Paul Bass photo
DTC Chair Vincent Mauro Jr. at WNHH FM.
Vincent Mauro Jr. is all in with his party’s new plan to elect Kamala Harris the next president of the United States.
He’s not down with how it all came about. In fact he has a gripe with his party.
He aired that gripe Tuesday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
Mauro is in his second decade as New Haven’s Democratic town chair, one of the most influential party officials in the state, especially at election time.
“It’s probably the best net result for the Democratic Party to have Vice-President Harris at the top of the ticket,” Mauro said.
But how did we get here?
“I think the process sort of failed us in a lot of ways. And I say that understanding that I’m part of the process.
“The frustration that I’ve heard from people … is it didn’t just happen overnight that he went from most effective president of all time to what we saw at the debate, and then that interview, right? You had all these folks who are in the room, and all the secretaries of every department, and the senators and the legislators and the representatives who used to walk out of the White House every day and they go do their press gaggle and say, ‘We just had this great meeting with the president.’ Three weeks later, the guy can’t put a sentence together?
“If there was a more honest conversation a year ago or a year and a half ago, then it’s an open process, right? But everyone toed the line down there, and then as soon as it didn’t work out, it’s like, ‘All right. He’s got to go.’ Why didn’t you know? Why weren’t you telling us earlier in the process?”
Mauro said national party officials did not keep municipal leaders like New Haven’s Dems in the loop. So they went ahead and promoted Biden in this April’s presidential primary.
“We had an election here. And [Biden] won. You can’t just throw it out. You can’t just say, ‘We don’t agree with the election this time.’ It worked to your favor this time not to follow the process. What happens when it doesn’t work to your favor?
“They should have been more honest about it.”
Mauro said Harris’s strengths include auguring a “generational” change. Voters had expressed dissatisfaction with a choice between two presidential candidates on either side of 80 years old. Harris is 59.
To that end, Mauro recommended that Harris pick someone of the same cohort, rather than someone of Biden’s or Donald Trump’s generation, as her running mate.
Click on the above video to watch the full discussion with New Haven Democratic Town Chair Vincent Mauro Jr., on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven,” including an update on the local party and a preview of the emerging 2026 gubernatorial field. Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of Dateline New Haven.