By Staff Reporters
Erin Stewart’s abrupt suspension of her gubernatorial campaign on Thursday has moved State Senator Ryan Fazio, the Greenwich Republican who represents Greenwich, Stamford and New Canaan, to the center of Connecticut’s race for governor.
Days before delegates gather at Mohegan Sun, the contest that had been expected to test Stewart’s New Britain record against Fazio’s legislative appeal has become a question of whether Fazio can convert a local reputation into statewide command.
Stewart, the former New Britain mayor, suspended her campaign after an investigative report commissioned by her Democratic successor, Mayor Bobby Sanchez, alleged that most of $207,076 charged to Stewart’s city-issued credit card over nearly a decade was unrelated to city business and warranted referral to state and federal authorities. Stewart said in a statement that she was suspending the campaign effective immediately so she could address the claims, and she promised to make restitution for any amount owed.
She also endorsed Fazio, her chief rival for the Republican nomination. For Fazio, the moment is decisive but not complete. Former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey remains in the race, and the endorsement at this weekend’s convention will be decided by more than 1,100 Republican delegates.
Fazio enters the convention as the heavy favorite, but Connecticut’s rules still allow a non-endorsed candidate who receives at least 15 percent of convention support to qualify for an Aug. 11 primary. The change also alters the question before Republican delegates. Last week, the race was a three-way contest: Stewart, a former 12-year mayor with a statewide profile; Fazio, a 35-year-old state senator with policy credentials, bipartisan appeal, and a district-tested claim to electability; and McCaughey, an outspoken MAGA commentator and former New York State official.
Now the party must decide whether Fazio’s campaign, built on affordability, electric rates, taxes, local control and a promise of generational change, is ready for a general election against Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democratic incumbent seeking a third term.
In Greenwich and New Canaan, Fazio’s rise is not remote state politics. He is our state senator. He is the legislator residents have watched in town halls, zoning fights, Aquarion debates, energy-bill arguments and late-night Hartford sessions.
Fazio, elected in 2021, re-elected in 2022 and 2024, is ranking senator on the Energy and Technology Committee and the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee.
Last June, Fazio emerged from the 2025 legislative session as both an opponent of the sweeping housing bill known as House Bill 5002 and an architect of bipartisan tax and energy reform measures to lower costs. The same report showed he authored Senate Bill 1558, a measure intended to challenge taxation by states such as New York of Connecticut residents who work from home for out-of-state employers.
The Sentinel reported in January that Fazio’s gubernatorial campaign had raised $272,069 in qualifying small-dollar contributions over 141 days, crossing the Citizens’ Election Program’s threshold faster than any gubernatorial campaign.
That fundraising story matters now because Stewart’s exit does not deliver Fazio a nomination by acclamation. It gives him opportunity and burden at the same time. He inherits a clearer path, but also a brighter light. Voters who once evaluated him as a district senator or a younger alternative in a crowded field now weigh him as the principal Republican case against a two-term governor with money, incumbency and an established image.
Fazio’s strongest argument has been that the state’s cost structure is not an abstraction. His recurring themes have been electric bills, public-benefits charges, housing mandates, budget guardrails, property taxes and local decision-making. Local officials who endorsed him pointed to those same issues, especially zoning authority, utility costs and transparency on energy bills.
That message has also reached younger voters. In January, Fazio held a Stamford event aimed at Gen Z and highlighted housing costs, student debt and jobs. At that event, he said his campaign was about the future and about drawing young people into state and local politics. The private side of Fazio’s public campaign has also reinforced the home-state theme.
Last August Fazio proposed to New Canaan’s Amy Orser at Waveny Park, where the couple had their first date. Fazio told the Sentinel, at the time that “Connecticut is the only place I’ve ever called home. I was born here, raised here, and now I got engaged here.”
His campaign asks voters to see Connecticut not as a managerial problem but as a place to keep. Stewart’s departure may help Fazio most by removing a competitor whose résumé let Republicans imagine a different kind of general-election map. A 12-year mayor could claim executive experience outside Fairfield County. Fazio’s answer must be that his own district has already tested him.
He won re-election in 2024 against a tough opponent by a wide margin in a district Donald Trump lost by 17 percentage points, an point Fazio makes in the case for his crossover appeal. The risk is that Fazio becomes defined by the circumstances that elevated him.
Fazio’s task is to accept the advantage without letting the race become a referendum on another Republican’s collapse. He must make the turn from beneficiary to standard-bearer, from local fighter to statewide nominee, from the senator who knows Greenwich and New Canaan to the candidate who can persuade Waterbury, New London, Enfield and Windham that their grievances sound familiar. That is why the word “likely” still requires care. Fazio is likely the Republican candidate to beat; he is not yet the nominee. Delegates must vote. McCaughey must decide how hard to contest the convention and, if she qualifies, a primary. Lamont, meanwhile, waits with the advantages of office and the Democratic tilt of the state.
Still, the meaning for Fazio is plain. A campaign that is an argument for a new Republican generation has become the party’s most direct path forward. A candidate who made his name defending local control must now show he can govern beyond locality. A senator known here as our own must prove that his concerns are also Connecticut’s concerns.
