SAM GURWITT PHOTOS
Justin Farmer and Jorge Cabrera.
For the second time in a row, Jorge Cabrera has secured his party’s endorsement to run for Connecticut’s 17th Senate District seat against incumbent Republican George Logan — and for the second time, he’ll need to win a Democratic Party primary first in order to get there.
At a Democratic endorsement convention over the Zoom teleconferencing app Tuesday evening, delegates from the district voted 39 – 10 in favor of endorsing Cabrera to challenge Logan in November.
Though he did not secure an endorsement, Cabrera’s primary challenger Justin Farmer walked (or scrolled his computer cursor) away from the convention with what he wanted: a place on the ballot for the Aug. 11 primary.
At state senate conventions, a candidate must win a simple majority to secure the party’s endorsement. Any candidate who wins at least 15 percent of the vote secures a place on the ballot.
With 49 delegates present, Farmer needed eight votes. He won 10.
The 17th District includes parts of Hamden, Woodbridge, and Naugatuck, as well as all of Bethany, Beacon Falls, Derby, and Ansonia. It is a diverse district, ranging from pro-Trump voters to left-liberals and many in between.
While Farmer is a well-known figure in Hamden, his performance at the convention may indicate less support in other parts of the sprawling district. He captured eight of 18 votes from Hamden delegates. Cabrera won the support of 29 of the 31 delegates from other towns.
Since the 2018 election, Cabrera has been active in politics throughout the 17th District. As Ansonia delegate Nina Phipps said in her speech to second Cabrera’s nomination, he helped Democrats in Ansonia take four seats on the town’s Board of Aldermen in November. The board previously had no Democrats.
At Tuesday night’s convention, Cabrera called for increasing income taxes on the wealthy. Farmer, in a conversation afterward, spoke of addressing climate change, food insecurity, and access to public transportation.
After the convention, both candidates said they were happy with the results.
“I’m happy and excited,” said Farmer. “I’ve never been an insider in politics so that is nothing new,” he said of losing the party’s endorsement. He said he is just happy to have made it onto the ballot.
He said it’s now time to start campaigning in earnest. “Knocking on doors, connecting with voters, sharing my amazing dad jokes — that’s what campaigning is all about,” he said, adding “make sure you say that about the dad jokes. People need to be warned.”
Knocking doors may not be so easy in a pandemic where person-to-person interaction is taboo.
He said his campaign would be making an announcement soon about how it will proceed with campaigning amid Covid-19 restrictions.
Cabrera said he’ll focus on social media campaigning for now until door knocking is possible. Obviously, no political gatherings will be possible.
The pandemic has changed the way candidates campaign, and it has also given increased the urgency on some aspects of platforms on the left.
“I think what the pandemic has revealed or exposed is the inequality that I’ve been talking about,” said Cabrera. “One area that will get more attention is the ultra-wealthy and their lack of paying their fair share of taxes in the state of Connecticut,” he said.
Cabrera and Farmer will face off in an Aug. 11 primary. The winner will then face Logan in the general election on Nov. 3.
All Eyes On The 17th
In 2018, the 17th District race was one of the most highly watched General Assembly contests. Cabrera first secured the party’s endorsement and then beat his two primary challengers Valerie Horsley (now a member of Hamden’s Legislative Council) and Sean Grace (now the chair of the Hamden Democratic Town Committee). He went on to face George Logan, and lost by only 77 votes after a recount.
At his campaign launch in February, many of the state’s top Democrats showed up to give Cabrera their support. Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, Senate President Pro Tem. Martin Looney, and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff all gave short speeches, signaling that the district would again be a major battleground as Democrats try to take the seat from Logan.
Cabrera is a business representative at the United Food and Commercial Workers’ Union Local 919, where he represents Stop & Shop workers. He led workers at the stores he represents a successful 11-day strike last spring. Recently, he has been advocating for greater protections and access to childcare and more generous leave policies for Conneticut grocery workers during the pandemic.
He appeared on WNHH Radio’s Dateline Hamden recently to talk about his work getting protections for workers and to talk about the role that unions will play in driving political change in the coming years. Watch the interview below.
Farmer, a student at Southern Connecticut State University (though currently on leave) who grew up in Hamden, is in his second term on the Hamden Legislative Council. He is a mainstay at rallies for justice-related causes, and has billed himself as a progressive political outsider. In his time on the council, he has been an outspoken critic of Mayor Curt Leng, and is one of the leaders of a wave of progressives calling for fiscal responsibility who have become a powerful force in Hamden politics in the last two years.
Farmer announced his run a few weeks after Cabrera, to the surprise of some Hamden politicos. His campaign launch at the end of February featured a large crowd of young political activists from New Haven, Hamden, and some from other parts of the state.
Cabrera finished his fundraising in March, meeting the threshold required for campaign funding from the state. Farmer said on Tuesday that he has not met the fundraising threshold, but that he is very close.
Farmer appeared on WNHH Radio’s Ugly Radio show Tuesday. Scroll to 1:16:55 in the video below to see his interview.
