To the Editor:

I will vote for Rebekah Harriman-Stites, candidate for Representative for the 106th District (Newtown) and Michelle McCabe, candidate for Senator for the 28th District (Newtown, Easton, Fairfield, and portions of Weston and Westport). Both of these talented women are intelligent, well-informed, good listeners and communicators, empathetic, hard-working, authentic, honest, and effective problem-solvers. I know them personally and can assure you that they will have our backs here in Connecticut.

I feel compelled to explain why I will not consider voting for Mitch Bolinsky for Representative or Tony Hwang for Senator. The Republican Party as we knew it is no longer. It is now the Trumpism Party — the party of high deficits, disrespect for military personnel, racial and social injustice, environmental disregard, divisiveness, dishonesty, conspiracy theories, name-calling, disrespect for governmental institutions and public education, and a pursuit of autocracy. I never understood why Republicans ever thought they had a claim on family values and national security over Democrats, but certainly, now, they cannot make those claims at all.

It is my assumption that Representative Bolinsky and Senator Hwang plan to vote for Trump. If not, they should say so. Otherwise, we must assume they endorse Trumpism. They cannot have it both ways; that would be hypocrisy.

In regards to coronavirus, we have seen what Trumpism has meant for states that have Republican governors and/or Republican state legislatures. The safety of their residents is not as important to them as their loyalty to Trump. This is cowardice, malpractice, and inhumane. We need to keep Connecticut’s Senate and House of Representatives solidly blue to protect ourselves from the deleterious effects of Trumpism. So I encourage you, too, to vote for Rebekah Harriman-Stites and Michelle McCabe.

Character matters.

Connie Cooper

13 Todds Road, Sandy Hook September 8, 2020