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Margaret Streicker accepts the nomination.
Connecticut Republicans Tuesday night endorsed Margaret Streicker as a candidate for Connecticut’s U.S. Third Congressional District seat, heralding her experience as the founder of several real estate businesses.
The Connecticut Republican Party held an online convention to nominate Streicker, who is the only Republican running for the seat. The event was held over Zoom and streamed to the public by way of the Connecticut Republican Party’s YouTube channel.
A Milford resident, Streicker is running to represent a district that includes New Haven, Stratford, and Middletown.
Accepting the nomination by video from her home, she noted the bizarre circumstances.
“As a child in the bedroom,” she said, “I may have sang tunes pretending to be up on stage as Debbie Gibson or Bruce Springsteen. But never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be accepting an endorsement for a Congressional candidacy to attend U.S. Congress from the group here. I certainly would never have imagined that I’d actually be doing it from my very own bedroom.
“These are wild and crazy times.”
At the online convention, she said that she hopes to bring “sensible governance” to Congress, “especially during these crucial times as we begin to build up our state again and reopen our economy.”
“Connecticut is ready to take back control of its destiny and make the vital and important decisions we need,” she said.
Streicker aims to unseat U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who received the Democratic Party’s endorsement for reelection on Monday. DeLauro, who grew up in New Haven and touted this week her efforts to promote pay equity and labor rights, is finishing up her 15th two-year term. She currently co-chairs the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee and chairs the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee.
The convention took under 20 minutes. Click above to watch it.
State Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano cited Streicker’s business experience Tuesday night as he nominated her for the endorsement.
“Everyone has to be a team when you’re running a business,” he said, arguing that Streicker had to work to bring together people with disparate perspectives in order to build a thriving company.
Len Fasano: Streicker’s business experience will “make Connecticut strong again.”
“In Washington, that’s what’s missing,” Fasano said. “There is a strident disregard for other views. I think Margaret, when she gets down there, will say ‘let’s put that away.’”
According to her campaign website, Streicker’s top legislative priorities would be access to quality healthcare, maintaining senior benefits, reducing taxes, and promoting job growth.
Streicker’s website does not specifically name her business, but New Haveners might recognize her as the developer for several recent conversion projects in town. Her company, Newcastle Connecticut LLC, has converted historic buildings into apartments and student housing in the East Rock neighborhood.
Streicker founded Newcastle Realty Services, a New York City-based property management firm, in 2004. She established the Connecticut outpost of the firm — Newcastle Connecticut LLC — in 2015. Newcastle specializes in rehabilitating and converting historic buildings.
Streicker’s campaign website declares that as a business leader, Streicker “created hundreds of jobs,” “negotiated, managed and lead through highly complex situations, in both regulatory and open-market economies,” and dedicated her career to “improving lives and the homes in which people live.”
In recent years, Newcastle has faced controversy over its management of rent-regulated apartments in New York City.
In 2015, as Newcastle prepared to renovate a Manhattan rental apartment building, The New York Attorney General’s office alleged that the firm offered illegal buyouts to tenants before conversion plans were approved, inducing twelve residents to leave. The firm was also accused of taking five apartments out of rent-stabilization prematurely. Without admitting guilt, Newcastle paid a settlement of $1.2 million to the Attorney General’s office, including legal fees.
Three years later, in 2019, the former head of operations at Newcastle fielded another lawsuit from the New York Attorney General’s office — this time, due to allegations that, while at Newcastle, he and other associates illegally inflated the costs of renovations for “hundreds” of rent-stabilized apartments so that they would be reclassified as market rate rentals.
At the time, a representative for Newcastle told the New York Times that the company had cooperated with the Attorney General and fired an unnamed employee involved in the ordeal.
Streicker took her business out of New York at the end of 2019 after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo tightened housing and rent regulations. She penned an open letter to the governor that decried the new restrictions as a job deterrent.
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Margaret Streicker, center, after presenting on a New Haven student housing development in 2017.
The CT Post reported that Streicker has since started a new real estate firm, Fortitude Capital LLC, which focuses on properties in Indiana, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, and Arkansas.
Streicker is also an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture.
In 2018, a Republican, Angel Cadena, challenged DeLauro for her seat on the House of Representatives. DeLauro defeated him with 90% of the vote.
Still, Connecticut Republicans are hopeful that Streicker’s credentials will propel her to win against the thirty-year incumbent.
“I found Margaret on Facebook,” said Victoria Clifford, who seconded the nomination. “I messaged her and introduced myself. She contacted me by phone, and she didn’t hang up on me… We Republicans actually have a chance of pulling this off.”