Conn. candidate in Trump’s circle, or is he?

WASHINGTON — In one photo, Robert Hyde and President Donald Trump posed for a selfie at Trump’s MaraLago Club on Easter Sunday 2019.

Hyde, a firsttime Republican congressional candidate in Connecticut, also posted a series of photos of him smoking cigars with Trumpally Roger Stone, on social media.

More photos show him grinning in pictures with Vice President Mike Pence, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, RCalif., U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Then there are the photos of Hyde with former Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, RKy., and Reps. Mike Waltz, RFla., Jim Jordan, ROhio, and Warren Davidson, ROhio.

Hyde is a generous, if unusual, GOP donor. His social media and business website are a veritable who’s who of Trumpera political insiders. He uses images of top Republican faces to promote his campaign and his public relations firm in Washington, D.C.

In Connecticut, where Hyde is campaigning, members of the state GOP are just getting to know Hyde, having met him recently or not at all. And in Washington, few sources on the Hill knew who Hyde was this week.

“No idea who that is,” said U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, RTexas, one of the lawmakers whose photo appears on Hyde’s business website.

Hyde, 39, was resistant to answering questions about his business and his meetings with GOP personalities in several interviews.

But after interviews, Hyde texted more three photos of himself to the reporter on different days. One was a picture of Hyde leaning in for a photo with the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Sovietborn businessmen Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, now indicted on charges that they used foreign money to buy political influence. All of the men are smoking cigars.

The other photo featured Hyde on another occasion taking a selfie with Parnas, who wore a Trump yarmulke and crossed his arms over his chest making peace signs with his fingers. Hyde smoked a cigar and wore a Trump teeshirt. In a third image, a tuxedoed Hyde smiles in a group shot with Fruman.

It’s not clear where or when the photos were taken and Hyde repeatedly claimed he did not remember those facts.

Checks for Trump

It seems clear that Hyde’s passion for Trump has transformed his life.

After contributing tens of thousands to Trump’s campaign, inauguration and other Republican causes, Hyde, a former U.S. Marine and past owner of a construction and lobbying business, began attending many political events, fundraisers and frequenting Trump properties, exposing him to the president, members of the Trump family and top GOP lawmakers and operatives.

“I was never really into

politics until Trump,” Hyde said.

In December 2018, the Simsbury resident started a public affairs and government relations firm Finley Hyde and Associates (Finley is Hyde’s middle name) in Washington, D.C., Connecticut business records show.

Months later, Hyde decided to seek elected office for the first time. In June, he declared himself a candidate for Senate to challenge U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, DConn., in 2022, but in midAugust, he filed new paperwork to seek the House seat of U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, DWolcott, in 2020. His Instagram posts indicate that he also considered a run for governor and sought feedback in June 2019 from his Instagram followers on which political office he should run for.

Hyde is now one of three Republicans challenging Hayes for her seat in Connecticut’s 5th District. His campaign raised insufficient funds to merit a report to the Federal Election Commission as of Sept. 30.

Hyde grew up in Canton, Connecticut where he graduated from high school in 1998, before attending Central Connecticut State University. He was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves from 1999 to 2005 and participated in two missions in Iraq, he said. His special operations training resulted in hearing loss; Hyde is legally deaf and uses a service dog, he said. He started RF Landscaping and Construction in 2000.

Hyde made his first large political contributions in 2012, when he gave $820 to the presidential campaign of now Sen. Mitt Romney, RUtah, Federal Election Commission records show. But on Twitter in 2012, Hyde shared who he would prefer to support for president: he tweeted at Trump “I truly wish and wished you’d run for President.”

Hyde’s wish was granted four years later, but he didn’t start make political contributions until two months before Election Day 2016. Then in September 2016, Hyde began cutting checks to the Republican National Committee’s, Trump campaign and a joint fundraising committee for Trump and the GOP on a near daily basis — sometimes multiple checks over $1,000 in a day, FEC records show.

Hyde contributed $23,293 to the Trump campaign and Republican causes in the 2016 election cycle, FEC data shows. He also gave $25,000 to Trump’s inauguration, according to data shared by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Hyde’s contributions exceeded federal campaign limits and in December 2016, the Trump campaign refunded him $17,705, FEC documents show. That was the third largest refund the Trump campaign made in 2016, according to FEC records.

“My assistant wrote a bunch of checks and we signed them and I mailed them in,” said Hyde. “They refunded us the money that was over the legal amount. We donated to a lot of different things. Honestly, I think it was just a clerical error by my assistant.”

Adav Noti, senior director of trial litigation at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, said it is “really odd” to see an individual make so many large contributions in a short time frame. Contributions exceeding federal campaign finance caps may win attention, but ultimately they’re a “hassle” for the campaign that has to return them, he said.

“This is not the usual scenario,” Noti said.

Hyde’s contributions won him access to Trump’s inauguration. Although some were refunded, the contributions appear to have allowed him entrée into other GOP fundraisers and events, invitations and photos shared on Hyde’s Instagram show.

“Something like .06 percent of the population gives a contribution above $200,” said Robert Maguire, research director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “An infinitesimally smaller percent of that gives even $2,000.”

Hyde’s contributions do not reach the upper echelon of GOP giving. Linda McMahon of Greenwich has given over $12 million to GOP committees since 2016. Trump named her administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration and then she became head of Trump’s 2020 super PAC. Greenwich’s Leora Levy gave over $400,000 to Republican causes since 2016 and $25,000 to Trump’s inauguration. Trump recently nominated her to be U.S. ambassador to Chile.