The following article was produced as part of a voter guide grant from the Rural News Network. The Rural News Network consists of 80 newsrooms, including The Kent Good Times Dispatch, serving rural communities across 47 states – a subset of the more than 450 members of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) Network.
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- Election information for 2024, including sample ballot
- Republican state senate candidate for the 30th district
- Democratic challenger for state senate for the 30th district
- Connecticut voters to decide on constitutional question
KENT—Stephen Harding is a tried-and-true Republican who incongruously has a Golden Retriever named Kennedy.
Harding currently represents the 30th state Senatorial District and was named Senate Republican Leader in February 2024. He is running against political newcomer Justin Potter of Kent.
While Harding is only completing his first term in the Senate, he previously served four terms for the 107th House District. In the Senate, he is ranking member of the Environment Committee and is on the Judiciary Committee, Education Committee and the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee.
A 30-year resident of Brookfield, he has served his hometown in a variety of capacities ranging from coaching youth sports to serving on the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Board of Education. He is a member of Brookfield Cares, which addresses substance abuse and other mental health issues.
His opponent has named affordable housing as his top priority and Harding agrees that additional housing is important but opposes state mandates that force small communities to have 10 percent of their housing stock in affordable housing. He says such measures could result in ecological and environmental hazards because of increased density.
Housing has been identified as a major problem in Connecticut, where workers need to make about twice the minimum wage to afford a place to live. In Kent, a survey of business owners and workers showed that 39 percent of households would qualify for affordable housing. There are more than 60 families on the waitlist for affordable rentals in town.
During the last legislative session, a Senate bill was considered that would have promoted housing growth in Connecticut, with a focus on affordable housing. It never reached the floor for a vote.
Among its provisions, it would have established a Housing Growth Fund to provide grants to municipalities based on a scorecard reflecting the number of dwelling units approved. Higher points would have been awarded for certain types of developments, such as those near transit facilities and those affordable to low-income families.
In some ways, the bill reflected the goals of Desegregate Connecticut, which advocates for housing equity. Harding said he opposes the efforts of Desegregate Connecticut, because he thinks their motives are more “politically based than they are truly affordable rent and affordable housing costs [based].”
He acknowledges that it is difficult to find an affordable rent or home in Northwest Connecticut, but said he is “absolutely opposed” to forcing Northwest Corner towns like Sharon, Salisbury and Kent to increase housing density.
Another area of demographic growth has also attracted his attention: the bear population. With the number of ursine neighbors increasing every year, he favors a regulated bear hunting season. He says the bear population in the Northwest Corner has reached unsustainable levels and he has supported legislation providing property owners and farmers relief through a DEEP permit program.
Harding believes Connecticut has moved in the right fiscal direction since 2017 when volatile revenue [the degree to which state tax revenue fluctuates year to year] was directed toward paying down debt, pension obligations and being put into the general fund. The general fund currently stands at about $4 billion.
“We only have recently gotten into this strong financial shape, and I support the effort to continue to do that,” he said.
He supports increasing social programs spending if money can be found within the state budget but cautions against removing fiscal “guardrails” to make those investments.
Harding’s campaign stated that his key priorities include economic growth, education, infrastructure and municipal aid. Referring to the large surplus, he said, “With such a large budget surplus, we should provide more aid to towns and municipalities to offset the rising cost of inflation so that they can keep property taxes down.”
Infrastructure development is on his list of priorities, but he sees asking electric companies to upgrade their infrastructure to provide more access to electric vehicle charging stations as unwise.
This spring, the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority passed a bill allowing Eversource and United Illuminating to recoup the cost of building EV charging stations by increasing the public benefits portion of residential electric bills.
“When you have families that can’t afford to make their rent payments or their mortgage payments because of the latest electric bills, I think it’s ungodly to consider implementing a program in which you would raise their electric rates,” Harding said.
He joined House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora in cautioning Connecticut residents about the Democrats electric vehicle “roadmap,” which they predict will continue “full throttle” after the November election.
In the last session the House considered a bill calling for creation of an “Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Coordinating Council” which would be tasked with creating a “Zero Emission Vehicle Roadmap.” It did not get to a vote.
“Our fight against electric vehicle mandates is not over,” said Harding. “Democrats will renew their push after Election Day to ban gas-powered vehicles and they’ll use this ‘roadmap’ as a selling point to justify their decision with a skeptical public … .”
Some Republicans state legislators argue it’s an attempt to force the phase-out of gas-powered vehicles by 2035, but, State Sen. Christine Cohen, a Democrat, insists it is just a roadmap to electrify Connecticut’s cars and trucks.
Harding noted that the roadmap does not require a review of the costs associated with the charging infrastructure, electric grid upgrades, increased electric supply needed and the end-of-life battery disposal.
The issue meshes with a statement he made after United Illuminating announced last week that it will file for an electric rate increase that would push residential customer’s electric bills up by 10 to 12 percent.
Harding and other Republican legislators issued a statement criticizing the Democratic majority for failing to look out for the best interests of residents. “The family budget hits to ratepayers will keep on coming if Connecticut’s state elected officials continue to do nothing about this emergency,” the statement said.
Harding is a graduate of Albertus Magnus college and earned a law degree at New York Law School in Manhattan. He operates his own law practice in Danbury. He is married and has a son and daughter.
The 30th District is the largest geographically in the state, comprising Bethlehem, Brookfield, Falls Village, Cornwall, Goshen, Kent, Litchfield, Morris, New Fairfield, New Milford, Canaan, Salisbury, Sharon, Sherman, Torrington, Warren, Washington and Winchester.
