Thomas Breen photo
DeLauro addresses GOTV rally Saturday in Dixwell Plaza.
Three days away from an election overshadowed by a pandemic, mass unemployment, and national political tensions, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and a troop of fellow Democratic candidates urged voters to remember that government must play an active role in helping the vulnerable survive calamitous times.
That message came Saturday morning during a Democratic Town Committee-led Get Out The Vote rally held in the front parking lot of the party’s Dixwell Plaza campaign headquarters.
Bundled up in coats, gloves, and face masks amidst the crisp late fall weather, Democrats from across the city and state pitched several dozen local liberals as they prepared to knock doors and make phone calls in support of a host of candidates on the ballot this Nov. 3.
Attendees fill the parking lot of Dixwell Plaza.
DeLauro, running for her 16th two-year term representing the Third District in the U.S. House of Representatives, featured prominently in just about every address.
She was also given the final word at Saturday’s rally to do what she is often called on to do at such GOTV events — to articulate the overarching principles of the Democratic Party and to try to inspire voters about the material impact that politics can have on their day-to-day lives.
Ever-present in that call to political arms was the fact that DeLauro, for the first time since 1992, is in the thick of a truly contested reelection campaign. She is facing a well-funded challenge from the right by Republican Margaret Streicker, and is being pushed from the left on healthcare and military funding, among other issues, by petitioning Green Party candidate Justin Paglino.
“It is the very soul of our nation on the ballot this year,” said DeLauro (pictured at center), using the same language that former Vice-President Joe Biden has used throughout his campaign in his bid to unseat Republican President Donald Trump.
She cited the Covid-19 pandemic, which has already killed 230,000 Americans and rendered millions unemployed, as a clarifying political, economic, and social crisis.
“We have an administration that does not believe that government plays a role in people’s lives,” she said. “That doesn’t believe in science helping us to conquer and crush this virus. That doesn’t believe in helping workers. But the people of this country are going to repudiate them with their votes on Nov. 3.”
She said a vote for Democrats up and down the ballot Tuesday is not just a show of party loyalty, but a vote of support for the value and belief in “the power of government to do good for people.”
Jayuan Carter (right) hands out doorknockers and turf assignments inside the DTC’s Dixwell Plaza HQ.
DeLauro implored fellow party members to prioritize creating jobs, making healthcare affordable, improving access to a quality education, “putting money in people’s pockets so that they can take care of their families, and making sure children don’t go to bed hungry at night,” if elected this November.
She called for a political agenda that “puts middle-class families, working families, low-income families, and the vulnerable at the center of what we do. It’s not about the rich. It’s not about the powerful. It’s not about the wealthiest in this country, but it is about the people in this nation.”
Joelle Fishman and Millie Grenough promote the Peace Commission’s ballot referendum.
And she returned to her own personal, working class Italian-American roots — which have also been front and center this campaign season—by describing an old Election Day refrain of mother’s, the late former Wooster Square Alder and local Democratic Party stalwart Luisa DeLauro.
DeLauro said she can still remember her mom at campaign headquarters on election night, making phone call after phone call. “I don’t care if you’re in your pajamas,” she recalled her mom saying over the phone. “Put your coat on. We’re coming to pick you up to vote.”
“Here To Fight”
A host of other local, state, and national elected Democrats cited similar party ideals — and frequently referenced DeLauro’s reelection campaign and 30-year record in office — in their own calls to get out the vote.
They also frequently mentioned the specter of the pandemic and the Trump Administration’s bungled response to the public health crisis as reason enough to vote Democrats into power.
“Democracy’s on the ballot this year,” said Jorge Cabrera (pictured above at right), who is challenging Republican incumbent George Logan for the 17th State Senate District seat, which represents portions of Hamden and the Naugatuck Valley.
“Healthcare is on the ballot this year. Good jobs are on the ballot this year. Housing is on the ballot this year. The soul of our country and our state is on the ballot this year.”
New Haven State Rep. Toni Walker (pictured) agreed. “Are we ready to show that we believe in science?” she asked the crowd, which cheered in response. “That we believe in women’s rights? That we believe in equal rights for everybody, no matter where they are? That all people should be accountable to people that vote for them?”
New Haven State Sen. and President Pro Tem Martin Looney (pictured), who is also facing challengers from the left and right in his own reelection campaign this year, laid into Streicker as someone not fit for public service because of her “disgraceful record as a slumlord. That shows you that, in the minds of some very wealthy people, wealth pushes everything and can be a substitute for a conscience.”
Looney described DeLauro as a “pillar of strength” for the state and country, and called on voters to hit the polls this election to help “cure a political virus that took hold in this country four years ago when, due to the vagaries of the Electoral College, Donald Trump was elected President against the popular will of the country and the popular vote.”
Fellow U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (pictured), who represents Connecticut’s Fourth U.S. Congressional District, covering Fairfield County, called DeLauro the “conscience of the family” that is Connecticut’s five-person delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Whenever the group is diving deep on policy, statistics, and law, he said, “Rosa is the one who says, ‘Don’t you ever forget that this is about children. This is about opportunity. This is about the fact that in the wealthiest state in this country, children still go hungry and people don’t have access to healthcare.’”
If DeLauro is reelected and the Democrats retain control of the House, New Haven’s Congresswoman will likely be the next chair of the Appropriations Committee, he said. “Appropriations is a big and fancy word for money,” Himes said. “If you do nothing else, send Rosa back to Washington, D.C.”
And Board of Alders President and West River Alder Tyisha Walker-Myers (pictured) said that DeLauro represents the best ideals of the Democratic Party in action.
“She has always stood up for women’s rights and worker’s rights,’ she said. “Anytime we call, she comes.”
Walker-Myers said that every time President Trump talks, “he’s speaking hate. We need people to speak love.”
As for DeLauro, she concluded, “She’s here to fight. She’s fierce. And she is a woman.”
Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch all of Saturday’s Democratic GOTV rally.