to Education and Labor, the right place for a union-supported former teacher of the year. She only joined two caucuses – the Congressional Black Caucus and the House Pro-Choice Caucus.
Jahana Hayes has not been a radical Member of Congress. She began her 2022 reelection website with support for veterans and specifically with a bill to ensure benefits for those veterans who helped deal with a nuclear accident in Palomares, Spain. She addresses gun violence – important in a district that includes Sandy Hook. She reminds readers that her first resolution was to prohibit the use of federal funds to arm teachers — a false solution to the problem of gun violence in schools.
Jahana Hayes’ victory in 2022 was by 2,004 votes, not much. Her opponent, George Logan, a Black man and former State Senator was good at creating a website that identified priorities without explaining how he would deal with those priorities. He would fix inflation, be a voice against Washington’s failed policies, bring down gas prices, give first responders the tools they need, and fight for veterans. Third parties were a factor here. People in the 5th district could vote for Logan on The Independent Party line and 2.492 voters did that. Voters could choose Jahana Hayes on the Working Families Party Line and 3,982 voters did that.
Jahana Hayes is enough left of center to gain the support of the Working Families Party. You could argue that the Working Families Party is the reason that Jahana Hayes is still in Congress. We need Jahana Hayes to stay in Congress. She has an exquisite understanding of what it means to be poor and to need government help. She has a similar understanding government help is not enough. Grit and determination are required for success.
Jahana Hayes advocates policies that reflect that mix. She appreciates her complex community and country sufficiently so that she can represent farmers, union members, and residents of public housing. And she is a teacher, recognized as one of the country’s finest. At a time when Florida’s governor and others are attempting to corrupt public education by imposing right wing views on what is taught, a former teacher of the year is invaluable in Congress.
Support Jahana Hayes now. Expand that margin of victory.
Election and Primary Results
Virginia Fourth Congressional District Special Election
On February 21, Democratic State Senator and former Gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McClellan defeated socially conservative Republican Pastor Leon Benjamin 74-26. A child of a domestic worker and a former corporate lawyer, she is the first Black woman to represent Virginia in Congress.
New Hampshire House of Representatives Special Election
After a tie in the general election last November, on February 21, Incumbent Chuck Grassie defeated former Rochester Mayor in the election for House District 8 in Rochester’s Fourth Ward by a 56-44 margin. This was an election between two friendly neighbors which, nevertheless, had serious political implications. If we include one Democratic seat that is now vacant, the Republicans have the narrowest possible margin in the New Hampshire House of Representatives – 201 seats to 199.
Kentucky State Senate Special Election
Democratic Attorney and Louisville Metro Councilor Cassie Chambers Armstrong exceeded Joe Biden’s margin in this district by double digits, defeating former Board of Education candidate Misty Glin and was elected District 19 State Senator by a 77-23 vote. This was not projected to be a close race, but Armstrong is a Democrat to watch if an opportunity for a Democrat arises in Kentucky.
Wisconsin Primaries; Special Elections Scheduled for April 4
Wisconsin Supreme Court
Liberal-leaning County Judge Janet Protasiewicz was the highest vote getter on February 21 in the non-partisan primary for a seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. She received 46% of the vote. Criticized for indicating how she was likely to vote on issues like women’s reproductive rights and redistricting, the voters appeared to be glad to have the information. Former Supreme Court member Daniel Kelly, who lost his seat in the 2020 election, was the second highest vote getter with 24% of the vote. Though less explicit, a conservative activist, Kelly left no doubt about where he would vote on controversial social and cultural issues.
Currently, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court has 3 members whose lean can be identified as progressive, 2 members whose lean can be identified as conservative, and one member who usually votes with the conservatives. A victory for Janet Protasiewicz on April 4 would likely transform the Wisconsin political landscape. People who spend more money on elections than most of the readers of this newsletter will spend a lot of money on this campaign. Smaller donors count. Support Janet Protasiewicz. For more inforation, see Len’s Political Note #528.
Wisconsin State Senate District 08
Environmental attorney Jodi Habush Sinykin was the only serious Democratic candidate in the February 21 primary. The Republicans had a choice of three. They chose State Rep Dan Knodl. In the primary, he defeated a Trump acolyte so extreme and so problematic for House Speaker Robin Vos that Wisconsin Republicans banned her from their caucus. Knodl emphasizes reducing spending, cutting taxes, and public safety. He would be a reliable conservative vote against abortion and on other cultural issues. Wisconsin Republicans are talking about their ability, with a two-thirds supermajority in each body of the legislature, to impeach and remove any state official. The Republicans in the state House of Representatives are two seats away from gaining a two-thirds supermajority. Jodi Habush Sinykin’s election would flip a Republican seat and prevent the State Senate from having a two-thirds supermajority. See Len’s Political Note #529 for more information about Jodi Habush Sinykin.
