This is the fifth of a series column that will look at the history of all 50 States,
all 5 territories, and the Capital and the influence history has on our
current political environments. The aim of this column is to capture that
our country is not just red or blue, but rather many shades in between.
Each Lower 48 state’s current political landscape can be traced back to
its early settlement and geography and its particular involvement in the
Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, and the Civil Rights Era.
Admitted in 1788, Connecticut is one of the Thirteen Original Colonies and one of just even states to have participated in all 59 Presidential elections. While Connecticut isn’t known as one of the most significant states on the political spectrum, no state perhaps lends itself better as an example of current national trends.
Early History and Revolution
Connecticut’s first settlers came from the Bay and Plymouth Colonies of Massachusetts. The British funded the Saybrook Colony at the mouth of the Connecticut River, a threat to Dutch trade in nearby New Amsterdam. Other Puritans from Massachusetts founded the New Haven Colony along the Long Island Sound.
Connecticut’s early history is also defined by wars with the Natives, namely the Pequots. This early elimination of the tribe allowed the settlers to take most of the territory and resources up the Connecticut River. Since Massachusetts did not wish to administer their colonies due to distance and communication, self-government in the state began.
Connecticut’s position in the Revolution was staunch, as General George Washington used the area to encircle New York City. The state was also used as launch site for raids against Long Island. The state is also home to turncoat Benedict Arnold.
Civil War
Connecticut abolished slavery in 1848, and as early as the 1830s, blacks from in and out of the state migrated to the cities for employment and opportunity. Manufacturers in the state contributed to the war effort, with rifles, cannons, ammunitions, and 55,000 soldiers, including the US Colored Troops.
Democrats had a head start in Connecticut politics as the Whigs collapsed before the Civil War and the Republican party was not founded until 1856. However, Connecticut’s intrinsic Union Northern nature led to many Democrats, especially the long-blue Irish Catholics, ending their support for slavery.
Industrialization
Connecticut had already been home to farmlands and a vibrant textile industry, before taking on munitions. Connecticut was also home to inventors. From the birth of the US patent system in 1790 until 1930, the state had issued more patents per capita than any other state. Eli Whitney and Samuel Colt called the state home.
Connecticut’s flat landscape, small size, and close urban centers made it a great state for building railroads. By 1830, 600 miles of railroad had been built. The consolidation of its main lines after the Civil War became a major economic boon.
J.P. Morgan, born in Connecticut, had major interests in New England’s developments and helped finance the railroads.
The GOP won every election in Connecticut from the party’s inception in 1856 to the controversial 1876 election. Democrat Grover Cleveland (D-NY) would carry the state three times from 1884-1892 by less than one point each time. He was able to win due to GOP and Populist party support of bimetallism, whereas Cleveland was a staunch supporter of the gold standard.
The Yankee Republican roots of the state transcended the Civil War and influenced the state to the turn of the Century. Democratic intraparty fighting over the liberalism of Progressive William Jennings Bryan led to vote splits in general elections, while rural Yankee Democrats fought for state party control with the urban Irish, another Democratic group. Factory workers and farmers were still a Republican group and would continue to be for some time.
The state would house a vibrant machine industry during both World Wars. These factors combined made the factory towns of Bridgeport, New Haven, Waterbury, and Hartford magnets for European immigrants, many of whom were Polish and Italian. By 1910, Connecticut’s population was almost 30% foreign-born.
The Great Depression saw the Democrats’ partial return to power with FDR’s (D-NY) New Deal, although the state would back Hoover in his 1932 landslide loss, true to its Yankee form.
Modern Political History
Connecticut would then vote for the parties in blocks, rather than instances. Three times for FDR, then three times for the GOP from 1948-1956, then three again for Democrats until 1968. The GOP would see five consecutive wins from 1972-1988. It entered the “blue wall” that was erected in Bill Clinton’s 1992 watershed election, where it has remained since, its longest voting streak for either party to date.
This is where national shifts mirrored by Connecticut’s shift have been observed. While the state has moved partially away from manufacturing to white collar work, such as finance, real estate, software development, investment and asset management, and hospitals, the population has retained most of its profile: small town-suburban, educated, working-class whites. Like other New England state, the relative liberalism that founded the Republican party eventually became more intrinsically libertarian, and is now Democratic-leaning.
No Republican has carried Hartford County, and with it, every single county, in one election since Ronald Reagan in 1984. George Bush Sr. vastly underperformed despite having roots to the state. His poor handling of the economy further hurt GOP influence in financial Connecticut. This was the last time the state voted Republican.
The state has since produced big names like Senator Chris Dodd (D), Senator Lowell Weicker (R), and Senator Joe Lieberman (D, I).
However, Connecticut, like New Jersey, is considered a “high-floor, low-ceiling” state for the GOP. While they can usually rely on 40% of the vote, it’s difficult for them to travel north of that.
Despite being panned by college and suburban voters, Donald Trump (R) actually improved upon Mitt Romney’s (R) performance in 2016. He actually flipped Windham County, becoming the first Republican since Bush Sr. to win it. Hillary Clinton’s (D) only double-digit wins were in Fairfield (Bridgeport) and Hartford Counties.
However, evident of the urban vs. rural and college vs. non-college split, Trump lost townships that had not voted Democratic since the 1870s. The classically Republican townships of Darien and New Canaan, near Stamford, did not support Trump, but regularly vote against House and Senate Democrats.
The state does have a decent GOP and voters will elect them under the right circumstances. The 2018 governor’s race was one of the closest in the nation.
Republicans have not won a gubernatorial race here since 2006. They have not won a Senate race since 1982 and last controlled both Senate seats in 1959.
The strategy for either party to attract voters: follow the money.
