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Connecticut Democrats have launched a coordinated campaign against Will Gifford, the 21-year-old UConn journalism student and Republican nominee for the 8th House District, demanding his withdrawal to hand their own candidate a free pass to the open seat.

The attack centers on a 2025 interview Gifford conducted as a student at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference. Democrat leaders raised their objections during the High Holidays, turning a year-old clip into a fundraising and campaign weapon while ignoring the issues actually facing voters in the district, including those in Columbia, Coventry, Lebanon and Tolland.

Gifford, the president of UConn’s Turning Point USA chapter, recorded the interview with Joshua Haymes, host of the Reformation Red Pill podcast. An audience member submitted the question Gifford asked: whether it is antisemitic not to like someone because they are Jewish “and what the Jewish religion says against white Christian men.”

Haymes replied that he is called to love individuals but that Judaism is “evil” because it rejects Christ. Gifford nodded and said “yes” as an interviewer, keeping the conversation going. He posted the clip around Christmas with a Matthew 5:44 quotation about loving one’s enemies. He later added a disclaimer that he conducted the interview as a journalism student, let Haymes speak so his own words would reveal his views, and completely rejects what Haymes said about Jewish people as hateful and false.

Gifford told the Hartford Courant and others, including the Centinal, that his job as a journalist-in-training was to report what people say, not to correct them on the spot. Nodding signaled he was listening, not agreeing. He asked the same question many would pose of any reporter: If he landed an exclusive with a terrorist or a politician he opposed, would that make him a terrorist or a supporter? Gifford rejects antisemitism in every form and will not withdraw or apologize for conducting the interview.

House Speaker Matt Ritter called the clip “chummy,” said Gifford had an obligation to interrupt and correct the speaker, and declared such people “not ready” to represent Connecticut. Ritter found it “surreal” to discuss the matter on Yom Kippur. Governor Ned Lamont’s office issued a statement that anyone who “broadcasts or shares this hateful ideology shouldn’t be in public service.”

The Connecticut Democrat Party piled on, calling Gifford’s Instagram a “one-stop shop for platforming hate.” Majority Leader Jason Rojas released a formal statement labeling the question itself antisemitic and asserting that such a question "disqualifies him from serving" in the General Assembly.

Critics asked whether any Connecticut Democrats had publicly condemned antisemitic remarks by Abdul El-Sayed — the same candidate Sen. Chris Murphy described as “a really good candidate.” While the lack of a public statement does not rule out private criticism, no denunciations from Connecticut Democrats have surfaced in news coverage or official channels.

The loudest voice has not been Gifford’s actual opponent. State Rep. Geoff Luxenberg of Manchester, who does not represent the 8th District, has led the charge on social media. He labeled Gifford an “antisemitic bigot,” tied the interview to additional clips he called racist and Islamophobic, and demanded Republicans force Gifford out. Luxenberg pledged $5,000 to House Democratic leadership PACs, weaponizing the outrage to solicit donations to “beat this guy and others like him.” He posted donation links and urged supporters not to be “outraged without donating.”

Luxenberg’s moral lecture comes from a lawmaker with his own record. In November 2023 he was arrested in Willimantic after officers observed him swerving, detected the odor of alcohol, and reported that he failed field sobriety tests and declined a breath test. House leadership stripped him of committee and leadership assignments at the time, calling it a “serious lapse in judgment.” He later claimed an independent review found problems with the police report and that his license was restored.

House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, who endorsed Gifford, rejected the smear. He said that if Gifford had “an ounce of antisemitism in his blood” Republicans would call it out. Instead, Democrats were turning a student’s interview into a fundraising opportunity. State GOP Chairman Ben Proto pointed out that Ritter might better spend his energy on electric rates, insurance costs, property taxes and housing rather than a journalism student’s question. Retiring 8th District Rep. Tim Ackert, who endorsed Gifford as his successor, has not withdrawn that support.

Meanwhile, the Democrat nominee for the 8th House District, Francis Lombard, is endorsed by the Working Families Party. That party has received millions from George Soros’ Open Society network through its nonprofit arm. The Centinal has previously documented how the WFP screens candidates on issues such as non-citizen voting and expanding benefits, like "guaranteed healthcare for all." Democrats want voters to treat a college student’s interview as disqualifying while advancing a candidate backed by an explicitly left-wing, globalist-funded third party.

Gifford's campaign has focused on the problems people in the Quiet Corner actually raise: soaring property taxes, zoning restrictions, and unfunded mandates. He notes that casino slot revenue was originally intended to benefit towns and education. Municipal advocates have long complained that the state now sends only a fraction—recent figures show roughly 14 percent of slot revenue—to the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Fund for cities and towns, with the rest absorbed into the General Fund. Gifford argues restoring that money to municipalities would ease the property-tax burden that hits retirees especially hard after their mortgages are paid. Those policy questions received far less attention from Democrat leaders than Gifford's 2025 interview clip.

Gifford has said he never set out to be a politician. He came to realize, however, that nothing changes unless someone is willing to try. Voters in the 8th District should be the ones who decide who is most qualified for the seat. Whether a Republican candidate is qualified should never be determined by the Democrat supermajority.

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