Surrounded by union members and leaders on Monday, U.S. Rep. John B. Larson stepped up his attacks on his main opponent, the party-endorsed candidate Luke Bronin, seeking to cast distinctions between the two over money and labor as the Democratic congressional primary campaign ramps up.
The longtime representative for Connecticut’s 1st District rolled out familiar attacks on Bronin about his tenure as the mayor of Hartford and where he’s received money from as a congressional candidate. But both Larson and the union leaders supporting him on Monday went after Bronin harder on multiple fronts, at one point likening him to centrist Democrats who had been squishy on party positions.
Larson is beefing up his support from local unions, adding new support from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Connecticut, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 4, and the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Local 2001.
Crammed into a small conference room at the Bristol Federation of Teachers, those unions highlighted Larson’s time as a public school teacher before he began serving in government and the longstanding ties he’s had with some of these unions that go back to when he first ran for the Hartford-based seat in 1998.
They focused on the changes to government agencies and cuts to federal funding emanating from the Trump administration as well as Bronin’s record.
“We see a coordinated effort to slash school funding, treat education, healthcare and retirement security like a business, and weaken the unions that give educators, healthcare workers and public servants a voice,” John Brady, vice president of AFT Connecticut, said at the press conference. “We can’t afford to lose a battle-tested public school teacher like John Larson who understands public service.”
Union leaders like Joe Toner, the former director of the Hartford Building Trades Council and current director of the State Building Trades Council, argued that Bronin as mayor had at times prioritized developers over project-labor agreements in Hartford.
Framing the race as progressive versus centrist, former state Rep. Edwin Vargas, who formerly served as the vice president of AFT CT, said he feared that a more moderate candidate could hold back the party “by acting as an anchor for the Democratic caucus in Congress.”
“I don’t want any more Joe Manchins as a Democrat or Tulsi Gabbards, so-called centrists. I’m all for bipartisan policy, but this is not bipartisan policy,” Vargas said, referencing the former West Virginia senator and former Hawaii congresswoman-turned-Trump administration official, respectively.
Bronin’s campaign said he will be an advocate for teachers and labor if he’s elected to Congress, focusing on President Donald Trump’s record on education instead of the congressman.
“What Donald Trump is doing to education right now is a perfect example of why we need a Democratic Party that’s able to bring a whole new energy to this fight, and that’s what Luke will do,” Bronin senior adviser Amanda Sands said in a statement. “Regardless of where the AFT is in the campaign, teachers in this district are going to get a much stronger and more active advocate when Luke gets to Congress.”
The campaign has noticeably gotten more heated since Bronin became the party-endorsed candidate in an upset at last month’s nominating convention. Larson now faces a four-way primary, including a challenge from state Rep. Jillian Gilchrest of West Hartford. The secretary of the state's office announced Monday evening that Hartford Board of Education member Ruth Fortune qualified for the primary ballot by collecting signatures.
Larson and Bronin have been locked in an arms race for endorsements and campaign cash as they look to stand out ahead of the Aug. 11 primary. Bronin has been able to keep up with Larson on fundraising and has narrowly outraised him in recent fundraising quarters.
A few months after candidates started jumping into the race to challenge him, Larson trained his focus on Bronin and made labor a centerpiece of his campaign.
Those attacks broadened to a fight over where the candidates are fundraising. Out of the gate, Bronin hit Larson for taking money from corporate political action committees, also known as PACs, which have consistently made up nearly half of the congressman’s campaign contributions. In turn, Larson has criticized Bronin for donations from billionaires and other wealthy networks, which was the focus of his first TV ad.
“That’s the distinction — billionaires that want to take you out because you’re asking them to pay the same thing that working families do. I’m confident working families are going to be on our side,” Larson said Monday.
Larson has won support from a couple of dozen unions across industries in education, government and the build trades, like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the International Union of Operating Engineers, the International Union of Elevator Constructors and the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers. He also has the support of the Working Families Party, a union-backed political group that could give him a ballot line in November’s general election.
He highlighted a recent legislative win for congressional Democrats, who forced a vote on a bill that would speed up contract negotiations for newly formed unions and secured some support from Republicans.
While his opponents have made his long tenure a knock against him amid calls for passing the torch to a new generation in campaigns across the U.S., Larson, 77, has sought to reframe his seniority. If Democrats take back the House majority in the fall, he would reclaim the gavel of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, which has been his signature issue during his time in Congress.
And he directly responded to his opponents who have said he focuses too much on Social Security when there are other pressing issues. Social Security benefits have not been increased in decades, and a report estimates the trust fund for retirees will run out of money in 2032. Larson has legislation to raise benefits and bolster the trust fund by increasing payroll taxes on high earners, but it hasn’t been taken up.
“Connecticut is hit the worst out of all 50 states, and I have opponents that are saying, ‘He talks about Social Security all the time. He talks about it too much,'” Larson said. “I’ll never stop talking about it, and you can’t talk about it too much.”
“That’s the kind of conversation that’s led to Social Security not being taken up in 55 years,” he added later.
For his part, Bronin hasn’t engaged as much with the attacks. And in his most recent ad, the former mayor kept it relatively light, reiterating his calls for generational change without naming the 14-term congressman.
“I’m running for Congress right now because I think we’ve got to bring a whole different type of energy to this fight,” Bronin says in the ad. “I am grateful to everybody who has served in Congress for decades, but we need to send a new generation of Democrats to Washington.”
Bronin has also rolled out some endorsements from local labor groups. And he has pushed back on Larson’s assessment of his labor record in office.
Last week, he secured the endorsement of the AFSCME Local 1716, which represents sanitation workers, custodians and park maintainers in Hartford, the Hartford Public Library and People’s Bank Arena. The Carpenters Local 326 and the Uniformed Professional Firefighters Association of Connecticut are also backing Bronin.
All of the candidates will be vying for the endorsement of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, which holds its biennial convention in New Haven later this week.
Larson acknowledged the challenges of a summer primary when turnout tends to be lower. Early voting begins on Aug. 3 for the primary on Aug. 11.
That’s why he hopes the unions can mobilize their supporters and translate that into organizing power over the next two months. Toner said “We’re looking to knock over a couple thousand doors” on behalf of Larson.
“There’s the need for resources in every campaign, no question about it,” Larson said, “but what wins a campaign are the people that are willing to go out and knock on doors and willing to make the phone call and go the extra mile.”
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
