Members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation had little doubt that Monday’s certification of Donald Trump’s presidential election would go smoothly compared to the chaos and violence that permeated the U.S. Capitol four years ago.
They were confident Congress would follow the routine process that brings the country another step closer to a peaceful transition of power before the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20.
Despite this, the men and women who represent Connecticut in the House and Senate still carry a lingering sense of disbelief about the violence that unfolded after then-President Trump urged his vice president to block the results of the 2020 election.
As they affirmed Trump’s 2024 victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, Connecticut Democrats say the Jan. 6 riots serve as an enduring reminder that democracy is fragile.
All seven members of the delegation were at the Capitol that day in 2021. Some were sitting in the House and Senate chambers when they went into lockdown to prevent the mob from getting onto the floor. Others were ordered to shelter in place in their offices along with staff as rioters breached the building.
Connecticut’s lawmakers recalled hearing the sounds of breaking glass and shouting from protesters that included chants to hang then-Vice President Mike Pence.
But any planned protests will not be able to get within close proximity this year because of the heavily barricaded grounds. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security declared the certification a “National Special Security Event” that uses the same security protocols for events like inaugurations and State of the Union addresses.
And while Democratic lawmakers have raised objections to GOP victories in recent elections, they are not anticipating many, if any, protest votes this time around in the hopes of projecting a seamless transition.
It will be momentous, however, in other ways. Harris will preside over the joint session as the head of the U.S. Senate and certify her own loss to Trump. Congress passed a law in 2022 clarifying the role of the vice president as ceremonial in overseeing the tallying of each state’s electoral votes.
Any political unity that arose in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot has largely dissipated within Congress. Trump promises to pardon those convicted when he returns to office. And Republicans say they will investigate the now disbanded Jan. 6 congressional committee. Disagreements over what transpired that day have made it a more challenging working environment in recent years.
In the lead-up to Jan. 6, 2025, each member of Connecticut’s delegation reflected on their experiences from four years ago, how it changed their approach to their jobs and how they feel heading into today’s certification that will usher in a new Trump administration:
U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th District
Jim Himes helped document what was happening in real time as one of a handful of members sitting in the House gallery, which overlooks the floor. The pandemic limited how many lawmakers could be in the chamber that day.
As the mob got closer, the chamber went into lockdown. Because tear gas was deployed in the Capitol, police instructed them to take out the protective gear under their seats and get down on the floor. Himes and Rosa DeLauro, his colleague from a neighboring district, were stuck in the gallery for 15 or 20 minutes before they were allowed to evacuate to a secure location.
“We heard in the chamber people rioting. We had not seen the photos of the combat,” Himes said. “We had no idea how bad it was when we were in there.”
Four years later, his concerns about democracy have not subsided. Himes vented frustrations about political leaders sowing discord to push an agenda, and pointed to rhetoric from Trump and some Republicans about a false report that a migrant was responsible for the recent New Orleans terror attack.
“I used to think democracy was our natural inheritance. Now I see it’s really fragile and it requires nurturing and a real commitment,” Himes said. “If we continue to push b——t in the service of likes and online engagement and if American citizens continue to like that, kiss our democracy goodbye.”
While he offered a grim warning, Himes said he feels confident the final steps of the transition from President Joe Biden to Trump will go smoothly. But in an alternate universe where Harris won, he said he would have prepared to do his job this week much differently.
“Make no mistake, this Jan. 6 and Jan. 20 are going to be flowers and puppy dogs because Donald Trump won,” he said. “If Kamala Harris had won, I’d be buying body armor right now.”
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District
Rosa DeLauro had a similar experience to Himes as the House chamber went into lockdown. But it was not the first time during her decades-long tenure that the threat of violence hung over the Capitol.
The congresswoman said it was reminiscent of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that prompted the evacuation of the U.S. Capitol after a plane struck the Pentagon. Ultimately, the Capitol was safe, but the possible risk of more attacks sent Washington into a frenzy.
But like that day 20 years earlier, DeLauro said there was an overwhelming sense four years ago that lawmakers needed to return. In 2001, a group of lawmakers including her returned to the Capitol and sang “God Bless America” on the steps. On Jan. 6, 2021, Congress reconvened after the rioters had been removed to finalize the count of Biden’s victory.
“In both instances, government was still standing. The strength of the U.S. government just overran anything that people wanted to do, whether it was a foreign power or domestic terrorism that was going to disrupt the free flow of government,” she said.
While she remembered the resolve of Congress to finish its work, DeLauro acknowledged the lasting trauma and fear that remains for those who barricaded themselves in offices for hours before the building was secured that night. She recalled a staffer of hers who needed to shelter in place alone in her office at the Capitol, hearing the screaming of rioters on the opposite of the door. She said the staffer did not want to come back to the Capitol for a while and was “pretty traumatized.”
“I watched Al Gore say ‘it’s over, we lost,'” DeLauro said, referencing when Gore, the vice president at the time, certified his loss to George W. Bush in 2001. “We cannot ever allow that to happen again and my hope is that people believe that it should never happen again.”
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
On the opposite end of the Capitol, Richard Blumenthal was in the Senate chamber along with fellow Connecticut senator Chris Murphy.
