U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, the first Black woman to represent Connecticut in Congress, defeated Republican George Logan in a rematch. The Associated Press declared Hayes the winner at 2 a.m. Wednesday.
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Over 120 supporters from the 5th Congressional District showed up to incumbent Hayes’ election night watch party in her hometown of Waterbury Tuesday night.
The room buzzed with tempered excitement as the votes for the race between Hayes and Logan rolled in slowly after polls closed. The group roared when Hayes joined shortly before midnight to thank them.
"For continuing to trust me with your vote, which fundamentally is just your most precious right. And you are trusting me to be your voice for that vote," Hayes said.
Logan and Hayes also squared off in 2022, but Hayes kept her seat by a narrow 2,000 votes.
Logan, an engineer and former state senator, lost by less than one percentage point in 2022.
Speaking at a campaign appearance in western Connecticut shortly before the polls closed Tuesday, Logan said his campaign reached out to voters, including Latinos and people in urban areas.
"I'm bilingual. So I'm the only one of the candidates to put commercials on Spanish television in Spanish. So we've been reaching out to the Hispanic population, and even more to people of color throughout the district," Logan said.
Most of western Connecticut falls in the 5th District, which Hayes, the former national teacher of the year, has represented since 2018.
The 5th District, which includes much of western Connecticut, has been in Democratic control since 2006 when Republican Nancy Johnson lost to Chris Murphy, who later successfully ran for U.S. Senate.
Hayes and Logan recently spoke on Connecticut's Public's "The Wheelhouse," sharing their thoughts on gun control and reproductive rights.
