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November 13, 2024

Lamont to decide on reelection bid after legislative session ends

Contributed Gov. Ned Lamont
By David Krechevsky

Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday he is in no rush to decide if he will seek a third term in office, stating that he will wait until the end of the 2025 legislative session to decide.

“I think it’s too early,” Lamont said during an interview with Hartford Business Journal.

“There’s a class around here that does nothing but run for office their whole lives, 24 hours a day,” he said. “And we’re already getting some tweets and things and banging away. I feel like I was just reelected.”

In fact, Lamont, won a second term on Nov. 8, 2022, just over two years ago, and just a year ago there already were Democrats positioning themselves to run should he decide not to seek a third term, including Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, according to a report by CTMirror.org.

More recently, state Rep. Mike D’Agostino (D-Hamden)  suggested on WTNH-TV’s “This Week in Connecticut” on Nov. 10 that Lamont should run for a third term and then run for president.

The next race for governor appears to be warming up. Lamont’s comment about “some tweets and things” refers to a heated exchange of messages this week on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, between New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart, a Republican, and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, a Democrat. Stewart has announced she will not seek another term as mayor and has not ruled out a run for governor.

Lamont, who will turn 71 in January, is leaving his options open as well, stating that he’s been in the governor’s office for a while now “and I kind of like the job.” 

“I think people feel like the state's in a better place today than we were eight years ago,” he said, noting that he’s happy to answer the question that Vice President Kamala Harris “found so nettlesome.”

But he’s not yet ready to answer whether there will be another term in his future, something he didn’t announce last time until about a year before the 2022 election.

If he does run again, he would be the first governor to seek a third term since Republican John G. Rowland in 2002.

For now, Lamont says he’s more focused on the job than his future.

“I'm not going to get into it until the end of the next session,” he said.

The state General Assembly will convene its 2025 legislative session on Jan. 8 and it will adjourn on June 4.

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