Erin Stewart, the young and often unconventional Republican mayor of New Britain, laid down a marker Tuesday for an expected campaign for governor in 2026 with a relatively conventional pitch for generational change.
“It’s a big day, because we’re kicking off the first leg of what could be an almost two-year journey to usher in a new generation of leadership to the state of Connecticut,” Stewart said, launching an exploratory campaign.
The “new generation” reference was a dig at the wealthy men who were the GOP nominees for governor in the last four elections, Tom Foley and Bob Stefanowski, as well as the 71-year-old two-term Democratic incumbent, Ned Lamont.
Stewart, 37, was elected mayor at 26, an instant curiosity for her youth and ability to win in a racially diverse, Democratic city where her father, Timothy Stewart, also had been mayor.
But she fumbled her first steps on the statewide stage in 2018 with a late, ineffectual jump in the race for governor, followed by a rapid retreat to a losing candidacy for lieutenant governor.
“I’ve learned a ton from that experience,” Stewart said.
One of those lessons is to start raising money early. By opening an exploratory committee, Stewart can start raising the funds necessary to qualify for public financing in a recently overhauled Citizens Election Program.
With rich self-funders opting out of the voluntary program, which provides state grants while imposing spending limits, the General Assembly took steps in 2023 to make the system relevant once again with bigger grants and earlier access.
Lamont spent $25.7 million to win reelection in 2022 in a rematch Stefanowski, who spent $14.5 million. Had they opted for public financing, they would have been limited to about $8 million — roughly the amount Lamont spent on television advertising in the last five weeks of the campaign.
The grants were roughly doubled. In 2026, participating gubernatorial candidates can get $3.2 million for a primary, $15.4 million for the general election and $806,875 for a new pre-convention grant. To qualify, Stewart said she will have to raise about $350,000.
Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat who won in 2010 and 2014, is the only publicly financed candidate elected governor since the program was created in 2005 and first available in statewide races in 2010. Nearly every state legislator and other statewide constitutional officers run campaigns funded by the public grants.
Stewart is the first politician to open an exploratory committee with a stated focus on potentially running for governor in 2026. With an active, sometimes provocative presence on social media, Stewart has demonstrated an ability to generate an early buzz.
Creating an exploratory campaign committee typically is announced with a brief press release. Stewart theatrically entered a press conference outside her office in city hall to raucous cheers and a lectern crowded with microphones from cable News 12 and the local affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.
She quickly was reminded of the complication she will face running for governor as a socially moderate to liberal Republican during the second administration of President Donald J. Trump, who lost decisively in Connecticut in all three runs for president. Trump’s poorly articulated threat to freeze federal spending dominated the day’s news cycle.
Stewart, whose announcement was at 10 a.m., declined to say how the freeze might hit New Britain or the many private non-profits that offer social services in her small city.
“We don’t know that yet,” Stewart said. “So, we’ll move onto the next question.”
Stewart said nothing to cross the president with no tolerance for disloyalty, loudly telling the crowd she voted for Trump in each of those three elections.
“We knew what we were getting when he won,” Stewart said. “We knew that everything that’s happened in the last week, all the executive orders, we knew that was going to happen, because he’s the type of leader who says he’s going to do something and does it. He doesn’t waffle. And I’m that same type of leader.”
Four current and former state lawmakers attended, saying Stewart offered a fresh take to a party that desperately needs one.
“I think Erin is the last hope in my lifetime for electing a Republican governor,” said Robert Maddox Jr., a former House member from Bethlehem.
If she runs and Lamont is a candidate, she is unlikely to have state finances as a wedge issue. Stewart faulted Lamont as a governor without a vision for Connecticut, but she agrees with his insistence on maintaining the so-called “fiscal guardrails” that have limited how the state can spend five years of fat surpluses.
Stewart, who is married and the mother of children ages 1 and 4, said families in Connecticut suffer from the high cost of living. She offered no sense of how she would change that.
“I want to leave my children a future that’s secure and in a state that they can be proud of and in a state that they want to stay in,” she said.
Lamont is not expected to say if he is seeking a third term until late spring, at the earliest. Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin are all but certain to run if Lamont does not. Attorney General William Tong and Comptroller Sean Scanlon are also weighing runs.