Thomas Breen photos
Rosa DeLauro at Monday night’s get-out-the-vote rally.
Party stalwarts cheer DeLauro at Betsy Ross Parish House.
Dancing across the stage with her fist raised above a shock of purple-dyed hair, New Haven’s 75-year-old Congresswoman taught veteran and neophyte Connecticut Democrats alike how to send campaigners into the electoral battle of their lives.
Rosa DeLauro, who has represented New Haven in Congress since 1991 and who is currently seeking a 15th term representing Connecticut’s Third Congressional District, gave that lesson when she delivered the penultimate address at Monday night’s local Democratic Party get-out-the-vote rally at the Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School’s Parish House at 150 Kimberly Ave.
Her role at the final pre-election rally was to introduce Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont, who faces off on Tuesday against Republican Bob Stefanowski and independent Oz Griebel.
Party stalwarts cheer DeLauro at Betsy Ross Parish House.
But DeLauro did much more than make an introduction. She stole the show.
In her signature wardrobe of brightly colored hair, oversized jewelry, and a labyrinthine scarf, DeLauro delivered a fiery 11-minute speech that earned multiple standing ovations from the crowd of around 50 state and local Democratic Party stalwarts.
DeLauro didn’t talk about lowering property taxes. She hardly called out President Donald Trump by name, though her speech was rich with references to the Republican president.
Mayor Toni Harp surrounded by Democrats running for state and national office.
Instead, she zeroed in on what she believes the Democratic Party stands for: fairness, diversity, social mobility, and support for the poor and working and middle classes.
And she defined the Republican Party and the current presidential administration as more than just a political opponent, but as a force of atavistic terror.
“Yes, we are a nation of immigrants,” she said. “We welcome diversity and we demand equality in this country. We demand it.”
Go to the 26:21 minute mark of the Facebook Live video below to watch DeLauro’s speech at Monday night’s rally.
Below are several excerpts from DeLauro’s speech:
On the core values of the Democratic Party: “What is it that we all share? What do we share? It’s not the ‘D’ after our name when they put our names in the paper …. It’s not the ‘D,’ but it is about the democratic values, the underpinning of the party that we represent. That is what binds us together. … Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, civil rights, a GI bill, the Affordable Care Act, and yes, the ability for the sons and daughters of working families and poor families and middle class families to be able to get an education. That’s what the Democratic Party stands for. That’s what we are about.”
On the connection between hate speech and political violence: “When you engage in hate speak, when you pit one group of people against another group, when you are divisive, when you denigrate individuals, when you call them names and when you discriminate against them, when you let that genie out of the bottle, you can’t put it back again.
“Our democracy is fragile. You cannot do what the president would do, which is to body slam it every day. We need to nurture it. We need to foster it. And it needs to be there for today and for tomorrow. That is what is at risk tomorrow, that is what’s on the ballot.”
On political mobilization since the 2016 election of Donald Trump: “Millions of people rose up to resist in the Women’s March, in the March for our Lives, to prevent gun violence in this country, and it engaged women and young people and people of color to go out, to work, to vote, to call, to contribute, to run for office, so that we can turn back a worldview of this administration, which is racist and sexist.”
Then Ned Speaks
Ned Lamont.
After DeLauro finished her speech and passed the microphone to Lamont, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate said he had never been so proud to be a Democrat.
He thanked outgoing Branford State Sen. Ted Kennedy, Jr. for being in the audience.
Then he shared some thoughts on why he is running for governor.
“People say, ‘Why do you do it?’” he said. “‘You’re 64. You could go do something else.’ A lot of your friends say, ‘Connecticut can’t get out of its own way. I’m leaving. I’m gonna go to Delray, Florida.’ I can’t think of anything more boring than Delray. I’m sticking with Connecticut.”