Governor’s Race Takes Shape Ahead of 2026 Elections

The race to be Connecticut’s next governor is beginning to take shape, with another candidate launching a campaign for the state’s highest office this week.

Three challengers have now declared as official candidates, with a number of others waiting in the wings, including the Democratic incumbent, Gov. Ned Lamont.

Lamont has held off making a decision on whether to run for a third term and is expected to make an announcement after Labor Day.

If Lamont does run, he faces at least one primary challenger—five-term state representative Josh Elliott (D-Hamden), who announced his candidacy July 14.

If he doesn’t run again, the list of potential Democratic candidates includes Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, Attorney General William Tong, and State Comptroller Sean Scanlon.

“We have a lot of unfinished business,” Lamont told reporters last month.

Republican Field

State Sen. Ryan Fazio (R-Greenwich) became the second Republican to enter the race Aug. 13, joining Jennifer Tooker, the first selectwoman of Westport.

Fazio, an investment advisor, was first elected to the Senate in a 2021 special election and is the ranking Republican on the legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee.

“There is not a corner of the state you can go to where you don’t hear concerns about electric bills, property taxes, the ability of young people to get a job, and seniors to retire comfortably,” he said at his campaign launch.

Tooker announced her candidacy in March, saying she wanted to “restore fiscal discipline, create an economy where businesses and workers thrive, and make Connecticut a place where families can afford to stay, work, and retire.”

Connecticut has not elected a Republican to statewide office since 2006.

New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart is also expected to formally join the Republican primary field at some point.

She has raised over $300,000 in small, individual contributions—part of the process for qualifying for public campaign financing—through an exploratory campaign committee formed in January.

Stewart was first elected mayor of New Britain in 2013 and says she wants to “usher in a new generation of leadership to the state of Connecticut.”

Connecticut has not elected a Republican to statewide office since Jodi Rell was elected governor in 2006.

Democratic Race

Lamont first drew broad political attention when he defeated Democratic incumbent U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman in a 2006 primary, although Lieberman—running as an Independent—then won the general election.

He lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary to Dannel Malloy in 2010, with Malloy going on to serve two terms as governor.

With Bysiewicz as a running mate, Lamont was elected governor in 2018 with 48% of the vote, defeating Republican business executive Bob Stefanowski and several third party candidates.

Four years later, he won a rematch with Stefanowski, winning a second term with 54% of the vote.

Democratic and Republican primary elections are scheduled for Aug. 11, 2026.

Elliott was first elected to the House in 2016 after challenging then-Speaker Brendan Sharkey for Sharkey’s Hamden-based seat, with Sharkey then retiring before the party primary.

A longtime leader of the House Democrats’ Progressive Caucus, Elliott has criticized Lamont’s moderate fiscal policies, saying his campaign was “a fight for the soul of the party.”

“Primaries and convention fights are meant to suss out what the party wants to do and what the vision is,” he told the Connecticut Mirror.

“So, for the next year, we’re going to have a conversation about the direction of the party and vision for the state.”

Democratic and Republican primary elections are scheduled for Aug. 11, 2026, with the general election slated for Nov. 3.