It’s time for a change in Connecticut’s 1st Congressional District.
That sentence need not be read as a slight against Rep. John Larson. Since 1999, Larson has been a stalwart supporter of seniors, workers, and Hartford’s working-class neighborhoods. He has fought to protect Social Security, risen to senior positions on the Ways and Means Committee, and been a familiar presence at parades, union halls, and senior centers. Both he and his long career in the House deserve appreciation and respect.
But gratitude for the past is not a plan for the future. In a representative democracy, the seat belongs to the district, not to the man. Therefore, the question before Democratic voters in 2026 is not “Has John Larson served us well?” It is “Who is best prepared to fight for us right now, in this political moment?” On that question, the answer is clear: Luke Bronin.
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Across the country, voters are demanding change: not a change in fundamental American values, but a change in the urgency and style of leadership. In an era marked by democratic backsliding, rising authoritarian rhetoric, widening wealth inequality, and daily assaults on basic rights like due process and the freedom of speech, the old rhythms of politics no longer suffice. Safe blue seats like Connecticut’s 1st District cannot be treated as lifetime appointments. They must become engines of new ideas and new energy within the Democratic Party.
Luke Bronin embodies that new energy.
At 46, Bronin has already spent a decade on the front lines of governing. As Hartford’s mayor, he took office in 2016 with the city on the brink of bankruptcy. Working with the state, unions, and bondholders, he helped stabilize Hartford’s finances, secured a long-term debt restructuring, and insisted on more honest budgeting and structural reform. He then led the capital through the COVID-19 pandemic, when mayors — not members of Congress — were the ones deciding how to keep people healthy, housed, fed, and safe.
That experience matters. Washington has no shortage of politicians who can talk about working families. Far fewer have actually had to figure out how to keep a city’s lights on when the tax base is shrinking and small businesses are closing. Bronin has negotiated with labor and business, confronted gun violence and public-safety crises, and made tough decisions in real time rather than in televised hearings.
He has also built programs that reflect a concrete, community-centered vision of justice: a Youth Service Corps to connect young people with paid work and mentoring; a Reentry Welcome Center to support residents coming home from incarceration; and new civilian crisis-response initiatives that send trained professionals — not just police — into moments of mental-health crisis. These are the kinds of local innovations that point toward a more humane public safety and social policy agenda for the state and the country.
But Bronin’s résumé in public service doesn’t end there. It extends beyond City Hall to senior roles at the U.S. Treasury Department, where he worked on terrorist financing and financial crimes, and to his role as general counsel to Governor Dannel Malloy, where he helped craft policies on veterans’ homelessness, gun safety, economic development, and environmental protection. He was also a Navy Reserve officer who deployed to Afghanistan as part of an anti-corruption task force. That combination of local executive experience, national-security work, and state-level policymaking is rare, and it’s exactly what Congress needs.
This is not just a contest of policy positions. It is a choice between a not-so-newcomer who has been tested — and prevailed — during the crises of the last decade and a member of the so-called old guard in Washington. Larson and Bronin are both Democrats committed to defending Social Security, workers’ rights, reproductive freedom, and voting rights. But Larson is 77 and has been in Congress since the Clinton administration, while Bronin came of age politically in the shadow of 9/11, the ‘08 financial crisis, and the Trump era — a period that taught many younger Democrats that norms can collapse quickly, that economic precarity is widespread, and that democracy cannot be taken for granted.
Right now, it is reasonable to ask whether our representation in safe Democratic districts should be frozen in place for three decades at a time. Democratic renewal requires competitive primaries, fresh voices, and leaders who have recently grappled with the practical realities of running communities in times of crisis and uncertainty. That’s not disrespect. It’s democracy working as it should.
Larson can and should retire with honor whenever he chooses. But his long service should not foreclose voters’ opportunity to choose a different kind of leadership now. Luke Bronin offers that choice: grounded in experience, informed by crisis, and animated by a belief that government can still solve problems if it is close enough to the people it serves.
Connecticut’s 1st Congressional District owes John Larson its thanks. It also owes itself a hard look at the future. In 2026, the most responsible choice is not to cling to what has always been, but to invest in the kind of forward-looking leadership that these times demand. That is why it’s time for a change — and why it’s time for Luke Bronin.
Robert T.F. Downes is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Connecticut, specializing in Political Theory and Public Law. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Rhode Island College, where he teaches Intro to American Government.