A Future Worth Fighting For. Built Right Here.
We stand at a critical moment, when dangerous ideologies that stand against liberty and equality are ascendant across America, and their approach can be traced, like the burning embers of a prairie fire, to the retrograde culture of the Antebellum South, where blood and soil stood longside might makes right as the dominant theology of a people married to the sin of slavery. This moment calls not for retreat from this alien element defeated at least twice before within the borders of this country, but for courage, clarity, and a renewed sense of purpose by those of us who believe that the true dominant values of America are rooted in the far more noble soils of enlightenment, morality, and individual liberty; values that were defined in and promulgated from New England; values that will defeat the ideology of hate and tyranny once more if we choose to wield them.
I believe that to be the case, and so I believe that a better future for our families and our children is not just possible, but within our control to achieve. To guarantee freedom at a time when its very concept is challenged, we must rediscover and double down on the core values of the New England spirit. This is the spirit—the fundamental American ideal—that for generations has emboldened people across the world to fight for and demand their own liberties.
The work I describe will be hard, but must start right here, rooted in the enduring strength and generational wisdom of our New England political community. If we are to succeed in the novel political situation we find ourselves in, we must look towards our roots, the ones that gave us the fruit of a society where individual liberty and equality under the law were raised up by the strength of a shared sense of morality and justice.
It is with this in mind that I call my brand of politics Yankee Democracy. The philosophy of my politics is built on the morally-grounded, progressive values of New England’s town-first democracy, which became the model for the entire United States; and it is built upon a deep commitment to the New England region’s unique cultural legacy, which is understood clearly by all as one that gave birth to a country that lifted individual liberty above that of despotic whim. I recognize most of all that the New England and even the Northeast more broadly is more than just geography—it is a unique political community founded on the bedrock principles of individual liberty and equality under the law, and this is where we must look to reclaim power in these times of great political convulsion.
My commitment is to serve not just in Washington D.C., but to actively unite New England’s states and towns into a new network of cooperation. This will strengthen us, prevent the federal government from forcing counter-New England values upon us, and empower us to be the model for liberty once more.
We need a vibrant, strong response to defend our culture and our way of life. This requires structural reform and a willingness to deploy every political tool available, even using states’ rights principles, to insulate our community from external aggression and political agendas that do not reflect who we are. Above all, structural reform requires setting aside elite interests to ensure all members of our communities—our working families and our children—feel secure and unstressed in their everyday lives.
✍️ Pledge Your Signature: The Essential First Step
In Connecticut, a candidate challenging a sitting U.S. House member must first seek the party’s nomination at the convention. If the challenger fails to win at least 15% of the delegate vote (the automatic qualification threshold), they are forced onto the petition route.
The Unprecedented Result
This system has created a protective fortress around incumbents, resulting in a fact unheard of in other states: no sitting U.S. House member in Connecticut has ever faced a primary challenge on the ballot.
Petition Entry
To secure a place on the August 11, 2026, primary ballot and ensure voters have a choice, our campaign must directly challenge this system by successfully gathering the required signatures. This requires a 42-day effort to collect 4,108 certified signatures from registered Democratic voters in the district.
Your signature on our petition is not just support—it is the necessary key to unlocking the ballot and ensuring democratic competition in our district.
The Solution: Petition PLEDGE
There is no reason we cannot start collecting right away the names of people who wish to pledge their petition signature. In fact, you can pledge your petition right now, by signing the pledge on our website.
We are looking for lots of help with this step. So if you can pledge your petition, that’s awesome, but if you want to volunteer even more, please sign up here.
💵 Support My Campaign: An Excellent 2nd Step
In order for us to defend the core values of New England and put Connecticut’s working families first, we have to take on entrenched incumbents and the powerful outside money.
This campaign is is 100% normal-people-powered.
Read These 3 Bold Ideas for the Future: A Fitting Finale
💡 Yankee Democracy in Action: The Northeast Health Trust
While we fight for a national solution, we cannot wait for Washington. The progressive states of the Northeast must take action to defend our people from federal inaction and right-wing aggression.
The recent formation of the Northeast Public Health Collaborative—a voluntary coalition of public health leaders from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island—shows the immense power of regional cooperation for security, economy, and public health. Pathogens know no borders, and neither should our healthcare solutions.
