Maryam Khan to launch exploratory campaign in 1st Senate District Tuesday. Second to challenge McCrory.

State Representative Maryam Khan announced Friday morning that she will launch an exploratory campaign for the Democratic nomination in the 1st State Senate District on Tuesday morning at the Parker Memorial Community Center in Hartford.

As a candidate, Khan would face incumbent Doug McCrory and fellow Windsor Democrat Ayana Taylor, who challenged McCrory in a 2024 primary. McCrory, who in his fifth term in the Senate, has announced he is seeking re-election in the face of a federal criminal investigation that has named him in subpoenas seeking information on nonprofit organizations receiving public funds.

The district includes parts of Hartford, Bloomfield, and Windsor. McCrory won the 2024 primary with 58% of the vote, defeating Taylor and Shellye Davis, a union official. Taylor won Windsor by 300 votes in the primary. McCrory took Hartford and Bloomfield.

Khan declared in a written statement, “I have launched this exploratory campaign not out of a sense of duty to self, but from a sense of duty to the people of Hartford, Windsor, and Bloomfield. Right now youth programs are being cut, public schools are in a crisis, and trust in our political system is at an all time low, and the working parents, public school students, educators, & workers of our district all deserve a sense of trust that their elected officials are in it for the public, not for themselves.”

Published January 16, 2026.