5th District race could echo GOP playbook

Hayes’ challenger’s ad focuses on fears of ‘lawlessness,’ rioters

The Republican candidate challenging Democrat Jahana Hayes for her 5th District seat in Congress has taken a page out of the national GOP playbook, drawing on fears of “lawlessness” and rioters in his first campaign ad which dropped Tuesday on YouTube.

In the ad, David X. Sullivan, a former prosecutor, utilizes a soundbite of Hayes saying in a June radio interview that “all of the riots are not violent,” overlaid with footage from cities around the country where violence has erupted over the summer in response to police killings of Black people.

Hayes, a former teacher of the year and the wife of a police officer who has said she does not support the movement to defund police forces, said it is clear she misspoke and meant “protests,” not “riots.” She called Sullivan’s attempt to portray her as a socialist who supports rioting “sad.”

“If that’s how Mr. Sullivan chooses to use his limited resources and that’s

how he wants to portray himself to voters, then God bless him,” Hayes said, adding, “Mr. Sullivan doesn’t define me. The fact that his campaign is based around attacks of my character ... really shows he has nothing to stand on.”

Hayes said her stance on violence, rioting and efforts to defund police forces has been clear. She said she does not support dismantling departments, she does support police unions and she supports more accountability for police officers. They’re not mutually exclusive issues, she said.

“I do not support people breaking the law, whether it be in Connecticut or in Portland,” Hayes said. “I don’t own that movement.

I have no personal connection to that. There are ways to have civil discourse, there are ways to disagree, there are ways to make your voices herd ... but burning down communities, destroying businesses, killing people ... nothing in my life has ever indicated that I’m a person that would support something like that.”

Sullivan said he can only speak to what he heard Hayes say, not what she meant.

“Jahana Hayes has been very silent on the rioting and the unrest, and when she has spoken about it her words are quite clear,” Sullivan said. “I think the people of the 5th Congressional District need to know what we say on these issues. Silence is unacceptable. We have two months for the people in this district to decide and I want them to make an informed decision, I want them to exercise their right to vote.”

Sullivan’s attempt to make the politicized violence occurring in major cities like Portland and Chicago an issue in Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District, as well as associate Hayes with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a group of liberal Democrats known as “The Squad” appears to be a strategic attempt to gain clout in the district’s more conservative communities, political experts suggest.

Hayes is not considered a member of “The Squad,” a group of four women of color elected in 2018 that includes liberal firebrand Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez, D-New York, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

“I think it actually benefits him in this context,” said Gary Rose, a professor of politics at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. “It’s one way that he can make up form his lack of resources. If he stays with that theme, that’s what his candidacy will be known as. And he comes from that background. I am certain that theme will draw people to his candidacy. There are a lot of smaller, white towns in the district.”

The 5th Congressional District has historically been a swing district, though the seat was last held by a Republican in 2007 when Nancy Johnson lost her re-election bid to Chris Murphy, and Rose said that makes portraying Hayes as a socialist — despite her moderate record — a specific campaign strategy that could come to define the 5th District race.

Sullivan denied the the idea that his ad mimics national GOP talking points, though law and order was a central theme of last week’s Republican National Convention.

“I was a federal prosecutor,” Sullivan said. “Law enforcement issues are something I’ve been thinking about for a long time.”

Sullivan, who has never held public office, declared his candidacy more than 14 months ago, but has only raised $210,000 in contributions and had $109,000 in available cash as of June 30, according to the most recent filings with the Federal Elections Commission.

Hayes, who was first elected in 2018, has raised nearly $1.3 million and has more than $630,000 on hand as of June 30, according to her most recent campaign finance filings.

“I will not respond in kind to these derogatory attacks,” Hayes said. “I’m bigger than that, I’m more of a woman than that.”

Hayes

Sullivan