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State legislative candidates Nyrell Moore and Johnnie McFadden at WNHH FM.
Nyrell Moore and Johnnie McFadden agree that voters in neighborhoods like the Hill should have a choice when they vote — and they’re presenting themselves as that choice this November.
Moore, a 27-year-old insurance agent, is the Republican candidate for the 10th State Senate District seat against incumbent Democratic Sen. Gary Winfield. McFadden, a 39 year-old youth worker, is running on an unaffiliated line against incumbent Democratic State Rep. Juan Candelaria in the 95th General Assembly District. Both districts include the Hill among other New Haven neighborhoods. (The 10th Senate District also includes part of West Haven.)
“Quite frankly, I’m tired of business as usual” and “career politicians,” McFadden, until recently a Democrat, said Tuesday during a joint conversation with Moore on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. “I’m not paid for. I don’t work for corporate donors. I work for everyday people.”
“I think for myself,” said Moore, who last year ran for West Haven’s City Council on the Republican line. “The Democratic Party has been using us as Black people for their benefit for a very long time. Making America Great Again is the most important thing. It starts locally.” He said he wants to help build a national Republican movement, including by electing Donald Trump as president in November. “I see him as a change. We need to have more business people” in office. “I’m American First.”
Both candidates spoke about the need for more affordable housing. McFadden said he would favor a state bill to protect most renters from end-of-lease evictions without a just cause, adding that he also wants to ensure landlords can evict problem tenants. (The bill didn’t make it to a final vote in the just-concluded session.)
Moore argued that making New Haven safer by “giving more power back to the police officers” would lead more house-buyers to live on the premises rather than serving as absentee landlords. He said funding the police more would help do that, while also increasing pre-hiring vetting to make sure departments “put the right people in power.” He added that while police brutality is “real,” it’s not as prevalent as some advocates claim. “They’re trying to divide us racially” on the issue, he argued.
One of his top priorities if elected would be to support mental health programs in schools, Moore said.
Neither candidate focused on their opponents in the discussion. They said they’re focusing on change they would bring to politics rather than criticizing the individual incumbents. McFadden did accuse of Candelaria of focusing more on Fair Haven than the Hill in delivering money to the district, attributing that to Fair Haven having more Latino residents. Reached by the Independent, Candelaria, who has lived in the Hill most of his life, responded that the neighborhood has a large Latino population as well. And he cited $1.5 million in state bonding money he helped secure to rebuild the Barbell Club in the Hill’s Trowbridge Square as an example of how he has worked to support the full district.
McFadden drew a parallel during the “Dateline” interview between his personal effort to tackle obesity and working long-term for political change.
“I was about 300 pounds. Now I’m 190. It was a tough journey. It had a lot of up and downs.
“I had to look at where I am and where I want to go. Where you want to go, you need to do some things before you get there,” he said. “Most people want this quick fix. You have to do the work. You have to apply yourself. When you don’t see instant results, don’t stop. Keep going.
“Just like elections, you vote one time, the person you want don’t win, ‘I’m not voting no more.’ If you know what you want to see and you know what you want to do, you have to keep that in the forefront of your mind and not get distracted by the political chaos and the rhetoric around you. While these politicians are arguing, fighting, the people are suffering and dying.”
Click on the video to watch the full discussion with Nyrell Moore and Johnnie McFadden on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of Dateline New Haven.
Click below to watch (and here to read about) a previous interview with State Sen. Gary Winfield.