Josh Elliott Challenges Ned Lamont From the Left

Josh Elliott has attended 91 Democratic town committee meetings. That’s not a typo.

The Hamden state representative is running hard to the left of Gov. Ned Lamont, making the case to anyone who will listen inside a DTC meeting room that a two-term Democratic governor is leaving serious progressive ambitions on the table. Elliott, 41, is doing it one weeknight at a time, sometimes hitting two or three town committees in a single evening, his schedule driven entirely by when local Democrats choose to meet rather than anything resembling geographic sense.

Two weeks ago that meant starting in Bridgeport, driving 47 miles to Cromwell, then another 27 miles to Thomaston near Waterbury. He made two of the three. Not bad for a Tuesday.

The underdog frame

Elliott knows he’s the long shot. He’s leaning into it.

“They’re chasing their tails now, as of a few weeks ago, because they just didn’t think that I was a serious candidate, and I loved that,” Elliott told the crowd in Cromwell. “That was the best thing they could do was underestimate me.”

The Lamont operation, which has the deep donor network and institutional backing you’d expect from an incumbent governor seeking a third term, didn’t take Elliott seriously at first. That’s a version of events Elliott is happy to repeat, and it’s also the kind of narrative that travels well in grassroots organizing circles.

His origin story helps. Ten years ago, progressives pushed a then-unknown Elliott to challenge House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey of Hamden, one of the most powerful figures in state Democratic politics at the time. Elliott won. He’s been running on a version of that same underdog energy ever since.

What he’s actually proposing

Elliott calls himself an economic populist, and the policies back that up. He wants the state to borrow money so municipalities can buy out their electric grids and create public utilities, pointing to Connecticut’s handful of existing municipal electric companies as proof that public ownership keeps rates lower. He favors sweeping health care reforms that would cut insurance profits out of the system, and says he’s fine with a public option even if it costs insurance-sector jobs. He wants higher taxes on millionaires.

These aren’t incremental tweaks. Elliott is openly arguing that Democratic supermajorities in the General Assembly, and Lamont’s administration, have been too cautious because they fear being tagged as anti-business. To him, that caution is the whole problem.

The governor “folds whenever he encounters complaints that businesses might be hurt or even leave,” Elliott said. “You have to make sure you are calling some bluffs.”

Worth understanding: Elliott isn’t some outside agitator. He owns Thyme & Season, a natural food store his mother opened 25 years ago. He’s an admirer of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, yes, but he’s also running a family business. That combination, economic progressive with actual skin in the capitalist game, is central to how he presents himself to skeptical audiences.

Can he actually win?

Lamont’s approval numbers give Elliott something to work with, at least rhetorically. “A lot of people like him, but not a lot of people love him,” Elliott said of the governor. “I can win a lot of those people.”

That’s a real distinction in primary politics. Lukewarm approval is not the same as loyalty, and an incumbent who wins because nobody else ran is different from one who wins because the base is fired up. Elliott opened his campaign last July describing his strategy as a plan to “slowly eat into what is this perceived notion of impossibility.”

The [Connecticut Democratic Party](https://www.ctdems.org/) structure makes insurgent campaigns genuinely difficult. Town committees control delegate slots, endorsements cascade, and money follows institutional backing. Elliott understands this, which is why he’s spending his evenings in Cromwell and Thomaston instead of holding press conferences in Hartford.

The CT Mirror first reported on Elliott’s campaign swing through these town committees, and the full account of his pitch to Cromwell Democrats is worth reading.

What to watch

The Connecticut General Assembly session is running concurrently with this primary buildup, which means every floor vote on taxes, energy, and health care becomes a political data point for both candidates. Watch for Elliott to use any Lamont-backed compromise as evidence that the governor is protecting the wrong interests.

Meeting 91 is already behind him. He’s not stopping.