by PAUL BASS The new haven independent
Michael Massey will get his chance to take on U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro in November, now that he has won the Republican Party’s endorsement against an opponent who is not planning a primary.
GOP delegates voted 95 — 55 to endorse Massey for the 3rd U.S. Congressional seat at a convention held at Milford City Hall Monday night. The district includes New Haven and its suburbs.
Democrats at a separate convention last week endorsed DeLauro’s reelection campaign. She has held the seat since 1991, rising to the top Democratic position on the House Appropriations Committee and championing the child tax credit.
Massey defeated Stratford businessman Rafael Irizarry. Irizarry told the Independent Tuesday he will support Massey rather than wage a primary campaign.
“If I run a primary, probably I win the seat, no doubt about it. But I don’t want to divide the party. I’m here to help the party and bring the Latinos to the Republican party to make sure we take Rosa out of there,” Irizarry said.
“I want to get straight to work,” Massey, a 44-year-old New Haven native who co-owns the Black Corner Store on Edgewood Avenue, said Tuesday. He said he plans to hold his first big campaign event in New Haven. “I need as many traditional Republicans to come out and meet the people. Growing up, I never met a Republican. We have to change that. We have to show them that Republicans support our neighborhoods. We have to be there.”
In a recent interview on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven,” Massey said he had a political awakening in prison when he watched a speech by then-President Donald Trump and started reading up on him. He’s running as an “urban Republican” seeking to advance alternatives to traditional Democratic approaches to city policy, including allowing private companies to pay inmates $5 an hour to do work within prisons and wiping out restrictions on how food stamp recipients can use cash from EBT (electronic benefits transfer) cards.
