New England Dems aim to put women of color in Congress

With the upset victory of another minority candidate over an establishment Democrat in Boston this week, Jahana Hayes says she would embrace the historic nature of the story more if the focus ever gets beyond race.

Hayes, the first black Democrat to be nominated for Congress in Connecticut, says Ayanna Pressley’s Tuesday night victory over 10-term Massachusetts Rep. Michael Capuano means more than that state sending its first black Congresswoman to Washington, D.C.

“It is not just about black women – it is about all the people in our communities, where the electorate is changing,” said Hayes, the 2016 National Teacher of the Year who upset establishment Democrat Mary Glassman in the Democratic primary. “It is not that revolutionary of an idea.”

The mixed feelings are not new for Hayes, who is running for the most conservative and the most competitive Congressional seat in Connecticut.

She has earned national media attention, along with New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as the kind of underdog progressive minority candidate that Democrats are embracing in the 2018 midterm elections.

At the same time, Hayes has been fighting criticism that she’s practicing identity politics since the early days of her campaign, when she said, “If Congress starts to look like us, no one can stop us.”

“‘When Congress starts looking like us’ means all the people in our community — teachers and mothers — people who have felt left out of the political process, people who feel like ‘Government doesn’t include me,’” Hayes said on Wednesday. “That is the message I’m running on.”

So when Pressley addressed a stunned city of Boston during her primary victory speech on Tuesday, decrying “constant charges being lobbed against me about identity politics,” Hayes could relate.

“It’s not identity politics because my skin doesn’t come off,” Hayes said on Wednesday. “I don’t think (Pressley) – and I know I didn’t – run on that platform, but everyone else is making that the narrative.”

Race became an issue in part when it was brought up by Hayes’ biggest supporter, Sen. Chris Murphy, who encouraged Hayes to run.

Murphy said he encouraged her in part because New England needed a woman of color in Congress.

Hayes is running to replace Elizabeth Esty, a three-term Democrat who dropped re-election plans after admitting she covered up an office abuse scandal.

The GOP is putting its support behind Manny Santos, a former mayor of Meriden, who is running as a Trump Republican.

Hayes said although she draws courage from minority candidates who are winning Democratic primaries and making the party more diverse and progressive, her focus is on the 5th District, which stretches from Bethel to the Massachusetts border.

“I get it how the Connecticut story is backing up against a larger national story, but my focus is on the issues in my district – a livable wage, making sure Medicare is a reality, and making sure our students have equitable access to education,” she said.

Unlike Pressley, who has no Republican on the ballot running for a district once represented by John F. Kennedy, Hayes has a fight ahead.

Leading Washington, D.C., election forecasters don’t think it will be much of a fight, calling a Democratic victory a “solid” likelihood.

Republicans say those forecasts overlook voter anger at failed Democratic policies in Connecticut.

Hayes and Santos have three debates planned in October, including one in Danbury.

Hayes

Pressley