Democrats hold three CT House seats

Democrats claimed victory Tuesday night in special elections for three Connecticut House seats opened by the death of Quentin Williams, D-middletown, and resignations of Dan Fox, D-stamford, and Edwin Vargas Jr., D-hartford.

The wins by James “Jimmy” Sanchez of Hartford in the 6th District, Kai Juanna Belton of Middletown in the 100th and

Anabel D. Figueroa of Stamford in the 148th restore Democrats to the 98-53 majority won in November.

House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-hartford, said unofficial results showed the Democrats winning by large margins on a snowy day with a strong turnout in Middletown, a city rocked by the death of Williams, and smaller ones in the other races.

Unofficial results showed Belton winning, 1,716 to 776; Figueroa, 584-373; and Sanchez, 325-198.

Sanchez, a two-term city councilor employed as a technician by the Metropolitan District Commission, defeated a petitioning candidate, Jason Diaz, a Hartford firefighter and head of its union, Local 760.

Belton, a licensed social worker and a youth crisis clinician at Middlesex Health, defeated Republican Deborah Kleckowski, a former member of Middletown’s Common Council. Belton will be the first Black woman to hold the seat.

Figueroa, a medical and surgical unit coordinator who has a seat on the Stamford Board of Representatives, defeated Republican Olga Dimitria Anastos, the manager of her family’s diner.

Williams was killed in a collision with a wrong-way driver while going home after the opening day of the General Assembly session and the governor’s inaugural ball.