A confederacy of kooks: Ryan Fazio and the company he keeps as the Republican nominee for governor.

A Connecticut Republican nominee for governor about to pocket $19 million in public funds is allowed to say, “Thank you for thinking of me. No.”

Instead, Ryan Fazio, the luckiest fella in state politics, confirmed he would be joining the Republican Governors Association Spring Policy Summit last week in Nashville. As they might telegraph in some Greenwich drawing rooms, the gathering was Non-U to the hilt.

Fazio, the other Greenwich resident in the race, appeared on an invitation to veteran and prospective RGA donors along with, oy, Representative Andy Biggs, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for governor of Arizona . Biggs is a loon but not without self-awareness. A determined 2020 election denier, Biggs sought a pardon from Donald Trump in January 2021 for his insider role in the insurrection.

Not needing to travel far to the Nashville conclave of hopefuls was Senator Marsha Blackburn. She’s seeking Tennessee’s Republican nomination for governor in an upcoming primary. Another 2020 election denier, Blackburn is such a Trump toady that most stirring comment she could muster over the Trump scheme for a $1.776 billion slush fund for insurrectionists and other Trump disciples, was that it might merit “a revisit.”

That was more than Representative Byron Donalds would say in defense of common sense. Byrons supports the fund–born of Donald Trump’s $10 billion bogus lawsuit against the government he leads.

Donald Trump, his enforcers, and his erratic policies are wildly unpopular in most states, but in few is he as disliked as he is here. Trump’s unconditional surrender of American interests in his memorandum of understanding with the Islamic Republic of Iran will not gone down well with even those who continue to follow the relentless vulgarian.

Associating with these people on an invitation or in person is no way to win a statewide election in Connecticut. It will fuel suspicions that clever Ryan Fazio may have found a needle that is impossible to thread. Political analyst Ron Brownstein pointed out recently that 89% of voters who disapprove of Donald Trump will not, under most circumstances, vote for a Republican. 

–because traveling 1,000 miles in June to spend time with them makes you scratch your head and wonder.

Published June 17, 2026.