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Jorge Cabrera declared victory in a statement late Wednesday.
ANSONIA — Updated 11 p.m. – Democrat Jorge Cabrera emerged the winner of his much-anticipated rematch with incumbent State Sen. Republican George Logan Wednesday after absentee ballots were counted in Hamden.
At around 9 p.m. Wednesday, Cabrera declared victory. His success in the 17th District gives Democrats a veto-proof majority in the State Senate.
Cabrera’s final vote count as reported by the state Wednesday evening — including absentee ballots — came in at 24,799, or 52 percent of the total vote. That was 1,680 votes better than Logan’s final districtwide tally of 23,119.
Tuesday evening, Cabrera appeared to take a narrow lead over Logan, but a key group of votes had not yet been counted: Hamden absentee ballots.
Logan, who lives in Ansonia, has his strongest support in the district’s Naugatuck Valley towns: Ansonia, Derby, Bethany, Beacon Falls, and Naugatuck. By the end of the night Tuesday, every town in the district except Hamden had reported most or all of their votes, though Ansonia still had about 256 ballots to count.
As expected, Cabrera’s hometown of Hamden, which comprises 40 percent of the district, voted overwhelmingly in his favor. With Hamden absentee ballots the only major clump of votes left to count, his victory was close to certain by the end of Tuesday.
Wednesday evening, he got the boost he needed to send him to Hartford when Hamden released its updated absentee ballot count, pushing him from a lead of just a handful of votes to a comfortable four-point margin.
In 2018, Cabrera ended election night thinking he had won the race, only to wake up the next day and realize there would be a recount. He ended up losing after the recount by just 77 votes. This time, he did not make the mistake of assuming victory prematurely, but once Hamden’s new numbers came out Wednesday, he went ahead.
“I’m extremely humbled and honored that they would choose me to represent them in the senate,” he said in a phone call with the Independent. He said he would continue to fight for the same things he has been fighting for in his union work: good healthcare, and access to well-paying jobs. He said he would also focus on helping small businesses in the state.
On Thursday, he said, it’s back to work, and then Friday he has his first meeting with the state’s new Democratic caucus.
Logan did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this story.