Orosco4Senate Insta reels.
Steve Orosco is as likely to knock on your iPhone as to knock on your door this campaign season.
Paul Bass Photo
State Senate candidate Steve Orosco at WNHH FM. Click below to watch a Kathy Hochul-inspired Orosco campaign video.
Orosco, a 43-year-old Morris Cove-based mixed-martial arts impresario, is pursuing a rematch as the Republican challenger to Democratic incumbent State Sen. Martin Looney in the 11th District, which covers the eastern half of New Haven as well as a swath of Hamden.
In the weeks before the Nov. 5 election you might see Orosco stopping by your door to pitch his candidacy (for change in how the city and state address the schools, crime, and budgeting). In 2022 he began door-knocking months earlier, in the summer.
“I did a lot more door knocking last time. The door knocking didn’t get too far,” he said. “People don’t want to answer the door. People don’t want to take the time to speak to you.”
But if you have a phone, you, along with 3,308 followers, may just as likely come across some of his 83-and-counting high-energy, fast-moving campaign videos on Instagram.
He made memorable videos in his 2022 campaign as well. This time he’s stepping up his reels game, he said during a campaign interview on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. The videos “reach more people in an efficient time manner, and the more I post, more people I reach.”
His videos range from human trafficking and pedophilia warnings to Trump/MAGA support to hits against identity politics.
One representative recent video (shown above) was sparked by hearing New York Gov. Kathy Hochul promote a tech outreach initiative by stating: “Right now, we have young Black kids growing up in the Bronx who don’t even know what the word ‘computer’ is. They don’t know these things.”
A lot happens in the 24 second-video. Orosco mashes Hochul’s comment with an audio clip of Mobb Deep’s “Survival of the Fittest” and split-screen video of a young Black actor pretending to be an ape rampaging through An Apple Store. Orosco himself turns a Macbook upside down and sideways as if trying to figure out how it works.
“The Fact that Liberals Say This Out Loud Is CRAZY,” the video proclaims.
He called this video “the most fun one” he has produced this season.
Hochul’s remarks “upset me because you treat people like they’re inferior,” said Orosco, who has Trinidadian lineage and identifies as Black. “I don’t like this Black inferiority complex. It really drives me crazy. Character is everything; and I think Democrats have really mastered that narrative of identity politics. They’ve done a great job at it. …
“I started playing with my laptop like I couldn’t figure out how to use it. We’re not that stupid. Like, we know how to get a voter ID. We know how to use a computer. I think that when you look at another race as inferior, that they can’t do things, that’s supremacy in my world. When you are raising children and telling them they are victims and oppressed, they grow up to become adults who think they’re victims and oppressed. I don’t think pitching this victim mentality or Black inferiority complex moves the needle at all.”
The key to making an effective video, according to Orosco: “Being honest and being playful at the same time.”
The satirical video drew likes and direct messages of support, Orosco said, as did other campaign videos. He gets some hate messages, too. “I’m OK with that, because it makes me stronger, more impenetrable.”
Orosco, who received 22.3 percent of the vote against Looney in 2022, was asked if he thinks social media-focused campaigning translates into votes, whether it produces more votes than, say, door-knocking. He said he doesn’t know — when polls close on Nov. 5 in his State Senate race, the numbers may offer clues.
Lightning Round
The “Dateline” interview included a “lightning round” on where Orosco stands on state issues. Some examples:
• He opposes a referendum question on the ballot to allow universal absentee ballot voting in Connecticut without needing a special reason. “There’s so much election fraud going on and people want to dismiss it,” he argued, citing the recent scandals in Bridgeport.
• He said he’d need to learn more before having a position on adjusting the “volatility cap” in a 2017 bipartisan “fiscal guardrails” agreement to allow for spending more tax revenue from capital income tax returns. Looney supports tweaking the formula to free up money to support higher education and early-childhood education.
• He supports a ban on students using cell phones in school.
• Like Looney, Orosco said he supports a bill to allow strikers to receive unemployment benefits after two weeks on the line. “There’s usually a fair reason why people are striking,” he said. He said the law should include a time limit. “It can’t be unemployment for a year.”
• He opposes electrification of CT Transit and school bus fleets. “I’m not big on the whole electric market. I do think that fossil fuels should stay intact. Think that’s where a lot of jobs are created.”
• He opposes Looney’s proposal for a “mansion tax” increasing real-estate levies on the most expensive homes: “You’re just giving people reasons to leave the state of Connecticut. People aren’t going to move into Connecticut with a mansion tax in comparison to people leaving.”
Click on the video below to watch the full discussion with State Senate challenge candidate Steve Orosco on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven,” as well as a previous interview with incumbent Martin Looney. (Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of “Dateline New Haven.”)