With news of a looming executive order to dismantle the Education Department, U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes went to the doorsteps of the agency to get answers.
The visit came after Hayes and a handful of her Democratic colleagues spoke at a rally to protest cuts that could disrupt federal funding for programs and services. But the group was denied entry by a security guard who blocked the entrance.
In this case, being locked out of the process was more than a metaphor.
Hayes and the other six members of Connecticut's congressional delegation, Democrats all, have found themselves out of power as a Republican House and Senate do the White House's bidding.
But they and their constituents are looking for ways to fight back.
The former Waterbury teacher has argued that if Democrats are going to have any effect in a Republican Congress, they need to better explain what funding cuts would actually mean to schools — such as changes to special education or students' after-school programs.
"When you start talking about cutting the programs and services that families depend on and they don’t get anywhere else but inside of their public schools, this conversation will shift," she said at a rally in early February.
That has been one part of the strategy for a party confronting the limits of its own power. Lawmakers are taking to the streets and joining rallies alongside advocates and workers at beleaguered federal agencies. That same month, Connecticut Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy visited the Treasury Department, FBI headquarters and USAID, where most employees are placed on leave or fired from the foreign aid agency.
U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, joined lawmakers and protesters at a rally outside of the Department of Education on Feb. 12, 2025. Connecticut's members, like others in their party, are contending with a tricky dilemma. On one hand, even though they are out of power, they need to find ways to flex their political muscle.
They're also hearing from constituents and activists who want them to do more to fight back the onslaught of executive orders and sudden policy shifts coming out of the White House.
Over the past six weeks, members of Connecticut’s delegation have been drawing a roadmap to do just that, a plan that includes finding partnerships with groups outside of Congress.
Broadly, constituents frustrated by the administration say they feel like their members in Connecticut have stepped up to meet the moment. But their frustration with Democrats writ large still lingers.
Presidential transitions come with growing pains for the party out of power. Many in Congress know what it is like to serve during a Trump administration, but the pace of his executive orders and directives this time has been faster than many anticipated.
The response was a slow burn for Democrats who believe they found their footing after the fallout of the federal funding freeze. Murphy said the access granted to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to the Treasury's sensitive payment system "really woke people up."
Since Trump's victory in November, where he won both the Electoral College and the popular vote, Democrats, perhaps most prominently Murphy, have been outspoken that the party did not do enough to address constituents' anxiety, especially around cost of living.
In the run-up to Trump’s return, Connecticut lawmakers cautioned against knee-jerk reactions to everything Trump does and says. But Murphy wants to match the speed of the White House.
"I’m in the category of use whatever power you have every single minute of every single day," he said at a recent town hall in West Hartford.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., railed against the House GOP budget resolution during a protest organized by People's Action on Feb. 25, 2025. That has earned him praise from those who want Democrats to act more forcefully. They say he has been able to contextualize what cuts to services or programs would mean for working and middle-class communities and bluntly articulate the growing influence of billionaires like Musk within the White House.
"It was refreshing to see a politician see something alarming and treating it as seriously as it should be treated," said Sasha Zoldessy, who attended the Feb. 5 protest outside of Connecticut's state Capitol. "I think it’s a template that others can build off of … at a minimum."
Still, grassroots groups believe they were much quicker to act than many elected officials around the country.
"We responded way before they responded. I allowed myself Wednesday after the election to sort of mope, and Thursday I called a meeting. Our recovery time is faster," said Jim Chapdelaine, who in 2016 founded the Connecticut chapter of Indivisible, a network of grassroots groups that started during the first Trump era. But "the administration is acting faster."
CT delegation ramping up response
Outside of the halls of Congress, Connecticut politicians are seeing a major uptick in engagement.
Murphy and Blumenthal's joint town hall on Feb. 8 reached capacity two hours after the notice went out. About 700 people packed a West Hartford school auditorium.
The crowd was largely friendly. For two hours, attendees sought answers about what is happening in D.C., punctuated with more assertive questions, pressing the lawmakers on how far they are willing to go to oppose Trump.
Hilary Carpenter, a public defender who works in refugee resettlement, was met with applause for making such a push. She cited the work of the late Rep. John Lewis during the civil rights movement and legislators' defiance to South Korea's president declaring martial law last year.
U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, said he had not seen a spike in interest this intense since 2009, when phones were ringing off the hook as Congress weighed a bailout bill in the wake of the financial crisis. He remembered the same intensity as lawmakers geared up for the final vote on the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
Courtney recently held a telephone town hall with state Attorney General William Tong, with participation nearly doubling since the last such town hall he held in May. Nearly 10,400 people tuned in, with a longer average listening time than before.
A similar uptick occurred in calls and emails to his office. During the first month of Biden’s administration in 2021, he received about 9,800 messages. That jumped to nearly 21,000 over the opening month of Trump’s second term.
