Luke Bronin is considering challenging incumbent John Larson for party nomination in 1st CD.

Luke Bronin, the former two-term mayor of Hartford, is contemplating challenging incumbent U.S. Representative John Larson for the Democratic nomination in the 1st Congressional District in 2026, Daily Ructions has learned.

Bronin, a Navy veteran who served in Afghanistan and graduate of Yale Law School, told Democratic loyalists at the party’s Women’s Leadership Annual Lunch at the Aqua Turf in Southington that he is thinking about running for Congress. Bronin told Larson, serving his thirteenth term, of his nascent plans during a Friday meeting. Bronin has been attending party events around the state for months as he contemplated a second bid for governor if Governor Ned Lamont declines to seek a third term. Bronin’s eye on a challenge to Larson in the 27-town district is another sign that Lamont is likely to run again.

Bronin’s shadow campaign for governor was impressing party activists but would have been difficult to sustain until 2030, when Lamont would not seek a fourth term. With the party’s bottleneck limiting options, the 1st CD is one of Bronin’s only options to avoid the treadmill to oblivion and bring his considerable energy to Washington at this perilous hour.

Larson won the seat in a competitive primary in 1998 and has not been challenged in a primary in twelve successive campaigns. He suffered a widely publicized health incident on the floor of the House earlier this year but rebounded with a notable intervention during a committee meeting, railing against Elon Musk’s influence in the Trump White House and beyond.

Bronin proved himself a formidable fundraiser with far flung contributors in 2015 when he mounted his first campaign for public office. He raised nearly $1 million and defeated incumbent Hartford mayor Pedro Segarra for the party’s endorsement and in a September primary. Larson has not kept his ties to local parties as strong as his Connecticut House colleagues have and will have to hustle to renew them if he is to hold off a challenge from Bronin.

The 1st Congressional District has not elected a Republican since 1956 when President Eisenhower’s landslide re-election and the party lever swept Ed May into the seat. He lost it two years later.

Published July 13, 2025.