After seven years in a job he loves, Gov. Ned Lamont will announce Friday that he wants four more years to lead the state of Connecticut in an effort to make progress on unresolved problems.
.At 71, Lamont says he still has the energy for the job and wants to tackle huge issues like bringing down the costs of electricity, health care, and housing — three of the biggest problems facing Connecticut.
As a multimillionaire from Greenwich whose wife is also a multimillionaire, Lamont could easily retire and travel around the world. Instead, he would be 73 years old at the start of his third term in January 2027 if he can win again next year — and retirement is not on the horizon.
“I feel like I’m just getting started,’‘ Lamont told The Courant during a 40-minute interview Thursday in Hartford. “I know so much more than I did 10 years ago and 30 years ago. I think of this job and every year, every week something different is thrown at you. That breadth of experience is serving us well and certainly is serving me well. I have a lot of friends. I know how to bring the smart people in to help me get through complicated times.”
He added, “Also you get a grandchild and it gives you a little perspective on the future.”
While Lamont says his administration has put the state back on the right track, he wants to do more.
“We got a lot done in the last eight years,” Lamont said in a top-floor conference room at the Charter Oak Health Center in Hartford. “Look where we were — lurching from deficit to deficit. People were pretty depressed and down about the state. We were making pretty good progress. Then COVID hit. Then you’re making progress, the economy is growing again, and people moving back to the state. Lower unemployment, feeling pretty good. Then Trump hits. But I think we’ve really built a foundation where we’re getting things going. … I’ve managed through Trump once before. I can do it again.”
Looking ahead, he said, “The big priorities are affordability and opportunity for everybody.”
In addition, he said, “I’m finally getting the pensions under control. Remember, the pensions were eating our budget alive. … We’re on the road to fixing that. Now, it’s health care costs. They’re crushing small business, crushing families, eating into our budget.”
As part of his official announcement Friday, Lamont will travel across the state with stops in Bridgeport, New Haven and Groton. For years, Lamont has been a strong advocate of wind power, which is being built in the ocean off the pier near Groton that is being used as a staging area for construction workers. He will then circle back to Hartford to discuss health care with elected officials before finishing the day-long tour in Waterbury with his supporters at a campaign launch party.
With a full year remaining in his term, Lamont has joined with Comptroller Sean Scanlon to begin studying how to create some type of public option for health care. The plan requires too much study to be ready for the upcoming 2026 legislative session and instead might be ready for action in 2027 after the third term would begin.
“I’m tired of waiting for the federal government to get their act together,” Lamont said. “I did say five or six years ago, when they wanted the taxpayers to backstop health insurance, they called it the public option. I said, ‘Look, I’m going to work with the insurance companies. I’m going to work with the hospitals.’ … I didn’t get much progress. Hospitals have a lot of sway in the legislature.”
Lamont is turning again to Scanlon, a policy wonk who has studied health care for years and has gained a reputation for tackling massive problems that others could not solve and many would not even attempt to solve.
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The way to do it, he says, would be funneling patients to the UConn Health Center, which has operated a standalone John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington. The center, though, is expected to join together in the future with Bristol Hospital and Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam.
Lamont wants to “see if I can drive state employees and retirees to UConn Health, which now includes Waterbury. It may include some other hospitals,” he said. “Save folks 10, 15, 20% on their insurance premiums and save the state a little bit of money as well.”
The campaign ahead
With Democrats controlling both chambers of the legislature and all constitutional offices, Lamont starts the campaign as a two-term incumbent with advantages in name recognition and financing in a reliably blue state.
The decision for Lamont was a highly personal one. Many politicians make the decision simply based on whether they believe they can win or not.
In Lamont’s case, he would be 77 years old at the end of the four-year term. Another factor is that his wife, Annie, has declined to retire and is still working at 69 as a highly successful venture capitalist who specializes in the health care industry.
Even while running his own cable television business for decades that later changed its name to Lamont Digital, he was always interested in public service.
Lamont has spent more than $60 million of his own money in four statewide races since running in 2006 against U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman.
In the short-term, Lamont could face a possible Democratic primary next August against state Rep. Josh Elliott of Hamden. The two top Republican candidates are state Sen. Ryan Fazio of Greenwich and longtime New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart. Under the state’s campaign financing law, Lamont’s opponent is expected to have more than $15 million in public funds for the general election in November 2026 as the total has increased since campaign costs have skyrocketed in recent years.
Knowing that he is receiving pressure from his left, Lamont says he has pushed for many of the same ideas as Elliott.
“He and I have agreed on so much,” Lamont told reporters earlier this year. “We had the biggest increase in the minimum wage. They had been fighting for $15 [per hour] for many years. We got that passed. They’ve been talking about a universal, early childhood education for years. We’re getting that passed. They’ve been talking about paid family and medical leave for many years. We got that passed. These are all things that help working families and middle-class folks in this state. We’re going to keep going.”
In another campaign theme, Lamont has been reminding voters that his administration succeeded in enacting the largest income tax cut in state history.
A family earning $100,000 per year saw their state income tax cut last year by nearly $600 — the largest dollar amount in a sliding scale that is based on income. With the relief targeted toward the middle class, the tax cuts are not available for individuals earning more than $150,000 per year and couples earning more than $300,000 per year.
Republicans
The two Republicans, Fazio and Stewart, are trying to catch up in name recognition to Lamont, who has constantly appeared on television screens and in newspapers for the past eight years. He appeared in daily news conferences with key information for rattled residents in 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Fazio’s campaign has been boosted by key endorsements from Senate Republican leader Stephen Harding of Brookfield and House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford, the two highest-ranking Republicans in a blue state where Democrats control the entire Congressional delegation, the governor’s office, and all the statewide offices like state treasurer and attorney general.
Stewart has released a list of supporters that include 12 current and former state legislators, including former state Sen. George Logan, who raised his profile by running twice unsuccessfully against Democrat Jahana Hayes during the last two election cycles. Stewart’s endorsement list also includes more than 30 selectmen and town council members, more than 20 local Republican chairs, and 13 state central committee members, among others.
For months, insiders have assumed that Lamont was running for a third term, saying that he would need to notify Democratic colleagues if he was not running so that they could start the long process of fundraising for their own campaigns for an open seat.
Lamont was asked constantly by reporters when he would make the formal announcement, and he has repeatedly stated that he wanted to postpone the decision for as long as possible so that he could focus on governing instead of campaigning. Lamont says he much prefers running the state to the rough-and-tumble clashes of politics. He told The Courant recently that he has been asked “a few hundred” times about his election plans.
History of 3 terms
Lamont is seeking to reach a difficult feat that has only been done once in state history. Even the giants of modern Connecticut politics, including Abe Ribicoff, Ella Grasso, and Lowell P. Weicker, never won three elections for governor.
The only person during the past 200 years to win three four-year terms was John G. Rowland, a Republican who later resigned during his third term amid a corruption scandal that led to the first of two prison terms.
Lamont would like to tie that record as he is not slowing down.
“I love the job,” Lamont said before repeating himself. “I love the job.”
Christopher Keating can be reached at [email protected]