Courtney said some of the calls are targeted actions organized by groups, something Republicans have been quick to point out. But he believes the calls coming into his office have been more "self-driven" and less "reading from a script." He noted that calls picked up even more when DOGE got into Treasury portals.
Courtney and others agree that Democrats can do more. They believe they have some upcoming opportunities for leverage.
His example was the high-drama vote on House Republicans’ budget plan. Knowing it would be close, Democrats scrambled to minimize absences. A congresswoman from Colorado came back for the first time since giving birth with her newborn in tow, and a California member left the hospital while still recovering from surgery, flying back with an IV.
The resolution passed 217-215, with the one defection Republicans could afford. They are using the budget reconciliation process that allows them to move Trump's wide-ranging agenda with only a simple majority in the Senate. Democrats can’t block it alone but see opportunities with Republicans divided on issues that could come up soon.
"We came as close as we could to having that bill pulled," Courtney said. "They’re going to regret that vote. This is going to get harder for them, particularly the swing-state districts."
As ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-5th District, said she is uniquely positioned to ensure money allocated by Congress gets spent as she negotiates government funding bills. Congress needs to head off a shutdown with a March 14 deadline and negotiate for the next fiscal year.
DeLauro said the party is already running into some issues after they sent an offer over to Republicans last weekend and had not heard back.
"The focus of Musk is on appropriations," DeLauro said. "Because I'm responsible for funding programs and the services that folks rely on, I'm not going to let Trump or unelected billionaires take away what working families need in order to survive."
Connecticut Democrats are still getting some resistance from Republicans in the state. A group of protesters gathered outside of the senators' town hall in support of Trump and DOGE's efforts. And the thousands of calls pouring into their offices comes both from those critical and supportive of Trump’s orders and attempts to overhaul the government.
"What’s kind of getting tiring coming from all these elected officials in Connecticut is the complete, utter fear-mongering," said Connecticut Republican Party Chairman Ben Proto. "Democrats are talking out of all sides of their mouth: 'The world is going to end,' but here we are in Connecticut, we’re going to keep funding the hell out of this stuff."
The tools available
Constituents and activists argue lawmakers should exhaust all tools and procedures at their disposal. The House and Senate have different, albeit limited, options to disrupt normal operations.
The Senate has received particular attention because of its responsibility to vet and vote on presidential nominees. Trump quickly built his Cabinet with nearly uniform support from Republicans. Because nominees need only a simple majority, they can confirm them without Democratic votes — but can only afford a few defections.
But on the legislative front, the Senate minority can block most bills from reaching final passage because of the 60-vote threshold needed to end a filibuster. Republicans have a 53-seat majority. The situation in the House is more difficult for Democrats, as bills can pass with simple majorities.
Some of the procedural moves are symbolic in nature and only delay the inevitable.
For example, to protest the confirmation of Russell Vought as head of the White House budget office, Democrats staged an all-night talk-a-thon. Senate procedure allows up to 30 hours of debate before voting on nominations. Murphy took one of the overnight shifts, while Blumenthal spoke later that morning. Still, Vought was confirmed later that day.
Another tool Democrats have deployed is blanket opposition to Trump's nominees to his Cabinet until the administration reverses course on federal funding and widespread government downsizing. But not all Democrats have joined in.
"I’ve spent most of my time to message to the public about the stakes about the consequences of a billionaire takeover," Murphy said. "I haven’t been shy about urging my Democratic colleagues to be stronger. I have not been shy about urging my colleagues to vote against all these nominees. It doesn’t mean I’m persuasive."
"We don’t have any secret procedural tools to stop what they’re doing," he said. "Our job is to make their corruption as hard as possible to implement and rally the public."
That has been a consistent talking point across the party: billionaires are being prioritized over everyday Americans. U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-1st District, who has held a number of town halls, recently introduced a bill requiring special government employees, like Musk, to file a public financial disclosure and be subject to a review for any conflicts of interests. The bill is unlikely to gain traction without support from Republicans.
"You are talking about the most massive transfer of wealth and resources from poor people and the middle class to the billionaires and corporations in the history of this country," Murphy told a group with People’s Action at a rally last week along with members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Murphy has voted against all Cabinet nominees so far other than Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was unanimously confirmed on Trump’s first day. In addition to Rubio, Blumenthal has supported a couple of nominees including Doug Collins to lead Veterans Affairs and Doug Burgum as head of the Interior Department.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumethal, D-Conn., joined members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to protest terminations outside of the U.S. Department of Justice. With recent layoffs at the VA, Blumenthal said he regrets his vote for Collins after some 2,400 people were let go. The senator said he and others have kept up the pressure on Collins since, pointing to the VA’s decision to reverse course and reconsider the cancellation of hundreds of contracts.
"I trusted what he told me about maintaining services in health care and benefits and other areas," Blumenthal said, referring to Collins. "He’s broken that promise. I made a mistake to believe him, so I have voted against all Trump nominees except for him after that experience."
Several Democrats outside Connecticut have continued to vote for some of Trump's nominees.
