Community and Democratic leader Veronica T. DeLandro has announced that she is officially exploring candidacy for Mayor of New Britain.
Saying that the city needs a change, DeLandro said, “Those who speak up and speak out do not have their cares or concerns taken into consideration and what our city needs to do – is we need to move onward.”
DeLandro has served as District Director for Congresswoman Jahana Hayes (D-5) and now provides consulting, training and coaching to nonprofit organizations at VTD Consulting Group, which she founded. She previously had a career at ESPN before she began working with organizations with a focus on philanthropy, college access and mentoring.
“We need to move onward in listening to what the residents in this city care about, what their concerns are about, and really paying attention those, the voiceless,” DeLandro said. “There are people in this city who feel as though people are not representing them, that the representation is not present and that their voices are not listed to.”
“And so this has to change,” DeLandro said. “And so, I am here today to step out on faith and to step forward and move onward in filing and forming an exploratory committee to run for Mayor.”
DeLandro ran for City Council in 2017, very nearly winning an upset victory in an uphill race in the City’s First Ward, where Republicans have historically had the advantage in city level elections, and then was selected as the City Council’s first woman and first African American Clerk of Committees. She has also previously served on the city’s Youth & Family Services Commission and the school system’s Graduation Odyssey Task Force.
DeLandro’s stature as a leader in the community and among Democratic Party activists has grown, advocates for her have noted, because more attention has been focused on what are widely viewed as her substantial qualifications and leadership capabilities, ironically, because city Republicans’ blocked her from a seat on the Council. Republicans blocked the appointment of her to succeed newly elected Rep. Manny Sanchez (D-24) in the City Council seat he vacated to take office in the state legislature, choosing a loyalist to Stewart-Republican political machine, instead. DeLandro had received wide community support including from Rep. Manny Sanchez, himself, the Democratic Party and numerous other Democratic leaders.
A longtime community leader, DeLandro is on the Executive Board of the NAACP New Britain Branch and serves on the Board of the YWCA New Britain, co-chairing the YWCA’s Policy Committee. She is a founding member of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving’s Black Giving Circle, and her biography notes her roles as, “Connecticut State Coordinator for the Eastern Region of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Recording Secretary for the North Atlantic Region of the National Hampton Alumni Association, Inc. and Technology Chair for the Greater Hartford Chapter of The Links, Incorporated.”
DeLandro was one of Connecticut Magazine‘s “40 under 40” of rising leaders, recognized for her leadership at the Inaugural MIP (Minority Inclusion Project) Honors Gala and was named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Blacks by the New Britain NAACP.
DeLandro is married and has two children.
