🔒Fazio puts affordability at center of bid to reclaim governor’s office for GOP

At 36, Sen. Ryan Fazio (R-Greenwich) is asking Connecticut voters to do something they haven’t done in nearly two decades: elect a Republican governor.

If successful, he would also become the youngest governor in state history.

But Fazio is basing his campaign less on generational change than on a straightforward economic argument: Connecticut has become too expensive to live, work and do business in.

“People understand that this state is unaffordable,” Fazio said during a recent interview with the Hartford Business Journal. “After eight years, (Gov. Ned Lamont) hasn’t fixed the problems and positive change is more than welcome.”

This election, though, presents Republicans with a daunting challenge. Connecticut has not elected a Republican governor since M. Jodi Rell won reelection in 2006, and Fazio is challenging Lamont, a relatively popular and well-funded incumbent who has overseen years of budget surpluses, record reserves and significant pension debt reduction.

Republicans also face a difficult national political backdrop in Connecticut, where President Donald Trump remains unpopular. A June University of New Hampshire poll found nearly two-thirds of Connecticut residents disapproved of Trump’s job performance.

Fazio’s challenge is to persuade voters to separate their views of the national Republican Party from their choice for governor. He argues his own electoral history demonstrates that Connecticut voters are willing to do that.

Fazio ran for the 36th Senate District seat in 2020, losing to Democratic incumbent Alex Kasser. After Kasser resigned the following year, Fazio won a special election for the seat, which includes Greenwich and portions of Stamford and New Canaan. He successfully defended it in 2022 and 2024, despite representing a district that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris carried by 17 percentage points.

“On the state level and local level, Connecticut voters are relatively independently minded,” Fazio said. “I think they are willing to vote for the individual and the issues that they’re addressing, rather than strictly party.”

Who is Ryan Fazio?

Fazio recently visited HBJ’s offices for a 65-minute interview to discuss why he’s running for governor and what he will do if he wins.

A Greenwich High School graduate, he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University before beginning a career in commodities trading.

Fazio worked for Louis Dreyfus Co. in Wilton and later Noble Group and Noble Agri/COFCO in Stamford, where he said his work included agriculture and energy commodities.

He later worked as a financial adviser for MARCorp Financial LLC and its subsidiary, Services Capital LLC, private-equity businesses founded by his family and based in Chicago.

Fazio — who is engaged to Amy Orser and plans to marry Nov. 14, less than two weeks after Election Day — said his private-sector experience has prepared him to better serve taxpayers.

“Good salespeople understand what their customers need,” he said.

The issues

During his campaign for governor, Fazio has concentrated largely on Connecticut’s economy and cost of living, focusing on what he calls an affordability crisis driven by high taxes, electric rates, healthcare costs and housing.

His proposed solutions are ambitious.

Fazio is calling for what he describes as the largest middle-class tax cut in Connecticut history — a $2 billion to $2.5 billion annual reduction in state income taxes that he says would save middle-income families at least $1,500 per year.

He says the tax cuts could be financed by eliminating wasteful spending, slowing state spending growth to roughly the rate of inflation and reducing borrowing.

Fazio also wants to cap annual property tax increases on existing assessments at the greater of 2% or the rate of inflation, while reducing unfunded state mandates on municipalities and requiring large universities and nonprofit hospital systems to contribute more toward local costs.

On energy, he proposes eliminating or phasing out many of the taxes and charges embedded in electric bills while expanding natural gas pipeline capacity into New England to increase supply and lower long-term costs.

That approach contrasts with Lamont, who has placed greater emphasis on expanding renewable and nuclear power while maintaining natural gas as part of a diversified energy portfolio. Fazio argues Connecticut’s electric bills contain too many subsidies and fees unrelated to delivering electricity.

Fiscal policy is another dividing line. Although Lamont frequently cites the state’s budget surpluses, rainy day fund and pension progress as among his administration’s biggest accomplishments, Fazio argues those successes stem largely from bipartisan fiscal guardrails adopted in 2017, before Lamont took office.

He contends the governor has weakened those guardrails by increasing spending and borrowing beyond their original intent. Fazio said he would strengthen spending and borrowing caps while slightly modifying the state’s volatility cap, which limits how much revenue from fluctuating sources such as capital gains taxes can be used to fund the state budget.

On the healthcare front, Fazio said he supports expanding association health plans for small businesses and reducing state approval requirements for healthcare expansions and new services, arguing greater competition would help lower costs.

He does not support the Connecticut Option plan being explored by Lamont, which could open state or municipal employee health plans to small businesses, nonprofits and potentially other residents.

