Challenger to Larson falls short in primary bid, files court complaint
Muad Hrezi, the progressive candidate seeking to challenge longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. John Larson in the First Congressional District, has failed to gather enough valid signatures to appear on the primary ballot this August.
Hrezi said he is about 300 signatures shy of the 3,833 required per law. In a complaint filed in Superior Court this week challenging the petitioning process, Hrezi said the Secretary of the State was two days late in providing his campaign with the required paperwork and that several of his volunteers were sidelined due to COVID.
He was still waiting Tuesday for official word from the Secretary of the State's Office on whether his petition would be approved. But an audit done by his campaign showed he was several hundred signatures short, he said.
Desmond Conner, a spokesman for the Secretary of the State, said it would take until the end of the week
to determine which of the petitioning candidates, if any, would qualify for the primary. Conner declined to comment on the pending lawsuit from Hrezi.
Since he failed to get 15 percent support from party delegates at the nominating convention this spring, Hrezi had to gather signatures from 2 percent of registered Democrats in the 1st District to petition his way on to the primary ballot. His complaint also offers a critique of the petitioning process in Connecticut, which Hrezi said is more restrictive than many other states.
“The system is not one that strengthens democracy,” he said. “It's extremely anti-democratic. It suppresses voter choices.”
Hrezi, 27, a former substitute teacher who worked as a staffer for U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, sought to replicate progressive wins in previous elections such as U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's defeat of House Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley in New York's 15th Congressional District — widely seen as one of the biggest upsets of the 2018 midterms.
Larson, 72, whose served in Congress for nearly 25 years, hasn't faced a primary opponent since winning the seat. Hrezi's campaign focused on bringing a fresh face to Washington and moving the Democratic Party more to the left on issues such as health care.
Despite his poor showing at the Democratic nominating convention, Hrezi raised about $500,000 in contributions — more than any of the Republican candidates for Congress as of the latest campaign filings.