Connecticut 2018 Election Results

Connecticut held its general election on November 6, 2018, deciding 187 legislative seats and 6 statewide offices led by the governorship. Control shifted: the Senate moved from a 18-18 power-sharing tie to a 23-13 Democratic majority.

Highlights

• Democrats won an outright Senate majority, so they no longer depended on the lieutenant governor's tie-breaking vote. They also widened their House majority and kept the governor's office.
• Democrats flipped five Republican Senate seats. Four Republican senators lost:
  • L. Scott Frantz (R) to Alex Kasser (D) in District 36, by about 600 votes
  • Toni Boucher (R) to 22-year-old Will Haskell (D) in District 26
  • Len Suzio (R) to Mary Daugherty Abrams (D) in District 13
  • Michael McLachlan (R) to Julie Kushner (D) in District 24
  The fifth flip came in the open District 33, where Norm Needleman (D) beat state Rep. Melissa Ziobron (R) by fewer than 100 votes in a recount triggered by an Essex reporting error. Republicans kept Democrats one seat short of two-thirds when Sen. George Logan (R) survived his own recount in District 17, edging Jorge Cabrera (D) by fewer than 100 votes.
• In the House, Democrats grew their majority from 80 seats to 92, taking 13 Republican-held seats while losing the open District 51 to Richard Hayes (R). Democratic challengers who unseated Republican incumbents included Christine Palm (D), who beat Robert Siegrist (R) in District 36; Anne Hughes (D), who beat Adam Dunsby (R) in District 135; and Lucy Dathan (D), who beat Fred Wilms (R) in District 142. Speaker Joe Aresimowicz (D), running for the last time, held District 30 by 50 votes after a recount.
• The closest result came in Stratford's District 120, where Rep. Philip Young (D) beat Jim Feehan (R) by 13 votes after a recount. Republicans said as many as 76 voters got the wrong ballot at a polling place shared by two districts. The state Supreme Court left the dispute to the House, where a House committee deadlocked along party lines, so Young's victory stood.
• Ned Lamont (D) defeated Bob Stefanowski (R), who ran on phasing out the state income tax, by about 3 points, becoming the first in more than a century to succeed a governor of his own party in an open race. Independent Oz Griebel (I) took about 4%, and Stefanowski conceded the morning after. Democrats held every other statewide office: Susan Bysiewicz (D) won lieutenant governor, William Tong (D) the open attorney general's seat, and Shawn Wooden (D) the open treasurer's post, while Secretary of the State Denise Merrill (D) and Comptroller Kevin Lembo (D) won new terms.
• Beyond the 20 seats that changed party, 6 more legislative races finished inside two points, including House District 101, where Rep. Noreen Kokoruda (R) held on by 18 votes. Separately, 19 legislative races had no contest at all.
• Voters approved both constitutional amendments with more than 80 percent. Amendment 1 puts a lockbox on the Special Transportation Fund, barring lawmakers from diverting fuel-tax money, and Amendment 2 requires a public hearing before the legislature can sell or swap state property.

Legislature

• House (151 seats): 80 D, 71 R before the election, 92 D, 59 R after; control stayed with Democrats.
• Senate (36 seats): 18 D, 18 R before the election, 23 D, 13 R after; control moved from Power_Sharing to Democrats.

Statewide races

Legislative races

Ballot measures