Kaitlyn Shake doesn’t need to work hard in earning Michael Suntag’s vote this upcoming election as she stands by his front door in Stratford in early September.
“When you get up there, you’re gonna make a good team with the other Dems we have up there,” Suntag said.
Shake, a Democrat and a member of the Stratford Town Council, is running for state representative in the 120th District. She said voter enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris is increasing among voters in the town, which leans Democratic during presidential elections but leans Republican at the local level.
“We are energized, organized and mobilized to not just help and get the word out for the presidential election, but then also how that then impacts everyone downticket,” Shake said.
Incumbent Laura Dancho, a Republican, acknowledges Shake may benefit from the presidential election. But Dancho says she’s noticing that residents are more concerned about local, quality-of-life issues.
“So the local concerns that I'm hearing about right now is affordability,” Dancho said. “Basically, the taxes in town are high. It's expensive to live in this state.”
As Dancho knocks on doors, she says that she’s getting support for her own campaign, but concedes that Harris’ popularity is apparent.
“So the national election, it does sound like it's an enthusiasm wave; locally, I am seeing a lot of positives as I go around door knocking,” Dancho said. “So I think that there's a big difference between the national election and the local election regarding that.”
But it’s going to be a tough fight for Democrats; Shake is running for a district seat that generally elects Republicans, except for Phillip Young, a Democrat who won in 2018 and 2020 but lost to Dancho in 2022.
In the presidential race, Harris is likely to win in Stratford, but that advantage weakens once state and local elections are on the table. But state races have been closer in recent years.
The Harris enthusiasm boost is an asset, but Shake isn’t assuming anything, even as Stratford has reliably voted for Democratic presidential candidates since at least 2000.
“People have assumptions that Connecticut is safe, it's a blue state and statewide and on the local level,” Shake said. But she notes that the 120th District “is a purple district and there’s many purple districts throughout the state of Connecticut.”
While Dancho is an incumbent, her party doesn’t control the state legislature, although she did vote with Democrats during the 2024 session. She said electric rates are too high, which has been a controversial topic statewide especially after many residents saw their rates balloon over the summer.
Presidential elections tend to draw out more voters, a fact not lost on Dancho.
“What people are going to do and how they're going to look at the full ticket is something that I'm concerned about, and I am working really hard to make myself approachable to the local electors,” Dancho said.
