The 2024 election is over and the numbers in Bridgeport tell a fascinating story. 

In 2020, Bridgeport had a record voter turnout, higher than it was even in 2008. With 55,551 votes cast, we hit a 72% turnout rate and ranked the highest among Connecticut’s cities. During the previous three presidential election cycles, our turnout averaged 56% percent. But 2020 appears to be an anomaly. This year, our turnout rate was back hovering around where it had been at 52%. 

Some folks want to make Bridgeport’s election results a story about how Trump picked up support. But from 2020 to 2024, he gained only 1,438 votes. While it’s nothing to ignore – and local Democrats are right to analyze where in the city Trump’s increasing support is coming from – it certainly doesn’t represent a massive swing towards the national Republican Party’s far-right agenda.

17,000 less Voters

The figure that should make our local and state Democratic Party and progressives statewide pay attention, however, is that in Bridgeport, votes for the Harris/Walz ticket were down 24% from 2020. Over 17,000 people in Bridgeport simply did not vote this year compared with 2020, which resulted in over 6,500 votes less for Vice-President Harris than President Biden received.

This decrease was seen in neighborhoods across the city. The only voting precinct to experience an increase in votes for Harris over Biden was at Geraldine Claytor, which was up 4%. Black Rock School and City Hall had the lowest decreases, dropping 6% and 8% respectively. In the rest of the city, from the East Side, to the East End, to the North End, precincts saw a 20-40% decrease. 

This trend was also evident in Hartford where votes for Harris decreased 27% from Biden’s. And in New Haven, where it was down 16%. Interestingly, in the whiter, wealthier suburbs directly adjacent to these cities, there was not as dramatic and precipitous drop in support. In Fairfield, votes for Harris were down by 6%. In Hamden, it was just 7% and in West Hartford, it was only a 4% decrease. And total voter turnout in Fairfield was essentially the same between 2020 and 2024. 

Why was the drop off among Democratic voters, and voters period, so much greater in our cities than in our neighboring towns? 

One simple explanation could be that in 2020, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, then Secretary of State Denise Merrill mailed every registered voter the application for an absentee ballot in English and Spanish, with an accompanying letter explaining the process. This simple act proved that a non-partisan, vote-by-mail system that directly educates and provides voters with everything they need to cast their ballots dramatically increases voter turnout in our cities. With the number of unaffiliated voters in Bridgeport growing larger every year since 2016, (this year it’s over 23,000 voters) mailing ballot information regardless of political party led to a dramatic increase in participation in our elections.

Unfortunately, expanding access to the ballot continues to be a partisan issue among lawmakers, with Republicans in our state legislature opposing reforms that increase voter participation. Perhaps these numbers show why they are so afraid. Now that the absentee voting ballot referendum passed with overwhelming support, these numbers also show that Democrats have a moral obligation to create a similar vote-by-mail system during the 2025 legislative session. 

But that’s not the full story for Bridgeport

Harris’s vote totals were the lowest of any presidential candidate in Bridgeport since 2004, when Kerry received 26,000 votes and Bush received over 10,000. 

Our local Democratic Party, which is marred by scandal, distrust, and corruption, bears some of the responsibility for Bridgeport’s low voter turnout. None of the candidates running in our local delegation, save Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox, had any real opposition. Did they knock doors in their districts for Harris? Did they reach out directly to their base to generate enthusiasm and support? What work did Mario Testa, Chair of the local Dems put in? How about Mayor Joe Ganim? What did the ten District Leaders on the Democratic Town Committee do? These are the leaders of our local Democratic Party and during this election cycle, it was crickets for the Harris/Walz ticket. 

But we shouldn’t be surprised. It’s common knowledge in political circles that many Bridgeport Democrats currently in leadership are simply conservatives in disguise, using their seats of power for personal gain. These are the same leaders who have defunded education, blocked affordable housing, failed to grow our local economy, stalled on police accountability, and stolen elections while simultaneously breaking rules to enrich themselves through flipping real estate and avoiding taxes. Perhaps the deep-seeded corruption, racism and misogyny that flows through our local party translated into lack of support for Vice-President Kamala Harris.  

Leadership Matters

We desperately need new leadership in Bridgeport. Many of us don’t have the luxury of waiting around for Ganim and Testa’s house of cards to collapse while Trump enacts his fascist agenda of implementing mass deportations, persecuting women’s bodily autonomy, destroying environmental protections, dismantling public education, cutting taxes for the rich and more. We need strong, progressive leadership now who will stand up against the Trump administration and protect Bridgeport’s Black and Latino women, families, and workers. Next year is a City Council and Board of Education election year. We’ll be looking for candidates who are ready to support The People’s Platform and want to work on the agenda once in office. 

In the meantime, it should be Bridgeport’s delegation – Representatives Christopher Rosario, Andre Baker, Fred Gee, Steve Stafstrom, Cristin McCarthy Vahey, Marcus Brown, Antonio Felipe and Senators Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox and Herron Gaston – who are the loudest voices up in Hartford calling for a new vote-by-mail system that mirrors what we saw in 2020. 

Bridgeport voters deserve nothing less.