Political outsider Bob Stefanowski scored a glowing endorsement from President Donald Trump Wednesday morning after winning Tuesday’s Republican primary election.
Stefanowski, who won the GOP primary after slighting the party’s establishment, casted himself Tuesday night as a Trump supporter even though he did not vote for him or Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
In his typical morning airing on Twitter, Trump endorsed Stefanowski tweeting “It is about time that Connecticut had a real and talented Governor.”
Trump, who slammed Gov. Dannel P. Malloy for losing General Electric to Boston during his 2016 campaign visit in Hartford, said Stefanowski is “Tough on crime” and a “big cutter of taxes.”
“He will win in November and make a great governor, a major difference maker,” Trump said on Twitter. “Bob has my total endorsement!”
Ned Lamont, the Greenwich businessman who scored an easy win in Tuesday’s Democratic gubernatorial primary vs. Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, was quick to reply to the president’s tweet calling his opponent “Bob Trumpanowski.”
Stefanowski shot back minutes later calling Lamont “Ned Malloy.”
Stefanowski’s campaign could not be immediately reached Wednesday regarding Trump’s endorsement.
Stefanowski, the former chief financial officer of UBS Investment Bank, has invited Trump to campaign in Connecticut and said the state needs more of his policies.
The Republican nominee was defiant during his gubernatorial campaign, disregarding Republican debates earlier this year, opting out of the state’s public-financing program and pledging to “rip costs” from state government and eliminate the state’s 1991-enacted income tax over eight years.
A CT Mirror report contributed to this story