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0:00 Speaker 1 What is today is Connecticut. GOP leader and chairman Ben Proto, tell us what’s going on in Connecticut. Give us the feeling of which way people are going. I mean, there’s so many problems in our cities, our states, our countries.

0:14 We figured let’s go up to Connecticut and find out what’s going on there.

0:18 Speaker 2 Well, first, I think, as we’re mentioned off the air, we’re still going to have our wood fire and coal fire pizza here in Connecticut. So all you folks in New York down in New Haven and can get your puppies and Sally’s and modern pizza because years might be going away in New York. But overall, I think the

0:33 feeling in Connecticut is not much different than what we’re seeing across the country. I think people are very very concerned about the economy, They’re very concerned about their jobs, They’re worried about their retirement. We’re seeing more and more parents become concerned about what’s going on in their children’s classrooms.

0:50 And as a result, I think, you know, Connecticut is not all that different than what we’re seeing around the country. And I think that’s going to come out to play in elections. Is here in Connecticut. This year, we have our municipal elections, so we’ll be voting for mayors and first elections, and Board of Educations and Board of Finance

1:08 and you know, planning and zoning commissions, things along those lines. Those are all our elections this year, and Republicans do well in those elections. We control one hundred and twenty some odd towns out of one hundred and sixty nine pounds in Connecticut, and I think we’ll increase those numbers this year. So I’m excited about where the Republican Party is.

1:28 But for the you know the question, I think people in Connecticut are concerned. They’re worried. They’re scared about where they’re going and where this country is going, and whether they’re going to wake up tomorrow morning and have a job.

1:43 You know, John, when you see ESPN laying off twenty multi millionaire sportscasters because they’re trying to control costs, I think that sends a messages to where the economy’s at.

1:56 Speaker 1 I think right now in New York City where I live, we’re living under the law of the jungle. The strongest survive, and people are still scared. I spoke to the governor a couple of days ago, and I told her, the people are still scared to go into subways. You’re still scared to go out at night. We used to have

2:14 a supermarkets open to midnight because people would walk around at ten, eleven and twelve o’clock at night, and they don’t do that anymore. How is the crime problem in Connecticut?

2:26 Speaker 2 You know, we’re seeing, you know, more shootings in our cities. You know, just a few weeks ago, as you know, the President was here in Connecticut at the University of Hartford on a gun violence conference, and I put out a press release. I found it interesting that the President and Chris Murphy and Dick Blumenthal were at the University

2:46 of Hartford on the West Hertford side of the campus, where if they had just gone to the other side of the campus, they would have been in one of those violent neighborhoods in the state of Connecticut where children are being shot, boys and girls are being shot, and drive by shootings. We’re seeing more and more shootings there.

3:03 They would have been better off standing on the street corner talking to the moms who who are afraid to let their kids go outside and play so they might get shot. We’re seeing that we’re you know, we’re seeing again the increase in you know, auto crimes as we are across the country and we’re seeing you know, I think,

3:21 a complete lack of respect for you know, each other, you know, here as we are I think across the country, where people are very much more concerned I think about protecting themselves understandably, and as a result, I think people are quicker to anger. And when you become quicker to anger, you tend to be quicker to violence in particular. So

3:46 it’s an issue that we’re going to have to deal with here in Connecticut, and I think we’re going to deal with across the country.

3:51 Speaker 1 And give us the pulitan. Anybody talking about the presidential elections yet in Connecticut.

3:57 Speaker 2 A little bit, you know, we’re we’re a very late primary. We tried to move our primary up this year. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get the bill through the state Senate. So we’re at the end of April. But you’re beginning to see people who are you interested in various candidates.

4:14 We had Nicki Haley who was our speaker at our annual bush dinner at the end of May. She did a great job for us, was very well received, very well liked. You know, we’ve had some conversations with Senator Scott coming up to Connecticut. Vivek Ramswami was here in Greenwich a couple of weeks ago for an event in Greenwich.

4:35 So we’re beginning to see more presidential candidates come to Connecticut. I had, you know, we had dinner with I had dinner with Governor Hutchinson about a year ago when he was here visiting on some business for Arkansas at the time.

4:51 But we had a conversation about the presidency in twenty twenty four. So we’re seeing more people become more interested in various candidates. Obviously, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis have a lot of followers here in Connecticut, so I think it’s going to be an interesting primary season as we move forward. We’re still hopeful that we might get a

5:11 special session from the Legislature to be able to move our primary up and make Connecticut a bit more relevant in the presidential primary.

5:19 Speaker 1 Did you win or lose any congressional seats during the last redistrict day?

5:24 Speaker 2 We did not. We had five going in We still have five. We ran a very very close congressional race in CD five with George Logan against Congresswoman Johanna Hayes. George Logan unfortunately came up short by literally zero point seven percent. It was about nineteen hundred total votes out of almost just under three hundred thousand that were cast

5:48 in that district. And I think we’re in a very good place coming into twenty twenty four to be able to take that seat back in twenty twenty four, and I think to be very competitive and at least congressional of the second Congressional district in eastern Connecticut.

6:03 Speaker 1 We got a minute left. Anything else you want to tell the American people.

6:08 Speaker 2 Just coming out off the fourth of July holiday, John and And I’m a big believer in America. I know like you are. I believe in our country. I’m sitting here, you know, looking out my window over Main Street in Middletown, Connecticut, and and every you know LFE post has an American flag flying from it. Believe in America. Believe in the

6:26 greatness of America. Believe that you know, if you work hard, if you believe in yourself, if you believe in your country and your family, you know you can make things happen here. I truly believe that you know America is still the greatest country in the world. I know there are people who are going to disagree with me in that,

6:43 and I tell you you’re wrong. I do believe that. You know, we have, we had far more to offer in this country to anyone who wants to work hard and get there. So believe in our country, Believe in America. Believe in our government. It does work, and let’s go out and sometimes you got to change the government to make it

7:00 work better. And that’s what we have to do in twenty twenty fourth. We’ve got to change the government. We’ve got to change who’s running the government and running our society, and that’ll get us back on track.

7:11 Speaker 1 Well, thank you, Ben Proto, GOP Chairman of Connecticut. Thank you for your pulse on what’s going on, and we’ll catch up with you again real soon.

7:19 Speaker 2 Look forward to talking to you soon. John, thank you very much for having me on the show.