With party conventions only four months away, lawmakers are seeking to replenish their ranks as key legislators are retiring from the General Assembly.
While the list is expected to grow in the coming months, it already includes state Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, a Westport Democrat who co-chairs the energy committee and will have served 16 years in the legislature when his current term expires. Another veteran lawmaker who is not running for the legislature is Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, a four-term veteran Democrat who is running in a four-way race for the U.S. Congress in the Greater Hartford area.
The latest to announce her retirement was Rep. Tammy Exum, who told fellow Democrats in her district in West Hartford and Avon last week that she will be stepping down after winning four elections. With Gilchrest, her close colleague, also not running, their departures will leave a hole in the West Hartford delegation.
“It will be a new day,” Exum told The Courant in an interview. “I literally love my delegation. It will be quite different to not have the two of us there. The good news is West Hartford is full of very talented people.”
Exum has personal reasons for her move as she takes her next steps going forward.
“I have had a major shift in my life,” Exum said. “My husband died very suddenly on October 1, 2023. It was just an incredible shock. This was someone who appeared to be one of the healthiest people that most of us knew. It was a huge turning point in our lives. However, I had counsel from very close friends and family, and they really recommended that I not make such a major shift in my role … It was really important for me to have a purpose, and so that purpose allowed me to come back.”
As a result, Exum did not leave the General Assembly immediately and continued working hard as a key player in children’s mental health, helping to pass a major bill that became a high priority last year for lawmakers at the state Capitol. She also wanted to speak out about coronary calcium scans, which is a test that she learned could have helped her husband. Earl Exum had been a high-level executive at East Hartford-based Pratt & Whitney who died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 55.
At the Capitol, Exum co-sponsored the bipartisan measure, which was passed in a special session late last year, to increase psychiatric services for children. House Speaker Matt Ritter made sure that Exum’s bill was debated after the measure had been bottled up earlier in the state Senate and never received a vote during the regular session.
Exum has described the measure as a historic and “transformative piece of legislation that responds directly to the youth mental health crisis, which has been exacerbated by the impacts of the pandemic, presenting itself in the form of increased rates of depression, suicide, and self-harm among adolescents.”
Exum’s colleagues say that others will need to step forward to fill the void on children’s mental health.
“This is very hard,” said state Rep. Toni Walker, a New Haven Democrat who co-chairs the budget-writing appropriations committee. “We’re going to miss her. We’re going to miss her terribly, especially when it comes to representing kids that have been pushed to the side through some of our own systems, and she’s led the charge to say mental health is an issue we’ve never really tackled and never tried to address it from the child’s perspective.”
Since they both represent parts of Avon, Exum developed a close friendship in recent years with Rep. Eleni Kavros DeGraw.
“Her work on children’s behavioral health continues to change lives across Connecticut, as other states look to her work across the country,” Kavros DeGraw said in a statement. “While I understand her desire to move on to other pursuits, it is a loss we will feel deeply at the legislature.”
Another member of the West Hartford delegation, Sen. Derek Slap, said that Exum played a key role in the legislature.
“Rep. Exum has achieved more in a few terms than many legislators accomplish in decades of service,” Slap said in a statement. “The mental health bill she wrote, introduced, and passed has been transformational for families across Connecticut, and her leadership on heart screenings will save thousands of lives. She’s been historically effective because she combines expertise with determination and humility.”
Exum was elected to the House in a special election in April 2019 to fill the House seat that had been held by Slap, who went to the Senate to replace former Senator Beth Bye of West Hartford.
In the future, Exum will continue to speak out about coronary calcium scans, serve as a consultant on children’s behavioral health and see family members in North Carolina.
“I want to spend more time with my dad, who is 89 years old,” she said.
Governor’s race
While some supporters assumed that state Rep. Josh Elliott was not running for re-election to the legislature in his hometown of Hamden, he says that remains uncertain.
Elliott is running against Gov. Ned Lamont from the left on issues like taxes and spending. But Elliott told The Courant that he will consider running for the legislature again if he does not raise enough money in the coming months to obtain public financing in a highly expensive race against Lamont.
Elliott has raised more than $90,000, but the total needed to qualify for public financing is $335,000, which is a newer, higher, inflation-adjusted number for 2026. Two Republicans – state Sen. Ryan Fazio of Greenwich and former New Britain mayor Erin Stewart – only needed to raise $250,000 in small contributions because they raised the money in 2025 and the state-imposed deadline for qualifying.
“I will be making a formal decision sometime in mid-April, depending on how the fundraising is going,” Elliott told The Courant. “I usually don’t announce until after session anyway, so this is in line with my timeline over the last decade. Not an open seat yet!”
Gov. Ned Lamont and State Rep. Tammy Exum meet with voters outside the Sedgwick Middle School in West Hartford on primary day on August 9, 2022. (Douglas Hook / Hartford Courant)
Christopher Keating can be reached at [email protected]