Like their colleagues in the House, they were evacuated to a secure location where they remained for hours. Blumenthal remembers walking right behind then-Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Blumenthal recalled the heavy security presence at the Capitol in the days and months after the attack. He said it resembled what he remembers of his congressional trips to the Middle East region where the U.S. embassies were “literally an armed fortress.”
Blumenthal and other members of the delegation said the experience makes them take security even more seriously. And it has complicated their relationships with some colleagues who continued to object to the election results after the riots or who have since downplayed the violence.
But on that day, Blumenthal remembers the overwhelming push to finish their work.
“I don’t think there’s one clear throughline … on the effect on our relationships, but it certainly has given us some of a common experience across the aisle and fear of a similar attack,” Blumenthal said.
“What was most dramatic at that moment was the clear consensus that we should stay. We should do the vote, do our job,” he said. “There was no hesitation on the part of any colleagues that at least I could discern that we should stay at the Capitol.”
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
For Chris Murphy, the experience has made it difficult to work with the “ring leaders” of Jan. 6, he said. But it has also brought him closer to Republican colleagues who dropped their objections to certifying certain state’s results when Congress resumed the count that evening.
One of those colleagues was Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma. Murphy negotiated a bipartisan border bill with Lankford, but it was ultimately blocked when it reached the Senate amid objections from Trump.
“It’s not a coincidence that I ended up spending six months of my life working with James Lankford on immigration reform and he was one of the few that switched his vote after he saw what happened,” Murphy said.
Murphy was in the Senate chamber and recalled the unease feeling that day as he headed in that morning. After that day, fearing a repeat of future election threats, he was part of a bipartisan group that negotiated the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 that spelled out the role of the vice president and made other changes to the certification process.
Since November, Murphy has been vocal about where he believes Democrats went wrong in their election losses to Trump and other Republicans. And he argued it should raise even more concerns within his party when it came to the campaign rhetoric involving Jan. 6.
“We should be really, really freaked out that Donald Trump, having not condemned that violence but celebrated that violence, got reelected,” he said. “Maybe that says something about the country but it probably says more about how unpopular the Democratic brand is that we can’t beat a candidate who openly celebrated and wrapped his arms around the violence that happened that day.”
U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-1st District
From his congressional office, John Larson has a direct view of the Capitol. And on Jan. 6, 2021, he watched from his window as protesters started amassing outside of the building. He ultimately sheltered in his office along with a few staffers.
Like DeLauro, Larson vividly remembers the apprehension surrounding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks – and the determination of Congress to keep the government running.
“I think in both instances it makes you more determined to see that democracy prevails and the function of government continues as the Constitution intended,” he said.
Larson said he is astounded that a majority of Republican voters still believe the 2020 election was stolen. But he remains hopeful heading into a new political era in two weeks.
He recalled the significant moments – both good and bad – since he was first elected to Congress in 1998. He has witnessed the swearing in of the first female speaker of the House and first Black president as well as security threats at the Capitol.
“I’ve seen a lot over the years,” Larson said as he starts his fourteenth term, “and I still remain optimistic.”
U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District
Like Larson, Joe Courtney hunkered down in his office with only one staffer who came in that day because of pandemic limitations. They watched events unfold on C-SPAN as Democratic leaders were removed from the House floor. And he recalled an alarm going off that he had never heard before.
The previous congressional certifications he participated in were unremarkable in comparison.
“It was my fourth certification,” Courtney said. “If you’d asked me that morning to describe where we were when we certified [Barack] Obama and Trump, I couldn’t have told you.”
Courtney said he still feels safe at the Capitol and worries more about safety at his district offices, especially after the 2011 shooting of then-Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz.
But heading into Monday, Courtney got the sense that Democratic leaders would approach the process differently this year and try to tamp down any objections like the ones that were raised to Bush’s victories in 2000 and 2004 and the first Trump win.
“I think people look at the certification differently because of how it was attacked and threatened. And the message I’ve heard from Leader [Hakeem] Jeffries [is] we have to avoid any temptation or inclination to use it as a way of being a protest moment,” he said. “This is part of our oath. Our job is ministerial, and not to mangle it.”
U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District
As a former teacher, Jahana Hayes grew accustomed to practicing security drills. And when the alarms went off in school, all the doors closed.
After the security breaches at the Capitol, she was struck by the fact that the glass on the first floor could break and that doors did not automatically lock.
“The only thing stopping people is a sign that says do not walk down these halls,” she said.
Hayes was in her office on Jan. 6 with her son who was around 11 years old at the time, seeking to reassure him that they were safe and could go back into the chambers once they got the all clear.
“One of the things that was very obvious to me was I could not blend in the same way other people could,” Hayes said, adding that she was “hyper aware as a member of Congress, as a Black woman.”
While the issue of democracy was top of mind for Hayes and her Democratic colleagues in the recent election, she noted that “even the urge to want to fight for democracy is a very privileged position” with voters worried about the economy and providing for their families. She said lawmakers need to “connect all these dots.”
Democracy “can be seen and felt by people at all levels,” she said, “And we really have to work hard to articulate that.”
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.
Correction: U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro represents the 3rd District. A subheadline in an earlier version of this story indicated that DeLauro represents the 5th District.
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
