Portrait of a Campaign.

It is drudgery interrupted now and then by polite applause, repetition with slivers of spontaneity in pursuit of office. At 77, Betsy McCaughey, the former New York lieutenant governor, puts her best face forward in her late launch bid for the Republican nomination of governor of Connecticut.

There she is doing business in the same old place, at a meeting of local Republicans in the hunt for delegates. With less than a month before the party nominating convention, the candidates hit the road night after night to nail down delegate commitments. For McCaughey, it’s a steep climb to 15% of the delegates on May 16th for a place on the August primary ballot. 165 delegates as fewer remain uncommitted.

Look at that determination to tell her fantastical tale to party activists whose meetings have been extended each month by hopefuls reciting their pledges and looking for openings. McCaughey brings her practiced dynamism to her promise to eliminate the state income tax, 32 years after a Republican nominee for governor first made the promise that was never kept.

McCaughey, fresh off the 2025 campaign to Save New York!—from Zohran “Globalize the Intifada” Mamdani, knows how to make an old tune sound fresh. She touches their hearts, but their heads are tougher to crack as they ponder who can deliver Republicans their first statewide win since Jodi Rell’s thumping 2006 triumph. Still, McCaughey sells it. Endorsed by Viktor Orbán-aligned CPAC before the Hungarian thug’s pummeling by voters, McCaughey is a finalist on the runway of the aggrieved for most devoted Trump acolyte. With her fellow Manhattanite mired in calamitous approval ratings, even historian McCaughey may strain to convince faithful Connecticut Republicans needs a heaping helping of what he’s been serving.

Still, one photo of the star and her supporting players tells the tale of what politics requires of candidates night after night after night.

Published April 22, 2026.