Primary Election Date: 08/14/2012
General Election Date: 11/06/2012

Who Am I?

I'm a long-time organizer and State Representative who was elected as Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 2009.

As an organizer for Connecticut Citizens Action Group, SEIU, and UAW, I fought for clean air and water, for increases to the minimum wage, for environmental justice, for family and medical leave, for the clean-up of brownfields, for workers' rights in the workplace, and for the right to collectively bargain. The cities I organized in, Waterbury, Danbury, New Britain, and my hometown of Meriden, make up the core cities of the Fifth Congressional District.

As the Chair of the Labor Committee, as Majority Leader, and as Speaker of the House, I successfully fought for 12 minimum wage increases, marriage equality, the first statewide paid sick leave law in the nation, including transgender rights in Connecticut's civil rights law, the strongest campaign finance and public financing of candidates system in the nation, the CT DREAM act allowing all of our students to pay instate tuition to attend public higher education regardless of immigration status, a statewide health care pooling plan that uses purchasing power to decrease risks and lower premiums, increased protections for domestic violence victims, and to protect Medicare and Medicaid eligibility and benefits, our schools, and workers' bargaining rights from cuts.

I have spent my life fighting for the issues that are important to Connecticut's families, workers, and to the members of DFA.

Why Am I Running?

I was inspired to devote my life to organizing and public service when I was working at a day care and preschool. One day, one of the kids at the day care, a really wonderful little kid named George, was crossing the street and someone ran a stop sign and George was killed.

An organizer in the neighborhood wrote an open letter to his neighbors saying that, instead of spending time on and energy on anger, let's do our best to make something positive out of this terrible tragedy. We have a serious safety issue in our community, let's get out on the street until we get a traffic light at this dangerous intersection.

So we went out on the street and we stopped traffic. And we were there all night, and you could see traffic backed up, in both directions. After a whole night of stopped traffic, and coverage on the news, we see a flashing light making its way towards us through the cars, and we all thought, “uh oh, here it comes, the police are coming.”

But it wasn’t the police. It was the department of public works. And they stopped their truck, dug a hole, and they put in a traffic light.
I thought to myself, “Okay, I’m in, we can do this.” People can fight for their neighbors and for what’s right, and people can work together to make positive change in their community.

So I got involved as an organizer and saw the benefits that organizing can have for a community, and also saw how important it is to progressive outcomes for progressives to run for office. When an opportunity to run for office came up, I ran, and won, and started organizing for progressive power within the Democratic caucus. Eventually, I was elected by my colleagues to be Majority Leader, and then Speaker of the House, and we were able to act on the progressive policies, like enacting paid sick leave and raising the minimum wage, that are essential to Connecticut families, and widely popular with people of all political stripes.

When I look at Congress, I see right-wing reactionaries taking over the policy agenda - we need an organizer in the House of Representatives to fight back against the tea party agenda. I'm running for Congress to represent the 99% of us that can't afford to hire a lobbyist, and to fight for the issues that are important to our families: good jobs with strong benefits, protecting and expanding Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, protecting our environment from pollution and climate change, putting teachers, firefighters, and nurses back to work, protecting women's reproductive freedoms, building mass transit projects to ease congestion, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and revitalize our construction industry, and making sure that people can provide their children with a world-class education.

Hold Me Accountable!

When I get to Congress, I will fight for the House to pass a comprehensive jobs bill. It's reprehensible that the Republican House has failed to pass a single jobs bill, despite campaigning on a "jobs platform" in 2010. We must get America back to work.

I will also do everything that I can do to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from the draconian budget cuts and voucher schemes that the Republicans are trying to implement. These programs are the bedrock of what makes America great; in tough economic times we should be looking for ways to expand them, not cut them.

Throughout my work as an organizer, a State Representative, and as Speaker of the House, I have always stayed true to my values. When Republican Governor Rell threatened to balance Connecticut's budget on the backs of the middle class by cutting vital social services, I organized events throughout the state demonstrating the popularity of the libraries, schools, and senior centers that she was threatening to cut. Ultimately, Governor Rell backed down, and instead of cutting the programs of the middle class, Connecticut implemented a millionaire's tax to balance the budget.

My DFA values:

Community has always been at the center of my work, going back to my days as an organizer, fighting for environmental and economic justice in Connecticut's cities. When we join together, work together, and fight together, we make our neighborhoods and communities stronger. Together, we can reverse the damage that's been done to our economy over the last decade.

We can demand that millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share, we can re-regulate the giant financial conglomerates that fixed the rules and got us into this economic mess in the first place, we can invest in our transportation, sanitation, and education infrastructure, we can put public sector workers like teachers and firefighters back to work, we can save money by eliminating giant subsidies to Big Oil and reduce our dependence on that oil at the same time, and we can protect the programs vital to the middle class: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

And just as important to community as economic security is our physical security. It is time to reengage with the world as a partner. Our troops are now out of Iraq, but we must bring them home from Afghanistan as well, and make sure they can get the education and jobs they need when they return.

America’s foreign policy and national security interests are best served when we defend America utilizing diplomacy, cooperation with our allies, and avoidance of unnecessary military intervention.

At home, protecting our national security has become the justification for violations of our civil rights and liberties, including the use of warrantless wiretapping, indefinite detention, and invasive scans and pat-downs at our airports – none of which have made our country measurably safer. In Congress, I will work for effective, common-sense measures that protect the security of our country, without betraying the ideals our country was founded on.

Finally, community and security are impossible without liberty. I've fought hard in Connecticut for marriage equality and to expand civil rights laws, and I will take that fight with me to Congress. There is no place for intolerance, bigotry, or discrimination in the American community.

My Campaign is People-Powered!

Every one of my campaigns as an organizer and as a candidate has been based on directly contacting voters at their door and on the phone. In the 2011 Connecticut municipal campaigns alone, I, my campaign staff, and more than 150 of our volunteers, contacted more than 10,000 voters at their doors or on their phones to support progressive Democratic candidates. And we helped make a big difference - in key cities and towns like Waterbury, New Britain, and Southbury, Democrats recaptured the top office.

And not just during election season - building progressive power can't just happen every two or four years. And that's why I've worked with progressive allies on legislative organizing to protect vital social programs and to implement paid sick leave and campaign finance reform.

We are starting to see the people-powered enthusiasm for my campaign build as we enter 2012. I have been endorsed by the members of many of Connecticut's labor unions, as well as progressive groups like Blue America, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and the Connecticut Working Families Party. Our campaign also has the most individual donors, the most donors from Connecticut, and the smallest average donation of any of the candidates in the race, from either party. We have built a people-powered campaign and, together, we are going to do our level best to talk to every voter we possibly can, at their door or on the phone, to ensure that the 5th CD seat stays in progressive hands.

People have also been organizing house parties for me in towns throughout the district, where our supporters can spread the message through their own friends and family networks with the help of the campaign. These parties allow us to reach more voters, and give our supporters and volunteers a way to take ownership in our campaign. If you are in the 5th CD in Connecticut and are interested in hosting or attending a party, please email us at info@chrisdonovanforcongress.com.