Six openly gay Republicans are running for seats in the Connecticut General Assembly, not exactly following LGBTQ political trends.
According to NBC News, a record number of openly LGBTQ are seeking office across the country and, while the vast majority of candidates are Democrats, in Connecticut it’s a different matter.
Only two Democrat candidates are openly LGBTQ, which is in stark contrast to the six openly gay Republicans running for office.
A 2016 Pew Research Center report found that around 82 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual voters identified with the Democratic Party, while 18 percent leaned towards the GOP.
Voters from the LGB community tend to have broadly liberal political values on a variety of topics.
An NBC News exit poll conducted during the 2016 presidential election backed those findings, noting that 78 percent of LGBTQ voters cast their ballot for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, while 14 percent voted for Republican Donald Trump.
In Connecticut, the openly gay candidates are challenging these perceptions.
“I’ve always said that Connecticut Republicans are just a different animal, a different breed of Republicans,” said John Scott of Mystic, who is running for the state’s 40th District. “We are fiscally conservative and socially liberal; we want a state that people can afford to live in and afford to stay in.”
Liz Kurantowicz, a Republican consultant working to help the party win control of the Connecticut House, said the state’s Democrats could not win the election cycle on ideas.
“Voters have rejected their failed tax-and-spend policies. The only thing left in [their] playbook is identity politics and we’re taking that off the table for them too,” she said, according to the Hartford Courant.
The other openly gay Republican candidates include A.J. Kerouac of Brooklyn in Connecticut, Ken Richards of Groton, Mary Fay of West Hartford, Robert Smedley of New Britain and Shaun Mastroianni of Stonington.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.