HARTFORD, Conn. — Jadon E. MacCormack is not going away.

The outspoken conservative Republican candidate from the town of Brooklyn lost Tuesday’s primary for the state legislature after alarming party leaders by making anti-gay comments that generated controversy in the seven-town district in the state’s “Quiet Corner.” Top Republicans recruited a last-minute opponent to run against MacCormack and defeat him.

Now, MacCormack, 23, is doubling down against his party and says he is running for Congress against longtime incumbent Democrat Joe Courtney in 2028.

“I have not backed down and never will,” MacCormack wrote on Facebook. “Connecticut needs the Second Congressional leadership I have already demonstrated. Full sights set on 2028; MacCormack for Congress. … I will reform this party and Make America Straight Again.”

But House Republican leader Vincent Candelora, who led the petition drive to defeat MacCormack, said fellow Republicans will continue to work against him.

“Jadon was somebody that we just wanted to silence,” Candelora told The Hartford Courant in an interview Wednesday. “We don’t think he represents the Republican Party.”

Candelora downplayed MacCormack’s thoughts about running for Congress, where Courtney has held the seat since defeating Republican Rep. Rob Simmons in 2006.

“Look, social media gives everyone a platform to do or say anything,” Candelora said. “I could say that I am going to run to be the King of England. … I think the best thing that people in the state of Connecticut can do is just ignore him. He has a lot of growing up to do. I think it’s somebody that is hard to take seriously. I don’t think a congressional announcement, two years in advance, is going to give him an edge over anyone else. Get in line. And I think he’s far at the end of the line. Now that individuals know what he’s all about, I think I can say confidently that there is not a convention or a caucus in the state of Connecticut that would endorse him to run for office.”

After losing the primary by about 80% to 20%, MacCormack continued to rip into Anthony J. Emilio, a small business owner who had run previously for the board of selectmen, school board, and board of assessment appeals over the past 15 years.

“As for Troubled Tony, you may have won the battle, but go back to the retirement home you came from,” MacCormack wrote to Emilio on Facebook. “We do not need leaders with one foot already in the grave; men who never wanted to run until someone became ‘controversial,’ and the GOP needed a last-minute handout doesn’t make you a patriot but a pathetic pawn.”

Candelora said Emilio is a highly capable candidate who defeated MacCormack and will run “a very spirited race” against incumbent state Rep. Patrick Boyd, a pro-gun Democrat who co-chairs the House moderate caucus and sometimes breaks with liberals in the 102-member House Democratic caucus. Boyd, an educator, has consistently won elections since 2016 and has friends on both sides of the political aisle.

House Speaker Matt Ritter, a Democrat, said the views against MacCormack were bipartisan.

“Nobody wanted that guy in the General Assembly. I can tell you that,” Ritter told The Courant in an interview. “When you lose 80 to 20, he’ll never get on the ballot as a Republican.”

Democrats

In other races, several veteran lawmakers lost on Tuesday night and will be departing the legislature.

In New Haven, longtime state Rep. Patricia Dillon was defeated by Eli Sabin, a hard-working graduate of Yale Law School who showed strong support in the 92nd District. He also defeated former Hamden resident Justin M. Farmer in a three-way race. After the retirement of state Rep. Mary Mushinsky, Dillon would have become the longest-serving House member if she was reelected in November. But now Mushinsky and Dillon will be leaving the General Assembly after 46 and 42 years in Hartford, respectively.

A deputy majority leader, Dillon was known for her knowledge of healthcare, among other issues, while she served on the budget-writing appropriations committee. She was first elected in 1984 and served under six different governors from both parties, along with multiple House Speakers and majority leaders.

Dillon’s loss surprised Democrats and Republicans.

“Pat is a friend, and she had a wonderful career,” Ritter told The Courant. “Eli Sabin was a really strong candidate. Primaries are very difficult. Eli just worked really, really hard. So did Pat. Democratic primaries are really hard. They really are.”

In a Democratic district in a heavily Democratic city, Ritter fully expects Sabin to win in November.

“Eli, as I said to him, we’re going to sit down in November, we’re going to go over committee assignments, and we’re going to put him to work,” Ritter said.

In East Hartford, Democrat Angie Parkinson defeated Tyron Harris to capture the party’s nomination in the 10th House District seat that had been held by longtime lawmaker Henry Genga, a well-known official in East Hartford who has consistently won elections to the legislature for the past 20 years and served on the town council before that.

In the Senate, longtime Sen. Doug McCrory placed third in his battle for reelection in a three-way race against state Rep. Maryam Khan and Ayana Taylor. Khan won the Democratic party convention endorsement in the three-town district that also includes Bloomfield, and Khan emerged victorious Tuesday night.

“It was a tough race — three qualified people running,” said Ritter, who served with McCrory in the House. “The hardest part in politics is sometimes it’s very hard to choose how you leave. For a lot of people, their last election doesn’t always go the way they hoped. These things are hard, but we have to move on.”

House and Senate Republicans have raised major questions about McCrory, a Democrat who has been under investigation by the FBI regarding state grants that he lobbied for that were awarded to Greater Hartford nonprofits, including the now-defunct Blue Hills Civic Association. Blue Hills funneled more than $1 million to a nonprofit known as SHEBA that is run by McCrory’s friend, Sonserae Cicero-Hamlin.

A forensic audit was ordered last year after state officials were stunned when the Blue Hills Civic Association reported that $300,000 in state money was apparently sent to scammers in a fraudulent bank transfer. Workers at the nonprofit were laid off after the money went missing, and the organization eventually ceased operating.

McCrory, who served in the House for 12 years before succeeding Democrat Eric Coleman in the Senate in 2017, says he has “engaged in no wrongdoing.”

After months of sharp clashes, the winners of Tuesday’s primaries are now pivoting for another round of battles against new challengers in the November election.

In the state legislature, all 151 seats in the state House of Representatives and 36 in the Senate will be on the ballot as Democrats try to increase their majorities and Republicans attempt to win races in a strongly Democratic state. The recruiting has not been easy as Republicans lack candidates in various blue districts, allowing Democrats to run unopposed with guaranteed victories, particularly in major cities like Hartford and New Haven. To a lesser extent, Republicans have traditionally also had districts that were unopposed in their strongholds with longtime incumbents.

U.S. House

Republicans will be running against five Democrats for the U.S. House, including four longtime incumbents.

In the 4th District in Fairfield County, Michael Goldstein will be battling in a rematch against longtime incumbent U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, who defeated U.S. Rep. Chris Shays in 2008 and has held the seat ever since. Shays had held the seat for 21 years, but Himes won at the same time that Democrat Barack Obama swept into office with a huge turnout in Bridgeport and other communities. Since then, lower Fairfield County has trended blue as Democrats have held the seat that was previously held in the 1970s and 1980s by liberal Republicans like Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. and Stewart McKinney.

In the 5th District, primary winner Chris Shea will be running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes. A longtime Navy SEAL, Shea captured the endorsement during the state convention at the Mohegan Sun casino and then won the primary Tuesday night.

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