Fazio also supports increasing housing production through smaller-scale development, including accessory dwelling units, duplexes, mixed-use projects and commercial-to-residential conversions, while maintaining greater local control over zoning.

He is critical of Connecticut’s affordable housing law, known as 8-30g, which can make it easier for developers to override local zoning restrictions in communities with relatively little affordable housing. He also opposes housing legislation approved during an emergency session last year that expanded the state’s role in pushing municipalities to increase housing production.

Fazio argues both approaches have created unnecessary conflict between municipalities and the state.

On workforce development, Fazio wants to expand vocational education, make it easier for licensed professionals to move into Connecticut, reduce occupational licensing fees and remove limits on apprenticeships.

“When I talk to people in the trades, small businesses, manufacturers, developers, they say that they need to build that pipeline of skilled workers,” he said.

For employers, Fazio advocates eliminating the state’s corporate tax surcharge, allowing full expensing of business capital investments and simplifying the tax code by reducing targeted exemptions and credits.

Common ground

Fazio wasn’t always considered the GOP front-runner. Former New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart had been a leading contender for the nomination before suspending her campaign in May, following the release of a city-commissioned investigation into her use of a municipal credit card for personal and political expenses.

Stewart endorsed Fazio as she exited the race, helping clear his path to the Republican nomination.

Even if he breaks the GOP’s two-decade gubernatorial drought, Fazio would likely have to pursue much of his agenda with a Democratic-controlled General Assembly.

He argues divided government could work to his advantage.

“I think that’s exactly what voters in Connecticut will want. I think they’ll want checks and balances, and I can deliver that,” he said, noting the governor chairs the state Bond Commission and has line-item veto power.

“I can work with people who are in other parties and who disagree with me, and focus on policy and find common ground,” he added. “We can get a lot done together, and that’s the type of governor I’ll be.”

Here’s what else Fazio had to say. The Q&A was edited for length and clarity.

Q: Why do you believe a Republican can win statewide in Connecticut?

A: I know how to win in districts that lean more Democrat — by building a coalition of moderate Democrats, unaffiliated voters and Republicans who all want to see affordability.

I want to appeal to everyone. I have been able to win my state Senate elections in a blue-leaning district by winning a large majority of unaffiliated voters and a good number of moderate Democrats, in addition to the vast majority of Republicans.

I think we can build a coalition across party lines for change in this state because most voters in Connecticut are not ideological and hyperpartisan. I think they’re practical, and they want to see a government that delivers.

Q: What is the biggest economic challenge facing Connecticut and what would be your top priority?

A: When you talk to employers, workers, anyone who is active in Connecticut’s economy, it’s the sky-high taxes and sky-high electric rates.

In the manufacturing and industrial sector, the electric rates are killers because employers can build the same widgets for half the energy costs in so many other states, and that’s not a sustainable paradigm for us to maintain our economic and industrial base.

At the same time, we have the third-highest taxes in the country, and it’s very difficult for workers or employers to justify staying here and investing here.

Q: How would you make Connecticut more competitive for business?

A: There are a lot of special exemptions and tax credits that go to one industry over another — I think those need to be reduced. If we do that, we can provide across-the-board tax relief that encourages the most economic growth, wage growth and job growth in this state.

There should be full expensing of capital investment. If you put $100 million into a factory, machinery or steel in the ground, we know you’ll have to hire people permanently and create good-paying jobs.

That is the most pro-growth tax reform imaginable. Almost every economist agrees with it.

Q: Employers continue to struggle to hire workers. What should Connecticut do?

A: We need to make the state affordable. That will bring qualified workers into the state first and foremost.

We also need to create a pipeline of workers here in the state. That means supporting the trades and vocational education to build a young workforce that can make things. It also entails allowing for more apprentices.

The state caps the number of apprenticeships at three full-time workers to one apprentice. That is destroying jobs and opportunities for young people who want to earn and work here in Connecticut.

We need to reduce the fees on licensing for skilled workers. … We should roll out the red carpet for them.

When someone who needs to work in a licensed trade is licensed in another state and wants to transfer that license to Connecticut, we should make it easier for them to do so.

Q: Finally, if a CEO says Connecticut is too expensive to do business in, what would you tell them?

A: This state has all the attributes to make it extraordinarily successful — it’s the most productive place in the entire country. We have smart people, the third-most educated workforce in the country. Natural beauty, a great location between Boston and New York, and strong communities.

The only thing we’re missing is the right economic policy to make it affordable to live here and invest here.