The frustration over that lack of unity and overall strategy has been apparent at some public events. After Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., spoke at a rally outside the Treasury Department, protesters started chants urging Democrats to "shut down the Senate."
In other words, disrupt the general flow of the Senate that mainly operates by agreeing to move forward through unanimous consent and without quorum calls. But any one senator can object and deny a UC request. Or senators can request a quorum call to ensure a majority are on the floor.
U.S. Rep. Jim Himes said people in his southwestern Connecticut district are feeling "bewildered." But the public needs to understand the real parameters around what they can and cannot do, he said.
"We need to be realistic. There's no magic tool the minority has to stop the agenda. The Senate has more tools. ... We can do dilatory things," Himes said. He said Congress can use the leverage it has and its bully pulpit, but that "resistance lies mainly in the courts."
Protesters see greater urgency
Some activists in Connecticut are picking up where they left off when Trump was last in office. Those involved in organizing say they have not seen this level of urgency since 2017. But this time, they say, the infrastructure for resistance is largely in place.
Unlike other types of protests and actions, the one organized by the group 50501 happened more organically. It came together in under 48 hours, and, like others who attended, Zoldessy learned about it through social media.
"As a trans person, I wanted to make sure my voice was heard and that we exist," said Zoldessy, who is a member of the Hartford Jewish Organizing Collective.
But like others who have been protesting around the country, Zoldessy wants more members of congress to replicate the efforts of those like Murphy.
"I feel like I wonder if this is another instance of Democrats not learning their lesson and not listening to their base that we want more, and it’s extremely frustrating," Zoldessy said. "The majority of Democrats aren’t doing more."
People protest President Trump, Elon Musk, and various policies in front of the state Capitol on Feb. 5, 2025. Outside of protests and rallies, Connecticut Citizen Action Group, which has been around for about 50 years, has sought to fill in gaps by providing information through a newsletter. The group's associate director, Liz Dupont-Diehl, argued it will take both lawmakers and everyday Americans to exert enough public pressure.
"Connecticut’s congressional delegation has stepped up, and I hope they will continue to step up," Dupont-Diehl said. But "the magnitude we’re facing requires more than our elected" officials.
"Nationally, the solution is not only going to come from Congress," she continued. "The solution has to come from people rising up demanding more from elected officials and government."
Dupont-Diehl said the moment has brought together people "who haven’t traditionally been engaged in this way."
She agrees with Zoldessy that more needs to be done at a procedural level to gum things up in Congress. "Delays can result in less bad things happening."
Chapdelaine’s local Indivisible group has been meeting with lawmakers in the state. Tong attended a recent monthly meeting, and Chapdelaine said it plans to meet with Gov. Ned Lamont and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz next week. Its membership has grown from 3,200 to 4,500 over the past six weeks.
He believes that some members in the delegation have a better finger on the pulse of organizing but has been happy, overall, with the response from the delegation.
"I don’t think I’ve ever seen the urgency that I saw at this particular meeting," Chapdelaine said about the Murphy-Blumenthal town hall, adding that there's an "appetite for people to have something positive and comforting offered to them."
Republican delegates from Connecticut, including Leora Levy, Ben Proto, and Annalisa Stravato, cheer while nominating former President Donald Trump as their presidential candidate.
CT Republicans hew close to Trump
Republicans see it fundamentally differently. Elections have consequences, they say, and Trump is following through on the promises he made while campaigning.
Within six weeks, Trump and DOGE have gone on a blitz of restructuring, reducing and, in many cases, laying off thousands of workers. And because of the speed and breadth of cuts, the administration has needed to reverse course in some cases. They reinstated employees combating bird flu and restored funding to prevent Ebola.
Did voters get more than they bargained for when supporting Trump's calls to remove waste and fraud in government? Proto does not think so.
"I think he made it far more clear than Kamala Harris did about what he wanted to do," Proto said. "No one really understands what occurs within the government and how those things flow. When people said they want government reduced in size, did they understand completely what that means? Probably not."
Proto argued it is normal to see some growing pains with the "rejiggering" of an organization with millions in its workforce. At times, that will mean keeping things at status quo.
"To some extent, they now see it in action and see what it is," he continued. "And in a lot of cases, they say 'that’s not working.' And in some cases, 'well, maybe that is working.'"
Back in Connecticut, Republicans and their agenda are aligning more with Trump.
They are introducing legislation in the General Assembly that overlaps with the president’s agenda and executive orders on immigration enforcement and a ban on transgender athletes in women's and girls' sports.
While politics is more polarizing and divided than ever, the state's congressional delegation urged people to build a broader coalition with Republicans inside and outside of Connecticut.
"We need a citizens' movement that reaches Republicans as much as Democrats," Blumenthal said. "That means going to their town hall meetings with constituents, reaching out to friends and allies in red states."
The Connecticut Mirror/Connecticut Public Radio federal policy reporter position is made possible, in part, by funding from the Robert and Margaret Patricelli Family Foundation.
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
