Candidates are listed in the order in which they appear on the ballot. 
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Michelle Lapine McCabe

​Democratic  Party, ​Working Families Party
Michelle Lapine McCabe, a Fairfield County native and Fairfield resident for the past fourteen years is determined to improve the outlook for the State she calls home. A graduate of Vassar College, BA, and the University of Texas - Austin, MA, she received degrees in Art History and Criticism from both Universities. After years of museum work, Michelle returned to Connecticut to start a family. In 2007, as a well established member of the Fairfield community, her passion for local agriculture and student health led her to join a newly formed PTA Council Committee, Fuel for Learning Partnership. The following year she became Chair and, during her three year term, successfully advocated for an increase in the “from scratch” cooking and healthy options for school meals. Michelle ran the Food For Thought Expo with dedicated school volunteers from around the district that highlighted local food, healthy eating, and school food improvements. Her advocacy led her to a position at the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. Over a three year period at Yale, Michelle worked on policy briefs and recommendations, built a parent advocacy program, served on the Governor’s Agriculture Council, and held leadership roles with the Connecticut Food System Alliance.

In 2013 Michelle began working with the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport. Since then she has grown and redefined the program known now as the Center for Food Equity and Economic Development, FEED. The expanded mission includes working with food pantries and community meal programs, offering a culinary training program for workplace and food business development, running a shared use commercial kitchen space, and management of a prepared food line made from recovered produce. As the FEED Center Director, Michelle oversees and nurtures the physical and financial health of many of the most vulnerable residents in the Bridgeport area. Her decision to run for State Senate ties directly to her vast experience working in policy and nonprofit programming. Michelle has demonstrated a significant ability to make systemic changes, with limited resources, to build coalitions while staying laser focused on getting the results necessary to guarantee success. This established skill-set is exactly what Michelle will employ to lead Hartford and Connecticut towards the bright future which lays ahead for Connecticut. 
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Tony Hwang

​Republican  Party, ​Independent Party
Senator Tony Hwang represents Connecticut’s 28th Senate district. Hwang was born to parents that escaped Communist China as teens and lived under martial law in Taiwan. Tony spent his early years in America living in a federal housing project and attending public school, learning English as a second language. Through personal persistence, inspired by the sacrifices his parent made and motivated by the supportive teachers who believed in him, Hwang successfully attended and graduated from Cornell University. 
Hwang represented the 134th House district from 2009-2014. In 2014, Hwang became the first Asian-American state senator in General Assembly history. 
Hwang’s mission has always been defined by his “commitment to the community”. He strives to practice representative government with a common sense approach reflecting the needs and wants of the people he represent. He hopes to earn your vote for re-election based on his proven record of service and accomplishments. 

COMMITTEES: 
Housing - Chairman 
Aging - Vice Chairman 
Energy and Technology - Vice Chairman 
Judiciary - Member 
Planning and Development - Member 
What specific measures would you propose to balance the state budget? Please list up to three. 
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McCabe (D, WF)

Connecticut needs additional revenue in order to address our pension liabilities and continued investment in education, infrastructure and quality of life for residents. We need new and more taxpayers coming into Connecticut in order to balance our budget. My primary focus as a senator would be to bring more business and residents to Connecticut in order to expand the tax base. Second, I would look into new sources of revenue, such as legalization of recreational marijuana and tolls in order to bill out of state drivers for the use of our roads. Third, I would address unfair pricing in the pharmaceutical industry as a means of lowering prescription drug costs. 
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Hwang (R, I)

Fiscal accountability is needed to reduce government spending and ease the tax burden on CT families. 3 measures that will help to balance the state budget: 

1. We need to address pension and benefit reform. CT has one of the most generous state employee benefits agreement in the country. The exponential rise of unfunded pension liabilities and health insurance costs, the existing trajectory is simply not sustainable. We are asking for fairness and shared sacrifice. 

2. We need to eliminate dual delivery (nonprofits vs. government) of our social services. Our nonprofits have demonstrated the ability to deliver the same services- with the same standards and quality - at a significantly lower cost than governmental agencies. The dual delivery system is simply not sustainable. 

3. Finally we need to bring innovation and shared best practices from the private sector to governmental agencies to deliver efficiencies and reduce cost. We need to review governmental practices to determine where to implement technological solutions to identify bureaucratic waste and eliminate redundancies.
What would you do to make Connecticut a more attractive state for new businesses to open in and for established companies to remain or move in?
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McCabe (D, WF)

A skilled workforce is a strong driver for businesses to locate in a given place and quality of life is what supports a skilled workforce. I would explore gaps in the market that Connecticut is poised to fill given our resources in higher education, technology, and complementary industries that already are located here. I would look to develop a private-public partnership to create a student loan forgiveness program for graduates who work in Connecticut in order to encourage young people to stay or locate to CT. I would support transit oriented development, which is attractive to younger people, provides affordable housing options, and addresses congestion. To support small businesses and their workforce challenges, I would institute a year grace period for low-income residents receiving government support when they take on new employment. During the year period, new employees would continue to receive the same level of benefits without an asset cap to provide small business with a stable workforce and alleviate risk for low-income individuals in their career development.
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Hwang (R, I)

Jobs and economic growth are essential to CT’s future success. In order to keep and attract business in Connecticut, we need to reduce the cost of doing business in the state. We need to reduce the regulatory burden and punitive tax regimen that adversely impacts small and mid-size businesses. We also need to address the business energy costs that are one of the highest in the country by increasing the usage of renewable and alternative energy resources. 

Creating a commercially attractive ecosystem encompassing education, housing and entrepreneurial collaboration will draw new businesses and talent to our state. To that effect, we need to nurture innovative technologies such as bioscience, genomics, renewal energy and advanced manufacturing within our state. We need to renew our commitment to education excellence to develop a highly trained workforce that companies need to succeed. Businesses rely on CT’s transportation and infrastructure to support them, which means we need to establish a viable and realistic long term strategy such as private/public partnerships to address the challenges in transportation and infrastructure improvements.