For those who follow local politics, it seems campaign ‘silly season,’ once limited to the last few weeks before an election, has become endless.
Time flies, and in just nine months the US Presidential election will also mean Greenwich voters get to select their representatives to the Connecticut General Assembly’s two bodies: the Senate and House of Representatives.
While Greenwich Republicans have been embroiled in their RTC primaries, the Democrats have been keeping an eye on a different fight.
Nick Simmons, a Greenwich native and former Deputy Chief of Staff to Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, is convinced that now is the time to run for the State Senate seat in the 36th district. The seat is currently occupied by Republican Ryan Fazio, who is also a Greenwich native, and at 33, just a year younger than Simmons, who turns 35 in May.
The 36th district includes Greenwich and parts of Stamford and New Canaan.
Simmons and his wife Rachel live just over the Greenwich line in Stamford with their newborn, but Simmons still considers Greenwich home, waxing nostalgic about playing football for the Glenville Mavericks and eating at Chicken Joe’s afterward. In fact, his parents still live in the same house they bought 40 years ago and two of his three sisters live or work back in Greenwich.
Nick Simmons with wife Rachel, baby boy and dog. Feb 29, 2024 Photo: Leslie Yager
As he talked about his reasons for running for office, it’s clear he sees challenges through a parent’s lens.
“We have to fight right now to secure the kind of future we want for our children and our town,” he said. “We’re in a fight.”
Simmons, who recently left his post in the Lamont administration in Hartford after three years, is focusing his attention full time to his campaign.
Democrat Trevor Crow who ran for the office in 2022 has also thrown her hat in the ring for another chance to defeat incumbent Senator Fazio, who bested her in 2022 by just 89 votes after a recount.
While Crow came close to winning, her results lagged significantly behind other Democrats in the District – Governor Ned Lamont won the District by roughly 20%, and Democratic State Representatives Steve Meskers, Hector Arzeno and Rachel Khanna won their seats by 17%, 7% and 2% respectively, in an election where Democrats across Southwest Connecticut performed better than what was expected for the first midterm of a newly elected President.
And, of course it wasn’t long ago that the 36th district State Senate seat had flipped to a Democrat with Alex Kasser (Bergstein at the time) defeating Republican Scott Frantz. At the time it had been a century, with the exception of brief blip during the Depression, since the office was held by a Republican.
“It’s winnable,” Simmons said.
Soon, Democratic electors will pledge for either Simmons or Crow. And, when one is endorsed, other will have the option to initiate a primary.
“Experience matters,” Simmons said. “I have a Masters in Public Policy and I’ve worked at the most senior state level on all these issues. I have a track record.”
Noting that until recently, Greenwich had been a Republican bastion, Simmons said the town was transforming, and seeing the delegation go “all blue” would give Greenwich leverage in Hartford.
“The reason the town is flipping is people are seeing that our Democratic State Representatives are more interested in solving problems than trying to score political points,” he said. “This town is more interested in getting things done.”
Simmons said he would like to better represent the community’s values on gun safety, women’s reproductive rights, and climate change, but that gun safety was especially personal for him.
“I was in the classroom the day the Sandy Hook mass shooting happened. I was teaching. The principal took me aside and said there could be a copy-cat event. So I had to take the time to plan out exactly where in the classroom I would stand to take a bullet for the kids and where I would have them hide to maximize the chances of them surviving.”
A key feature of his platform is the promise of securing more funding for the 36th District’s schools, highways, train stations, parks and beaches.
Nick Simmons at home in Stamford. Feb 29, 2024 Photo: Leslie Yager
“When I was growing up in Greenwich, it was a no-brainer to invest in our public schools and infrastructure,” he said.
“I look around and see schools that have been in need of rebuilding for decades, I see I-95 exits 2-15 as the most congested highway corridor in the country, I see train stations and a train corridor that need to be upgraded much more quickly and have reliable WiFi. I see homes, beaches and parks on our coastline at significant risk of flooding over the next 20 years. Most people in our town just want their leaders in Hartford to fix these problems, keep their taxes low, and grow the economy. I have spent my entire career in Harlem, Washington, and Hartford as a problem-solver, and believe that in the State Senate I can help solve these problems for our town.”
Simmons said when he was growing up his father was a moderate Republican and his mother a liberal Democrat who didn’t see eye to eye on everything. But, he said Republicans were concerned with solving problems in the community as opposed to what he described as crazy tribal partisanship.
“When I think about my son’s future I want him to have that same amazing experience I had,” he added. “The Republicans would rather talk about curriculum fights or devoting their energy to vote against gun safety bills than to fix our schools for kids, and really lobby the state to get the money to do it.”
One of five children, Simmons said had drawn inspiration from his sister Caroline, the Mayor of the City of Stamford, whose hard work on the campaign trail had made an impact on him.
In 2014 and 2016 he knocked on hundreds of doors for his sister’s State Representative campaigns in the 144th District in Stamford.
“Caroline is the only other person in my family to have run for office,” he said. ” Watching and helping out with her campaigns and seeing her serve in office has been a helpful learning experience.”
“That showed me there’s no substitute for hard work, and hearing directly from constituents what are the biggest issues in their lives,” he said.
He noted that back in 2014, his sister was the only Democratic State Representative to beat an incumbent Republican in Connecticut, and he said, showing up day after day demonstrated to people that she really cared.
“I think that made a huge impact. I learned that people are looking for leaders who actually care about solving their problems, and can actually move the needle for them and just make their lives better.”
“Caroline has also been an incredible mother to her three sons while also being an incredible change agent and leader for the community,” he continued. “I learned from Caroline how to balance your time and be a great parent while also leading and helping solve problems for the community.”
Simmons said he was also proud to have worked in 2021 as a Senior Advisor in the Biden administration, helping to oversee school reopening across the country during the pandemic and ensuring over $190 billion dollars of federal education aid was steered to properly address learning loss, teacher shortages, and the national student mental health crisis.
He began his career as a 7th grade math teacher of a middle school for mostly low-income families in Harlem, ultimately becoming one of the youngest acting principals in the State of New York at 26 years old.
Simmons said he was proud of several recent endorsements, including all the Democratic Town Council Members in New Canaan and that town’s Democratic Selectwoman, Amy Murphy Carroll.
Also, four Democratic State Representatives in the 36th district have endorsed Simmons: Steve Meskers (D-150), Rachel Khanna (D-149) and Hector Arzeno (D-151) in Greenwich, and Hubert Delany (D-144) in Stamford.
Three-term State Rep Meskers said in an email to GFP that he had endorsed Simmons based on Simmons’ broad experience, focus and tenacity.
“Nick Simmons brings a wealth of experience to the table having worked both in Washington and in Hartford,” Meskers said. “He understands how to navigate the building and will hit the ground running.”
What’s Next?
Because the 36th district includes Greenwich, western and northern parts of Stamford, and much of New Canaan, the Greenwich DTC does not determine which candidate is endorsed.
Rather, at a convention in May Greenwich delegates will join delegates from New Canaan and Stamford. The candidate with the most votes at the convention will be endorsed, though under state law there will still be the opportunity for a primary challenge to the endorsed candidate.
But first, at a March meeting the DTC will vote to select delegates to attend the convention.
Note: This article was updated March 12 to reflect Simmons’ endorsement by State Rep Rachel Khanna