As your representative, I will fight to leverage and expand this cooperation to create the Northeast Health Trust, which I call “Medicare for All Northeasterners.”
This initiative would pursue a Medicare for All-type system across the New England states and collaborating jurisdictions, uniting our collective economic and political power to:
Negotiate Drug Prices: Use the combined market size of the Northeast to demand massive price cuts from pharmaceutical companies, effectively creating regional drug price caps.
Streamline and Standardize Care: Create a more efficient, unified regional system that eliminates administrative waste and guarantees a core standard of care for every resident, regardless of employment status.
Insulate Against Washington Aggression: Deploy our combined states’ rights and economic strength to protect access to reproductive health, gender-affirming care, and other vital services from federal overreach and ideological attacks.
Healthcare is the foundation of a free society. Until we secure it, we will always live in fear. Through both national reform and bold regional action, we can build a stronger, healthier future for all.
🏗️ The Naugatuck Valley Initiative: Building Connecticut’s Future with $500/Month Modular Homes
I. The Opportunity: Revitalizing the Naugatuck Valley
The Naugatuck Valley—including Ansonia, Seymour, Shelton, and Naugatuck—was once the engine of American manufacturing, home to thriving brass, rubber, and heavy industry. This industrial past created a dense, urban landscape supported by an excellent transportation network.
The Decline: Post-WWII deindustrialization, the devasting 1955 flood from Hurricane Diane, and the continued loss of manufacturing jobs plunged the core cities into a prolonged economic depression typical of the “Rust Belt.” This left behind a wealth of vacant and underutilized brownfield sites (former industrial land) and an economic center that has lagged behind the state average in wage and opportunity.
The Foundation: Crucially, the Valley retains its excellent transportation infrastructure—both the rail lines and major highways (like Route 8) that were originally built to move raw materials and finished goods. This network offers a critical advantage for distribution.
My idea is to use the power of the Congressional office to transform this legacy of vacant industrial space and a skilled, ready workforce into the state’s new advanced manufacturing hub, helping bring new jobs, revitalize shrinking towns, and make Connecticut the leader in the construction of low-cost homes.
II. The Solution: A Modular Housing Manufacturing Industry
A. The Naugatuck Modular Hub
I would look to incentivize the establishment of a large-scale, state-of-the-art Modular Housing Factory in a central Naugatuck Valley location (e.g., Ansonia, Derby, Seymour, or Naugatuck, utilizing remediated brownfield sites). This factory will be designed to build high-quality, precision-engineered housing modules, from single-family units to sections of high-rise apartment buildings.
Job Creation: This would create a new advanced manufacturing industry with stable, indoor, year-round employment, directly addressing the Valley’s decades-long need for a renewed economic base. And we would not want to stop at one factory, but instead look to turn this into a hub, similar to what Raleigh Triangle Park did for Biotech.
Speed and Efficiency: Modular construction is proven to be 10% to 30% cheaper and 30% to 50% faster than traditional stick-built construction. The factory setting ensures:
Bulk Purchasing Power: Massive material discounts are secured.
Precision Engineering: Up to 90% less material waste compared to on-site building.
Fixed Costs: Labor and material costs are predictable, eliminating the “budget creep” that plagues traditional construction.
B. Distribution and Logistics
The finished modules will be transported using the Valley’s excellent road network (Route 8/I-84 corridor) and potentially the existing rail lines.
Connecticut as the Home-Building State: This centralized location will allow the factory(ies) to efficiently deliver and assemble housing units throughout the state—from the high-demand markets of New Haven and Stamford to the shrinking, working-class communities that need population lifelines like Seymour.
III. The Core Promise: $500 Per Month Housing
The economic efficiencies of the modular process make the ambitious goal of $500 per month rent achievable for a baseline, non-luxury unit.
The Case for $500 Rent
Affordability Target: With an average take-home pay around $2,800, a $500 rent price point represents less than 18% of a typical person’s net income. When adding a generous estimate for utilities and other living expenses, the total housing burden remains comfortably near or below the healthy society standard of 30% of income.
