Political activist Alicia Hernandez Strong has announced that she is exploring running for Mayor of New Britain.
“City government has continued to underfund critical services that our community needs such as education, housing and mental health services,” Strong said. “We need city leadership that prioritizes working-class people, this is especially important because New Britain residents are struggling even more due to COVID-19.”
Strong says that she is, “fully committed to running for Mayor,” if there is no other candidate who is willing to fight for a series of priorities she advocated in her announcement. She says that, as a candidate, she would be seeking the nomination of the Democratic Party.
“I’m running with the singular goal of making sure there is a candidate for Mayor who believes in supporting the people with educational opportunities, social services and a drastic reduction in unchecked police power in New Britain.”
Saying that she is, “running for the people of New Britain, not an office,” Strong says that she is willing to step aside if there is another candidate dedicated to, “defunding the police department and reallocating resources to address the root causes of crime, eliminating SROs in public schools, creating a police civilian review board, with subpoena power, increasing education funding and investing in youth and social services.”
She that, “if there is not other serious candidate who will fight for these things, I am fully committed to running for Mayor, changing the conversation in this town, and challenging our mayor on the issues – those issues which she pretends to care about without actually addressing them through substantive policy changes.”
Strong says that she is stepping aside from her role as President of the New Britain Racial Justice Coalition to explore candidacy. She was one of the co-founders of the Coalition, which was created as part of the summer of protest and activism sparked by the killing of George Floyd and many other people of color by police.
Strong’s statement on her exploratory committee announcement says that it,
comes after years of activism and community organizing in New Britain and throughout the state. After graduating from Wesleyan she served as Executive Director of the Connecticut chapter of the well-known civil rights group, the Council on American-Islamic relations. She also helped run the New Britain office for Congresswoman Hayes’ first campaign. After the murder of George Floyd, Strong helped co-found the New Britain Racial Justice coalition to combat institutional racism in the city.
“Her experiences as a young Afro-Puerto Rican growing up in New Britain has reinforced her commitment to racial and economic justice,” Strong’s announcement says. “She prides herself in bringing together diverse sets of people to fight for a common cause.”
Strong is now the third Democratic candidate to announce exploration of a challenge to four-term incumbent Republican Mayor Erin Stewart.
State Rep. Bobby Sanchez (D-25) has announced that he is exploring a run for Mayor. He has already received endorsements from the entire Democratic state legislative delegation and the Democrats’ City Council leader.
Prominent Democratic community leader Veronica T. DeLandro, who is the former District Director of Congresswoman Jahana Hayes (D-5), announced that she is exploring candidacy for mayor this week.
Nominations by the Democratic Party are a potentially two step process. The Democratic Party’s governing Town Committee makes endorsements of candidates for city offices in July. If there is no primary, the Town Committee’s choice becomes the nominee of the Democratic Party. But, candidates not endorsed by the Town Committee can send the decision on the nomination to a Democratic primary by collecting petition signatures.
Any primary in 2021 would be held on September 14th.
