Damjan DeNoble, a 40-year-old lawyer who works in New Haven, is working in opposition to longtime U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro within the 2026 Democratic main, citing the necessity for generational change at a time when the occasion writ massive is grappling with such a query.
DeNoble, a first-time candidate who’s a naturalized citizen from former Yugoslavia, filed paperwork Tuesday to run within the third Congressional District and can formally launch his marketing campaign subsequent week with a video and web site. DeLauro, who has a management spot on a high committee, plans to hunt a nineteenth time period within the U.S. Home.
DeNoble based the agency Frontera Labor, which focuses on employment-based immigration like H-2B visas to assist companies with seasonal and momentary work in addition to with family employers. DeNoble’s agency was working extra on immigration circumstances through the first Trump administration however chose to pivot after the election, given the anticipated challenges to the immigration panorama.
He lives in Guilford along with his spouse and three kids.
On condition that Connecticut’s third Congressional District is taken into account a protected seat for Democrats, the first is seen as the one actual alternative to wage a marketing campaign.
DeLauro, 82, has represented the district for greater than three a long time and has lengthy roots in New Haven; her mother and father served in native politics. Throughout her tenure, she rose by means of the ranks to function the chairwoman of the influential Home Appropriations Committee when Democrats had been within the majority. With Republicans on the helm, she is now the rating member.
DeNoble didn’t have criticisms of DeLauro particularly however voiced frustrations concerning the Democratic Occasion, its response to youthful expertise and the occasion’s model within the wake of the 2024 election.
“Whereas Rosa DeLauro has finished an excellent job for us, I believe it’s time to go the torch,” DeNoble mentioned in an interview, saying that he’s looking for generational change. “The Democratic Occasion has confirmed itself to be very dangerous at at that.”
“We’re not going to kowtow to the occasion,” he mentioned. “I don’t suppose the occasion has a lot left to supply.”
Earlier than getting into politics herself, DeLauro served as former Sen. Chris Dodd’s chief of workers and marketing campaign supervisor. She additionally served as the chief director for EMILY’s Checklist, a political motion committee that helps ladies who assist abortion rights get elected. She first got here to Congress in 1991 after a decent race however has been simply reelected ever since.
If DeLauro wins one other time period and Democrats take again management of the Home in 2026, she might reclaim the gavel and serve once more as Appropriations Committee chairwoman. In her management roles, she helps craft and negotiate spending payments that fund the federal authorities.
“Rosa intends to run for reelection and welcomes anybody that desires to run for the seat,” DeLauro’s marketing campaign supervisor Chris Carroll mentioned in response to DeNoble’s run.
For DeNoble, he sees room for adjustments with a “entire bunch of issues that have to be finished to deliver our democratic system in stability and decrease the temperature” in politics. He mentioned he doesn’t consider an octogenarian lawmaker is the best-positioned to perform that.
DeNoble is a part of a rising variety of candidates who need to tackle sitting members in Connecticut in 2026. 4 of the 5 members of the state’s congressional delegation now have a minimum of one main challenger. A few of these incumbents didn’t have main challengers of their final campaigns, together with DeLauro.
Ruth Fortune, a 37-year-old mayoral appointee on the Hartford Board of Training, filed last week to run against U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-1st District, within the main. And U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, and U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Fifth District, additionally recently gained primary challengers of their races.
Debate over politicians’ age and size of service hit a fever pitch through the 2024 election with former President Joe Biden, who finally deserted his efforts to hunt a second time period. These discussions are ongoing as Democrats contemplate their occasion’s future.
DeNoble mentioned he desires to see a system that isn’t based mostly as a lot on seniority. Sometimes, openings for committee management go to essentially the most senior members on that panel.
He cited some frustration that U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York misplaced an inner vote to turn out to be the main Democrat on the Home Oversight Committee to a extra senior member, U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly of Maryland. Connolly finally stepped down when his most cancers worsened, and after his dying, the function was crammed by a youthful congressman over a extra seasoned member.
He known as the marketing campaign of Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist who defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo within the main for New York Metropolis mayor, “tremendous fascinating.” However that sentiment largely prolonged to his marketing campaign’s technique round video and social media, one thing DeNoble believes he can replicate in his personal race.
“Our marketing campaign energy goes to be media,” DeNoble mentioned.
Except for generational change, DeNoble’s causes for working are private. He mentioned he worries what the longer term will appear like for his younger kids, together with considerations over faculty affordability. “That’s what actually moved me,” he mentioned.
For her half, DeLauro not too long ago mirrored on her prolonged profession in Congress and the longer term. Throughout her interview as a part of the Connecticut Mirror’s “Within the Room” collection, DeLauro was requested concerning the frustration amongst some People that members of Congress are serving in workplace for too lengthy.
DeLauro views her lengthy tenure and affect as a profit — and one thing that doesn’t occur in a single day. She believes relationships are on the coronary heart of her job and argued that it took time to earn belief from Republicans and Democrats. She mentioned that mutual respect was significantly useful when it got here to work on the federal youngster tax credit score.
“I consider this, and it’d sound very self-serving, however I do have the belief of my colleagues on each side of the aisle. They’ll know that I’m not making an attempt to take them down a mistaken highway, or harm them not directly, that I’m doing one thing that I believe might be helpful general,” DeLauro mentioned on the June occasion.
“That doesn’t occur in a single 12 months, two years, even 5 years. It occurs over a time period to get to know you and what you’re about that,” DeLauro mentioned. “That’s to not say that the time comes when you must say, ‘I’ve had a very good run.’”
