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The League of Women Voters of Westport and nine other Fairfield County leagues hosted the three candidates for Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District Monday night at the Westport Library. Incumbent Democrat Jim Himes, Republican Michael Goldstein, and Independent Party candidate Ben Wesley took the stage for a free-flowing discussion moderated by former national League of Women Voters president Kay Maxwell.
Himes opened by casually explaining his black eye. “For those of you in the front row, this black eye is the result of a beekeeping incident this morning, not of a Donnybrook amongst the candidates backstage.” The longtime congressman is a known hobbyist beekeeper, but the visual set a tone of carefully managed optics for the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, a classic establishment globalist who has spent nearly two decades in Washington.
Wesley, running as the Independent Party candidate, set the stage immediately by aligning himself with Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Quoting El-Sayed’s recent Fox News appearance about the “basic amount of firmament” needed for people to thrive (good schools, jobs, health, and roads), Wesley launched into a platform of ending what he called President Trump’s “disastrous war in Iran,” Medicare for All, free childcare, free family leave, a national rent freeze, a universal jobs program, a billionaire’s tax, and permanently closing U.S. bases destroyed in the Iran conflict to free up billions. He later admitted he is a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member and said the Democrat Party isn’t working.
This is hardly the voice of an independent. Wesley’s agenda tracks closely with progressive, democratic-socialist priorities—redirecting military spending into domestic social programs, treating foreign aid and overseas bases as the primary problem, and framing U.S. involvement abroad (including support related to Israel) in highly critical terms. He complained that Himes has done nothing on immigration in 18 years.
Wesley's choice of El-Sayed as an early reference is telling. El-Sayed has faced scrutiny after his half-sister, University of Chicago professor Eman Abdelhadi, posted in 2012–2013 that the family “has long been MB” (Muslim Brotherhood), that relatives were jailed for membership, and that their mother was active in the group during her college years in Egypt in the 1970s. Their mother also had documented involvement with an organization later sanctioned for ties to al-Qaeda funding. El-Sayed has denied personal or family ties, stating he was not raised by his mother and calling the posts hearsay, but the public record from his own relative remains part of the conversation.
Himes, true to form as the globalist, Indivisible-aligned incumbent, largely agreed with the premise that Trump’s actions on Iran are “illegal,” unconstitutional, and the main driver of higher gas and diesel prices (claiming $1.25 more per gallon), while defending past Democrat diplomacy such as the Obama-era Iran deal. He acknowledged the Iranian regime’s threat but argued the current conflict will push Tehran toward a nuclear weapon. On climate, he called it “insane” that not everyone accepts climate change as settled science and pushed acceptance of a renewables future that includes wildlife-killing windmills. He criticized Trump’s moves against Revolution Wind while supporting nuclear alongside wind and solar.
On immigration, Himes said “shame on the Biden administration” for open borders, claimed he would come down on employers who illegally hire undocumented workers, and then supported a form of amnesty: a legitimate spot in line (not ahead of those who applied legally) for the “95%” of illegals who “mow your lawns... build your houses... serve your restaurants and... nursing homes.” He criticized ICE enforcement as “hideous violence,” called for more immigrants overall (citing economic needs and Social Security), and framed due process for illegals as non-negotiable while faulting Republicans for blocking earlier bipartisan reform.
On the national debt, Himes again called for higher taxes on “the very wealthiest Americans,” pointing to the old Simpson-Bowles plan and arguing that the step-up in basis on inherited stocks should be eliminated so heirs pay capital gains taxes on assets they never sold. He illustrated the point with his own mother’s stocks and made clear he wants more revenue extracted from the top end—even while Connecticut families already face some of the highest state and local tax burdens in the country.
Goldstein, the CT GOP-endorsed Republican, stuck to concrete, district-level concerns and pushed back hard. He stated plainly that “communism doesn’t work. Socialism doesn’t work.” On affordability he highlighted healthcare costs that have roughly doubled since the Affordable Care Act, proposed “Know Before You Go” transparency so students know employment outcomes before taking on debt, and pointed to Connecticut’s high energy prices tied to blocked natural gas pipelines into New York—fixable via federal law or Supreme Court action.
On the shoreline and Long Island Sound, Goldstein emphasized runoff, sewage from overdevelopment, wetlands protection, and environmentally sensitive planning rather than purely "climate change"-driven framing. On Social Security he noted the trust fund’s low returns under government investment versus what a standard pension portfolio might have earned. On healthcare he focused on excessive regulation, loss of competition, the need for patient empowerment through larger purchasing groups or mutual structures, preventive care, and faster drug approvals—while acknowledging Trump’s most-favored-nation approach on pricing. He advocated practical border security with visas for working non-criminals and stressed waste, fraud, and abuse plus reduced overseas spending as paths to debt control.
The contrast sharpened on democracy and foreign policy narratives. Himes invoked January 6 yet again, suggested Trump’s famous “fight fight fight” was about J6 (it wasn't), and went off on protecting democracy. He called the Comey indictment over “seashells in the sand” (related to the 86-47 call) a threat to democracy, said Ilhan Omar is not a threat, and repeated the familiar claim that Trump won’t accept the midterm results, that Democrats are going to shellack him, and that Trump has somehow undermined the news.
Himes further declared democracy is at risk under Trump and received substantial applause for that comment. On the French protests in Paris, Himes said Trump was wrong about who was behind the destruction. Reporting from Fox News, Just the News, and others, however, has detailed how Neville Roy Singham’s network—the Shanghai-based Marxist tech tycoon who has poured hundreds of millions into U.S. far-left, pro-China, and anti-Trump groups including the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the People’s Forum, and CodePink—has amplified and is linked to the same “red-green” ecosystem driving unrest in France and anti-Trump activism in the United States.
Voters in CT-04 face a clear choice on November 3. Himes represents continuity of long-term Washington globalism, climate change orthodoxy, open-borders-adjacent immigration policies, and repeated claims that Trump endangers democracy. Wesley offers a left-wing alternative that echoes progressive and DSA demands, draws on figures with documented family associations that raise legitimate questions about ideology and national security priorities, and admits he is a DSA member. Goldstein presents a conventional conservative focus on lowering everyday costs through competition, energy realism, border enforcement, fiscal restraint, and the straightforward observation that socialism and communism do not work. Choose wisely.
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