Corey makes another bid for GOP U.S. Senate nomination

By Scott Benjamin

Matt Corey of Manchester, who easily won the nomination six years ago in a primary, says that after getting “phone calls around the state” he again is running for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate.

Beacon Falls First Selectman Gerry Smith entered the race in February during a public kick-off event and Robert Krawiecki of Bristol are also seeking the GOP nod, which will be determined Monday night, May 13, at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.

“I feel confident that I can” win the convention, said Corey, who defeated Dominic Rapini of Branford in the 2018 primary, annexing victories in all 169 municipalities - the only candidate from either major party ever to do that in a primary.

He then took 39.3 percent of the vote in the general election against incumbent Democrat Chris Murphy of Hartford.

Corey, who served in the U.S. Navy and also has run for the state Senate and for Congress in the First District, said if he doesn’t win the convention nomination he would be willing to seek the nod in an August 13 primary.

“Primaries are always good,” he said. “It tests your mettle.”

Corey said that he laments that the federal government has not had a balanced budget since 2001. The accumulative debt has grown to $34 trillion.

“There needs to be spending cuts,” he said. “They haven’t balanced the budget in years. Continuing resolutions don’t work. Make those tough decisions.”

He said that he supports re-establishing the Pay As You Go budget controls in which if spending is increased in a line item then a reduction has to be made in another line item.

“If you’re going to support some program, you’re going to have to take it from somewhere else,” Corey commented in a phone interview with Patch.com

He said he supports continuing the 2017 tax cut that was signed by Republican former President Donald Trump. It is set to expire in 2025.

He said, for example, that if the tax package expires a single person earning $50,000 a year would have their income tax bill increase by $1,400.

Murphy voted against the Trump tax package seven years ago, indicating that it would add to the deficit.

On another topic, Corey said that he supports the call by Trump, who is the apparent Republican nominee for president, to impose 10 percent tariffs on Chinese imports.

“Tariffs were working last time,” Corey said. “It makes America stronger. Bring more people to the table and bring more businesses back to the United States.”

Karl Rove, who was political director for Republican former President George W. Bush, wrote in The Wall Street Journal that the selection of a vice presidential nominee usually doesn’t determine the outcome of an election, but that a presidential nominee can get a boost in public admiration if he selects someone who is well-qualified to be president instead of making the selection based on pleasing a particular political constituency.

Rove said Republican former President Ronald Reagan accomplished that by selecting his chief rival for the 1980 GOP nomination – George H.W. Bush.

Said Corey, “I agree with that.”

Regarding Trump’s upcoming decision, he added, “we have a deep field. Almost any of the ones that were running for president this year could step up.”

The Republicans have not won a U.S. Senate race since Lowell Weicker, who lived most of his life in Greenwich, captured a third term in 1982.

In recent years, no candidate has taken more than the 43 percent of the vote that WWE executive Linda McMahon of Greenwich in 2012 against Murphy when it was an open seat.