CT Senate Race 2022: Blumenthal Vs. Levy

CONNECTICUT — This year’s U.S. Senate race in Connecticut pits incumbent Sen. Richard Blumenthal against Republican nominee and Donald Trump supporter Leora Levy.

Blumenthal is seeking a third term in the Senate, while Levy, a Republican fundraiser, hopes to become the state’s first Republican senator since the 1980s.
Levy won the Republican nomination by a large margin, but Blumenthal heads into November with a strong lead in the polls and millions of campaign dollars at his disposal.

Richard Blumenthal

Blumenthal is seeking his third term in the U.S. Senate. He was a longtime state attorney general before his time in D.C.

Blumenthal is a member of judiciary, armed services and veterans’ affairs, commerce, science and transportation and aging committees, as well as the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection.

He is perhaps best known for his consumer protection efforts, including taking on Big Tobacco as state attorney general. More recently, Blumenthal has focused his consumer protection efforts on big tech. Last year, he chaired a bipartisan hearing on social media and how it affects teen mental health. His office created a fake Instagram account to research how teens are led to potentially harmful content.

He is also a strong supporter of gun control and helped pass the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was the largest national gun law change in decades.

Trump and Blumenthal share no love for each other. Trump often took to Twitter to criticize Blumenthal prior to the former president’s ban. He often referred to Blumenthal as “Da Nang Dick” and blasted Blumenthal for his misleading statement about his military service during the Vietnam War. However, Trump’s description of Blumenthal’s misleading statement grew more exaggerated over time, according to Fact Check.

Blumenthal frequently criticized Trump’s actions as president and sued him in 2017 over allegations that he violated the Foreign Emoluments clause.

Leora Levy

Levy is a Greenwich resident. Her family escaped communist Cuba in 1960 and came to the United States.

She was a financial trader at Phibro Salomon, according to her campaign biography.

She later became a philanthropist and political fundraiser for the GOP, according to the Connecticut Mirror. Levy was named to the Republican National Committee in 2017 and was nominated by Trump to be the ambassador to Chile, but the Senate never confirmed her.

Levy bested former House Republican Leader Themis Klarides in the August primary by nearly 10,000 votes. She was endorsed by former President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold a fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago club Oct. 18.

Levy was previously pro-choice, but changed her position in recent years. She is now opposed to abortion unless the mother’s life is in jeopardy or the pregnancy is a product of rape or incest. She is supportive of birth control access.

During a Republican primary debate, she said some of the top issues for the country include, “...the economy, the invasion at the border, the rising crime, the indoctrination of our children with critical race theory and the division of our society between one race and the other."