Boosting the Workforce: Placing these affordable units in transit-accessible areas, especially in the Naugatuck Valley, provides an immediate source of affordable commuter housing for essential workers in the more expensive economic centers of New Haven and Lower Fairfield County. This directly boosts the workforce of these regional economic drivers.
Community Lifeline: Selling or leasing these highly affordable, quality units in shrinking communities like Seymour and Ansonia provides the population influx needed to revitalize local businesses, strengthen the tax base, and halt decades of decline.
Cost Reduction: Achieving this price point requires the modular industry to deliver a final installed unit cost (including land acquisition and preparation, factory cost, transportation, and assembly) that is drastically lower than conventional development. This is only possible by radically compressing costs through the factory model.
By establishing this industry in the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut wouldn’t just be building homes; it would create a powerful economic multiplier that regenerates a historically distressed region, secures housing stability for our residents, and positions the state as the innovative Home Building State for the 21st century.
🗽 Yankee Democracy and the Foreign Trade Zone: Creating Stability when D.C. Creates Chaos
The Port of New Haven is the central hub of Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) #162, a secure, federally designated area treated as outside of U.S. customs territory. Within this 366-acre zone, businesses can defer or reduce customs duties on foreign merchandise, significantly reducing their operating costs.
This FTZ is a potent tool for Yankee Democracy:
Insulation from D.C. Inaction: At a time when Washington is gridlocked on trade policy, full and creative utilization of our FTZ would allow Connecticut businesses to freely engage with global markets—deferring duty, reducing taxes on goods re-exported, and improving cash flow—effectively creating a micro-environment of optimized global trade regardless of federal politics.
A Magnet for Foreign Investment: By aggressively marketing the FTZ’s benefits, we could make New Haven a more attractive entry point for foreign companies looking to access the vast Northeast consumer base, increasing cargo volume and creating new, high-value jobs. This would deepen Connecticut’s economic integration with key international partners, not D.C.
Leverage for Investment: The full value of the FTZ is only realized when paired with a modern port. The state can use FTZ benefits—such as tax abatements and streamlined state permitting for expansion within the zone—as the primary incentive to force private operators to commit to capital improvements. I would use my office to find funds and drum up political and industrial support for this project.
I. Incentivizing Port Investment: A Multi-Pronged Strategy
To compel private terminal operators in New Haven Harbor (like Enstructure) to invest in necessary upgrades, my strategy would seek to use federal infrastructure funding as leverage, coupled with specific state and local economic incentives. But I would also use the bully pulpit to keep this issue and idea on the front of everyone’s mind.
1. Federal Channel Deepening: The Initial Catalyst
The first key leverage point is the Federal Channel Deepening to 40 feet. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is advancing its Feasibility Study with a construction start targeted for 2026 to deepen the channel from 35 to 40 feet.
Public Bargaining Chip: We must treat the state’s required 25% non-federal funding share not as a cost, but as a public bargaining chip.
Safety & Efficiency Goal: The state’s financial contribution must be explicitly tied to private operator commitments for dockside investment, ensuring the public dollar delivers the goal of Safety & Efficiency by accommodating the next class of commercial bulk vessels and ending costly tidal delays.
2. Tax Incentives and FTZ Expansion
We will use the Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) status to make local investment the most economically attractive option for private operators.
Conditional Tax Abatement: The city and state should offer enhanced property tax abatement on any new vertical structures (like cold storage or warehouses) built by the operator within the FTZ.
Matching Investment: This benefit is strictly conditional: the operator receives the abatement only if they invest a matching amount into new dock-side infrastructure (such as reinforced bulkheads and new cranes) necessary to utilize the new 40-foot channel depth. This forces the operator to commit Private Capital to use the publicly-funded channel improvement.
II. Conclusion
Rebuilding the Sound is about more than commerce—it is about protecting a way of life for generations. By being strategic with our FTZ designation and using federal dredging funds as a public bargaining chip, we can force the private operators to transform New Haven into a modern, climate-ready port that finally connects one of the world’s most beautiful harbors to the city it serves.
“If we are to succeed in the novel political situation we find ourselves in, we must look towards our roots…”
-Damjan DeNoble
(or how to pronounce Damjan's name)
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