Elgin running for Westport first selectman, again
WESTPORT — Longtime Westport resident TJ Elgin is running for first selectman of the town again.
Elgin, 31, has registered with the State Elections Enforcement Commission as a candidate for the November first selectman’s race. Elgin last ran in 2017, as an unaffiliated candidate, and lost to Republican Jim Marpe.
Elgin is filing to run as an independent and as a libertarian, despite a stillunresolved court case stemming from a 2019 arrest for interfering with an officer and seconddegree breach of peace after an incident outside his home.
Elgin said he is running for first selectman because he still sees a lot of room for improvement in his town. “Nothing everybody was talking about during the last race got done,” he said.
He said Westport’s three main issues are lowering taxes, improving transportation and improving the schools. He hopes to address these and other priorities in his campaign. “Everybody talks about unity and wanting to promote unity in the town,” he said. “(But) they haven’t really pushed the issues needed to fix the town.”
No other candidates have declared their intention to run for the town’s top job. Marpe has not yet said whether he plans to run for another term.
Elgin has lived in Westport for 24 years and attended Kings Highway Elementary School and Staples High School. He is a brewmaster for Full Moon Brewing and hopes to one day have a brewpub in Westport. He also helps with his wife’s wellness business, Luna Queen Alpha, which sells a variety of products, including CBD and hemp-based items.
As he pursues his town’s top office, Elgin is still dealing with some legal issues.
In 2019, while running against U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., for Congress, Elgin was arrested outside his house on Robert Lane, after neighbors reportedly mistook him for a burglar.
According to police, on Dec. 21, a neighbor reported waking up to the sound of a man yelling and kicking a door at a nearby Robert Lane residence just after midnight. Reportedly, the caller did not recognize the man and feared he was attempting to break into the house or was involved in some type of altercation.
It was later determined that Elgin lived in the home, but he was charged with interfering with an officer and second-degree breach of peace, both misdemeanors. Elgin has long disputed the charges, and has alleged police brutality. He has yet to enter a plea in the case, and is next scheduled to appear in court April 21.
Elgin maintains his innocence, and doesn’t believe the arrest will have any bearing on the upcoming race. “I want to move on,” he said of the incident. “I am willing to forgive and forget.”