GOP U.S. Senate candidate apparently did not vote for Trump in 2020

By Scott Benjamin

It appears that Beacon Falls First Selectman Gerard Smith, the convention-endorsed candidate for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, did not vote in the 2020 presidential election.

That would mean that he did not cast a ballot for Republican President Donald Trump as he sought election to a second term.

A voter history provided to Patch.com from the communications office of the Secretary of the State’s office on May 19 indicated that Gerard Smith of 163 Lasky Road, Beacon Falls, did not vote in the November 8, 2020 election.

In a phone interview with Patch.com on May 22, Smith said that he had voted in that election.

He is running for the seat now held by U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Hartford), who is seeking a third term.

Smith garnered 68 percent of the vote at the Republican state convention on May 13.

However, Matt Corey of Manchester, who was the GOP U.S. Senate nominee in 2018 in the race that year against Murphy, annexed 29 percent of the delegates after entering the race days before the convention. That was well above the 15 percent threshold to qualify for the primary.

Smith and Corey will compete in the August 13 primary.

The Republicans have not captured a U.S. Senate race since 1982, when Lowell Weicker, then of Greenwich, was elected to a third term,