Republican Leora Levy outlined her path to defeating her opponent, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), in the race for U.S. Senate in Connecticut, telling Breitbart News Saturday that Blumenthal’s “do-nothing” record and her “broad-based coalition” of support could carry her to a win in the deeply blue New England state.
Levy, a Cuban American businesswoman, first pointed to Blumenthal’s lack of successful legislative initiatives, as well as past controversies the Connecticut Democrat has been swept up in, as reasons Connecticut voters would want to unseat him.
“My opponent, Dick Blumenthal, has been a career politician 37 years in office,” Levy said. “He is known for three things primarily in my state: his stolen valor, his going to Communist Party events, and don’t ever get between him and a camera. When you ask people, ‘What has he done for the state of Connecticut?’ they cannot name even one thing. In 12 years of the Senate, he’s only had one piece of legislation pass that he wrote and sponsored, so that is the definition of a do-nothing politician.”
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Blumenthal, 76, has repeatedly been accused by critics, including Levy, of “stolen valor.” The Connecticut Democrat spent six years in the Marine Corps Reserves in the United States but indicated on numerous occasions prior to joining the Senate in 2011 that he had served in Vietnam.
Blumenthal later apologized to the Hartford Courant over the discovery of his occasional dishonest remarks about his service, saying he regretted his imprecision in those moments.
Levy, whose life story begins with escaping Communist Cuba with her family as a child, also referenced Blumenthal attending a ceremony in 2021 hosted by an affiliate of the Communist Party, as well as ethics complaints that Blumenthal, who is one of the wealthiest members of Congress, has faced for his stock trades.
Aside from those incidents, “he’s on the wrong side of every issue,” Levy said.
“Whether it’s the economy and inflation, whether it’s the rising crime and the invasion at our border, those are the issues that really matter to voters. Also parental rights and the indoctrination of our children. He is on the wrong side. … He supported every single failed policy that has created the inflation,” she continued, noting Blumenthal has voted with President Joe Biden’s agenda 98 percent of the time, a statistic confirmed by a FiveThirtyEight analysis indicates.
Blumenthal, although a clear frontrunner at this stage of the race, came up short of 50 percent in the most recent Connecticut Senate poll, a sign of struggle for an incumbent who has been in office for a decade.
The poll, taken this month by Emerson College Polling, found Blumenthal dipped three points to 49 percent, while Levy received 36 percent and 11 percent said they were undecided. Levy led Blumenthal with independent voters, 42 percent to 31 percent.
“He is just out of touch, and that’s why my message is resonating,” Levy said. “I’m leading with independents. I’m going to win the Hispanics. I am Cuban. I escaped communism as a child with my family. We came here with nothing. So I am building a very broad-based coalition. Everywhere I go, people come up to me saying, ‘I’m Hispanic. I’m a Democrat. I’m an independent. But I like what you’re saying. I’m going to vote for you.’”
Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.