How Josh Elliott built a base for Connecticut in 2030 and beyond
Josh Elliott speaks to the media at his gubernatorial campaign's watch party at Haven Beer Company in Hamden on Aug. 11. Christian Abraham/Hearst Connecticut Media
Before you call state Rep. Josh Elliott’s 36% loss to Gov. Ned Lamont in the gubernatorial primary last week a landslide, it’s worth considering that an incumbent Connecticut governor has never lost a primary.
The “power of incumbency,” as Josh Elliott said to me after the election, is hardly unique to Connecticut; not a single governor in the United States has lost a primary this year.
With an enormous funding disadvantage and an abysmally low name recognition prior to the Democratic State Convention, Elliott’s goal was not necessarily to beat the fourth-most popular governor in the country, but to represent a movement candidacy to bring ideas around tax reform, energy, and housing, to the forefront of a statewide discussion, while building a progressive coalition and establish himself with Connecticut voters for the future.
“Everything was a fight,” he told me, “Getting on the ballot, raising enough money, not to mention, 30 Democratic Town Councils weren’t even willing to platform me last year. But I took charge of the things I could control, and I wouldn’t change anything about my campaign.”
Elliott’s platform found a base, however small, among Connecticut liberals eager for change. CJ and Linda Poulos sat out front of the Columbia Town Hall Tuesday morning, wearing Josh Elliott shirts and encouraging residents to consider voting for him.
When asked what he liked about Elliott, CJ Poulos told me, “Running on public and low-dollar campaign contributions rather than generational wealth and corporate money is the right way to do it. The rich are getting richer, and they have for decades. A near billionaire is running our state, trying to buy elections. It’s unfair, and we’re not going to get equality out of elitism.”
After highlighting Elliot’s stance on energy reform, Poulos continued, “Lamont is more conservative than what our state represents. He went to (President Donald) Trump’s second inauguration and lowered the flag to half-mast for Charlie Kirk but not when a Minnesota Democrat (Melissa Hortman) and her husband were killed.”
There was never much of a doubt that 72-year-old Lamont would win the Democratic primary, and Elliott believes he’ll cruise to a third term in November, but at least the status quo was challenged.
Connecticut’s income inequality consistently ranks second highest in the United States, trailing only New York (2023 Census), yet during the primary debate, Gov. Lamont was reticent to say he’d increase taxes on the wealthy, responding, “Only when you need to.”
Elliott, on the other hand, stood up for the working class, pointing out that while the top 4,500 income earners in Connecticut pay no more than 8% of their income in taxes, the bottom 1.2 million pay around 20%.
He told me, “I think I put a lot of important information out into the open this past year, and hopefully people germinate over it and think more about these issues in the future.”
This campaign, in my view, was less about a bid to unseat Gov. Lamont and more about building a base for Connecticut’s future in 2030 and beyond. “I’ve got too much name recognition to walk away from it now. Lamont lost multiple statewide elections before he became governor. The people who succeed in politics were the ones who built and built through losses until it was their turn,” Elliott said.
In a political climate focused on the short term, state Rep. Josh Elliott is looking toward the horizon.
Tyler Kania of Columbia, Conn., is a 2025 IAN Book of the Year finalist and independent journalist.
Aug 18, 2026
Tyler Kania