Sullivan is apparent GOP nominee in Fifth Congressional District

By Scott Benjamin

After more than 10 months of town committee meetings, clam bakes, agricultural fairs and canvassing it appears that retired Assistant U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan has secured the Republican nomination and will face first-term Democrat Jahana Hayes for the congressional seat in the Fifth District.

In what is largely a people business, Sullivan has been courting Republican delegates across the 41 municipalities. He has been distributing news releases on town committee endorsements since early January.

Ryan Meehan, a businessman who grew up in Bethlehem and then moved in January from Greenwich to Litchfield, announced this week that he was withdrawing from the contest.

"He has the drive and experience needed to defeat Jahana Hayes in November," Meehan said in a news release that was distributed May 8 by Sullivan's campaign.

Ruben Rodriguez of Waterbury, a leader on Puerto Rican issues in the state and a water technician for the city of New Britain, withdrew from the campaign in late April. The other contender, businessman and consultant Robert Hyde, reportedly was selling his home in Simsbury.

It appears that Sullivan will be nominated unanimously at the May 14 virtual convention and will not face a primary on August 11.

Hayes of Wolcott is expected to be nominated for a second term at the Democratic virtual convention on May 11.

Gary Rose, the chairman of the Government Department at Sacred Heart University and an author of books on Connecticut politics, told Patch.com in January that he expects that the five U.S. House members from Connecticut, all Democrats, will be re-elected this fall. No Republican has won in Connecticut since Chris Shays of Bridgeport was re-elected in the Fourth District in 2006.

However he said if any incumbent is vulnerable it is Hayes, partly because she is in her first term.

The Democratic candidate in the Fifth District has won in each of the last seven elections - largely due to their strength in the five cities - Waterbury, Danbury, New Britain, Meriden and Torrington. They also have scored victories in some of the rural towns in the Northwest Corner.

Rose said, "I keep hearing that the Fifth is a swing district. But when was the last time it was swinging."

"The demographics have changed," he explained, noting that more suburban women in the district are voting for Democrats.

CT NewsJunkie columnist Susan Bigelow wrote in a November 2018 analysis that the Farmington Valley also has been trending Democratic.

Bigelow stated, "Could this district flip? It’s possible, but increasingly unlikely. If Hayes remains reasonably popular with her constituents she could stay in Congress for a long, long time."

Sullivan strongly supports the policies of Republican President Donald Trump - including the 2017 tax reform, the proposed trade agreement with Canada and Mexico and the call for more funding from America's NATO allies. He also has praised Trump's handling of the pandemic.

He also has called for a presidential line-item veto, a proposal made in the 1980s by former Republican President Ronald Reagan.

Sullivan has called Hayes a socialist, saying that, among other things, she has never explained where the federal government could find $43 trillion to fund the New Green Deal.