CT 1st Congressional District 2020: Larson, Fay And McCormick

CONNECTICUT — Three contenders are vying to represent Connecticut’s 1st Congressional District this Election Day.

The district covers the central and north-central portions of Connecticut. The race is between incumbent Democratic candidate U.S. Rep. John Larson, Republican businesswoman Mary Fay and Green Party candidate Thomas McCormick.

Larson has served as the congressman from the district since 1999 and has won every re-election race to date by a comfortable margin.

John Larson

Larson is a lifelong East Hartford resident and lives there with his wife Leslie and three children Carolyn, Laura and Raymond.

He served 12 years in the Connecticut State Senate and has been the 1st district’s representative since 1999.

Some of Larson’s primary goals in Congress include bolstering manufacturing jobs in Connecticut and green energy, according to his campaign biography.

He is also the chairman of the Ways and Means Social Security subcommittee and author of The Social Security 2100 bill, which would increase the cap on social security taxes from the current $132,900. It would also gradually increase the contribution rate into social security in order to keep the system solvent.

Mary Fay

Mary Fay has been a West Hartford resident for 17 years and is an East Hartford native, according to her campaign biography.

She works in the financial services sector. She was a senior vice president at GE Capital and ING and a senior vice president and general manager at Sun Life Financial.

She has served two terms on the West Hartford Town Council. Fay is married and has a 10-year-old daughter named Katie.

Fay opposes a single-payer healthcare system and instead supports free market healthcare. She supports offering law enforcement additional training, keeping safety officers in schools, mental health initiatives and opposes defunding police.

On education, she supports bolstering vocation and technical schools for students who want to take up a trade upon graduation.

She wants to enhance financial aid programs that will incentivize students to stay in-state after graduation.

Fay also wants to move teachers off of the state pension system and allow them to participate in Social Security instead along with personal retirement plans.

Thomas McCormick
Thomas McCormick is a West Hartford resident running under the Green Party. He has worked as a teacher, contractor and in the real estate industry. He has no previous elected experience.

McCormick supports universal healthcare, debt reduction and cleaning up of all Superfund contaminated sites.