GOP Debates Are Uniting The Party

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Last Thursday evening at Stadium XV in Farmington, something refreshing happened in Connecticut Republican politics. Alongside Morgan Cunningham and Brian Shactman, I moderated the first “11th Commandment Republican Gubernatorial Debate.” State Senator Ryan Fazio and former New York Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey squared off for ninety minutes of substantive, civil discussion on taxes, energy costs, housing, pension debt, corruption in state government, infrastructure, and parental rights. They honored Ronald Reagan’s famous rule: Republicans should not speak ill of fellow Republicans. Attacks were saved for Governor Ned Lamont and the Democratic record. The event was broadcast live on WTIC, streamed, and covered across local outlets. It was the first in a planned series.

Erin Stewart, the presumptive frontrunner and former New Britain mayor, declined to participate. That absence was the elephant in the room, but it did not stop the process from delivering real value. Voters who showed up, listened on radio, or caught clips online got exactly what they deserve: an unfiltered, close-up look under the hood of each campaign. They heard detailed positions. They saw how candidates think on their feet. They felt respected.

This is not how it usually works. For too long in Connecticut GOP circles, the process has felt preordained. Party operatives, insiders, and delegate math picked the nominee early. Voters were presented with a fait accompli and told to fall in line. Enthusiasm drained away. People stayed home. The numbers tell the story plainly. In the 2014 Republican primary, turnout statewide was just 21 percent—the lowest since 1986, with only 82,847 ballots cast out of roughly 398,000 active registered Republicans. In 2022 it was again around 21 percent. The 2024 primary saw another noticeable slump, the lowest point in a decade according to multiple analyses. These are not the numbers of an energized base. They are the numbers of a party that has repeatedly made its own voters feel like spectators rather than stakeholders.

Low primary turnout does not stay in the primary. It carries into November. A demoralized base does not knock on doors, does not drive neighbors to the polls, and does not overcome the structural disadvantages Republicans face in deep-blue Connecticut. The closed process does not just suppress numbers; it suppresses ownership. When voters believe the decision was made in a back room, they have little reason to invest their time or passion.

The WTIC debate and the series that will follow change that dynamic. Candidates are now forced into the news cycle on substantive terms. Clips circulate. Policy contrasts sharpen. People who would never attend a fundraiser or read a campaign white paper hear Fazio’s case for eliminating the public benefits charge or McCaughey’s blunt assessment of renewable energy mandates driving up electric bills. The exposure reaches unaffiliated voters—the real swing bloc in Connecticut—and even casual listeners who land on 1080 AM. That is how you build a coalition, not by assuming the base will magically appear on Election Day.

Democrats have already started responding. Coverage of the debate prompted immediate pushback from Lamont allies and Democratic surrogates who attempted to dismiss the policy critiques as unrealistic while defending the status quo on taxes and spending. The very fact that they felt compelled to engage shows the debates are working. Closed-door anointing lets Democrats ignore us. Open debate forces them to answer.

The elephant remains Erin Stewart’s strategic choice to sit out. Securing the party endorsement at the May convention through delegate outreach is a legitimate and often smart play. Conventions exist for a reason: they allow the party to coalesce around a standard-bearer. But that strategy carries real risk when it sidelines the broader electorate before the primary. Voters notice when the frontrunner treats the convention as the only game in town. They feel the message: your voice matters less than the delegate count. That perception is poison for turnout. It echoes the very insiderism that has kept Republican enthusiasm anemic for years.

Yes, there is a formal process. The convention is coming. Delegates will meet, and if no candidate clears the threshold or if a challenger meets the 15 percent bar, there will be an August primary. Some will say, “See? The system works.” But look around. Connecticut Republicans are hungry for more than procedural correctness. They want to be instrumental. They want to evaluate the candidates themselves, not have the choice pre-digested. The convention is a checkpoint, not the finish line. Keeping voters in the loop through continued debates, town halls, and direct engagement does not weaken the party—it strengthens it. Engaged voters become volunteers. Volunteers become the ground game that actually wins.

Fazio put it well during the debate: debates test whether a candidate can stand on a stage with Lamont or handle press conferences day after day. That test matters. It matters for the nominee who will carry the banner, and it matters for the rank-and-file who need to believe that banner is worth carrying. The 11th Commandment framework proved its worth last week. Civility did not mean blandness. It meant focus—on issues, on records, on the failures of one-party Democratic rule in Hartford. That is the model for unity that actually endures.

Steve Allen once observed, “This could be the start of something big.” He was right in ways he probably never imagined for Connecticut politics. These debates are not a sideshow. They are the antidote to the cynicism that has plagued our party for too long. They give voters agency. They expose candidates to scrutiny they cannot avoid. They generate earned media that cuts through the noise. They prompt Democrats to defend a record that grows more indefensible by the session—skyrocketing energy costs, endless tax hikes, pension obligations that crowd out everything else, and a legislative process that too often bypasses public input.

If we keep the voters in the conversation—if we treat them as partners rather than afterthoughts—the payoff will be visible in August and November. Higher primary turnout. A nominee tested and battle-ready. A base that feels ownership instead of obligation. Neighbors driving neighbors to the polls. Doors knocked, signs planted, enthusiasm sustained.

The alternative is the status quo that has delivered repeated disappointment: low-information voters, suppressed participation, and a general election in which Republicans start from a deficit of energy before the first ballot is cast. That is not a winning formula. It is a recipe for more of the same.

The debates are not dividing us. They are giving us the tools to unite around the strongest possible message and messenger. Erin Stewart remains a formidable presence even from the sidelines; her record as mayor and her fundraising strength are real assets. But the process works best when every candidate who wants the nomination earns it in public, not just behind closed doors. The series ahead offers that opportunity.

Connecticut Republicans have waited long enough for a process that respects them. The WTIC debate showed what is possible when we deliver it. Now we must keep delivering. With all hands-on deck—candidates willing to debate, moderators committed to fairness, and voters finally given a real seat at the table—we can turn this into the start of something genuinely big: a Republican Party in Connecticut that wins because its base believes it is worth winning for.

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