Connecticut state Sen. Alex Kasser, the first Democrat elected by her Fairfield County district since 1930, announced Tuesday she is resigning from office. She cited her high-profile and contentious divorce, saying she’s no longer able to adequately do her job.
“I just completed my third legislative session and I’ve loved my job and I’ve loved the responsibility of serving the public and moving the state forward. But I can no longer give the job the same attention it deserves because of my personal situation,” she told The Associated Press. “And as an elected official, I have a duty to my constituents and to the public to explain why I’m stepping down and to be honest about it.”
She was expected to submit her official resignation to the Secretary of the State’s office.
Kasser, 54, upset a five-term Republican incumbent in 2018. It was her first competitive race and her victory signaled that Democrats were making inroads in a traditionally Republican bastion of Connecticut. She was reelected in 2020 in the district that includes Greenwich and parts of New Canaan and Stamford.
Kasser, a former corporate lawyer, was known as Alex Bergstein before legally changing her name in February 2020. She was married in 1995 to her now-estranged husband Seth Bergstein, the managing director and head of the Global Services Group at the investment bank Morgan Stanley. The couple have three adult children.
In her written statement posted online Tuesday and the interview with the AP, Kasser said her personal circumstances have created an “insurmountable obstacle” and that she plans to move from Greenwich.
