Jamie Raskin Endorses John Larson for 15th Congressional Term

Jamie Raskin flew to Hartford on Monday to endorse Rep. John B. Larson for a 15th term in Connecticut’s 1st Congressional District, brushing aside charges that backing a 78-year-old incumbent undercuts his own reputation as a generational-change champion.

The press conference outside the Old State House put Raskin, the Maryland Democrat who made his name as House manager of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, squarely in the middle of a Democratic primary that’s been building since last year. Three challengers, Luke Bronin and Ruth Fortune of Hartford and Jillian Gilchrest of West Hartford, are running against Larson on a straightforward argument: Congress needs new blood.

Raskin didn’t deny the tension. He just said it doesn’t matter right now.

The Raskin Argument

“I just came here to tell you, John Larson is somebody we need in Washington, and there’s no reason for us to replace him right now in the middle of the biggest fight of our lives,” Raskin said, standing outside one of the oldest public buildings in the country. He argued that every primary should turn on the full range of a candidate’s qualities, not age or length of service alone, and he was direct about the limits of his own knowledge: he told reporters he doesn’t know a lot about the challengers Larson faces.

What he does know, he said, is how Larson registers in Washington. “In Washington, everybody looks to John Larson, and everybody needs John Larson,” Raskin said.

The Maryland congressman tied the endorsement to the political moment, pointing to Trump’s decision to launch military action against Iran without consulting Congress as the latest example of what he called a continual threat to the rule of law. Larson recently filed articles of impeachment against Trump, a move that won’t go anywhere in the Republican-controlled Congress but signals where his priorities sit.

The Contradiction Problem

Raskin can’t fully escape the optics here. He rose to national prominence partly by doing exactly what Larson’s challengers are asking voters to do: push out an entrenched incumbent. After the 2024 election, Raskin challenged Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York for his post as ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Nadler stepped aside in December 2024, then announced last fall he wouldn’t seek reelection. Raskin was one of three House Democrats who successfully bucked the seniority system that cycle to displace ranking members.

Bronin, the former Hartford mayor who is broadly considered Larson’s most serious challenger, landed the sharpest line of the day. “Jamie Raskin is the perfect example of why it’s so important and so powerful to get new energy and new voices in the Democratic party,” Bronin said, turning Raskin’s own biography into an argument for replacing Larson.

It’s a clean counterpunch. Raskin was only five years into his congressional career when he sat on the January 6th Select Committee and prosecuted the impeachment case that made him a Democratic hero. If five years was enough experience for that, Bronin’s argument goes, seniority isn’t the trump card Larson is playing it as.

Larson Calls It a Crisis

Larson, who turns 78 in July and would be 80 at the start of the term he’s seeking, called his three opponents “good people” but drew a firm line on timing.

“As Jamie said, we’re in the middle of a crisis, probably the most important crisis in my lifetime in this individual that we’re facing,” Larson said. “Now is the time for us to unite as Democrats and to move forward and take on Donald Trump every single day.”

That framing, crisis as a reason to keep experienced hands in place rather than experiment with new ones, is Larson’s central bet in this primary. The question is whether Democratic primary voters in the 1st District agree that a 14-term incumbent is the right person to fight that crisis, or whether they decide Bronin, Fortune, or Gilchrest brings the kind of energy that actually wins.

The CT Mirror first reported Raskin’s appearance and the full exchange between the congressman and his challengers.

Connecticut’s Democratic primary calendar will determine how long Larson has to make that case. For now, he’s got a high-profile ally. Whether Raskin’s credibility on generational change survives his own endorsement is a different question.