BRISTOL, Conn. – John B. Larson has a booming voice, a thick head of white hair and almost 14 terms in Congress under his belt. 

But at 78, the Democrat still sees himself as the scrappy kid raised in public housing in a working-class Hartford suburb.

“I’m proud to stand with labor because I know what side of the street I grew up on,’’ Larson told an audience of cheering union activists here on a recent Saturday. “God bless the labor movement.”

Larson’s approach to politics is a throwback to a folksy, fist-pounding brand of Democratic populism, calibrated for an era when seniority was sacrosanct and incumbents — especially in Connecticut — were rarely challenged. In a state whose unofficial motto is “The Land of Steady Habits,” no sitting House member has ever faced a primary, the Connecticut Mirror recently observed. 

But this year, three Democrats have eyes on Larson’s 1st District seat: former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, Hartford school board member Ruth Fortune and state Rep. Jillian Gilchrest. 

Unlike other blue-on-blue battles, Tuesday’s contest in Connecticut’s 1st District isn’t a struggle between a moderate and a disciple of the newly emboldened democratic socialist movement for the ideological soul of the party. 

In fact, all four candidates have found common ground on many key policy points, with attacks relegated to largely symbolic matters, such as Larson’s support for a House resolution honoring slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Instead, the race has centered on a call for generational change, most pointedly from Bronin, Larson’s best-known – and most well-funded – opponent. 

“I genuinely respect John, but this is a moment where the Democratic Party has to bring some new energy to the fight,’’ Bronin, 47, said in an interview before meeting with voters at a coffee shop in West Hartford. “We’d be a stronger party if more of our leaders recognize that part of leadership is knowing when it’s time to pass the torch.”

‘Congress brain’

The debate over age has roiled Democratic politics since 2024, following octogenarian President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance and subsequent decision to drop his reelection campaign. 

Six members of Congress — all of them 65 or older — have died since early 2025. Over the same timespan, 16 House Democrats, most of them in their 70s and 80s, have announced their retirements. The list includes former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 86, who forged a bond with Larson when he served as a key lieutenant on her leadership team more than a decade ago. 

And so far this year, six Democrats from deep-blue districts have lost primary challenges, signaling a growing thirst for change among the party’s activist base.

“It has been discouraging to grow up hearing the same people causing the same problems my whole life,’’ Sam Higgins, a 33-year-old math teacher from West Hartford, said after chatting with Bronin at the coffee shop. “I would like to see a little turnover.”

Ben Wenograd, a West Hartford town councilor who is backing Bronin, said something happens when elected officials stay in Washington for decades: “You’re in Congress for 30 years, you get Congress brain.’’

Not all voters agree. 

“John Larson has been doing the job all these years, why kick him out now?,’’ asked Claudette Rainey, an 85 year-old retired nurse, as she dodged raindrops outside West Harford’s municipal hall Monday, the first day of early voting.

Larson says he’s not ready to retire from a political career that began with his election to the East Hartford school board during the Carter administration. He experienced a complex partial seizure while speaking on the House floor last year, but says he’s been prescribed medication that greatly reduces the likelihood of a similar episode.

On the stump, the incumbent projects an air of old-school political intensity, framing his decades of experience — he’s currently a senior member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee — as a boon to the Hartford-centered district. 

“I’m going to do the job that I was sent to do, and I’m in the position to do it better than anyone else in this race,” he said in an interview.

But all three of Larson’s Democratic opponents say he’s failed to meet the urgency of the moment and has been unable to deliver on his signature issue: legislation to protect and strengthen Social Security.

“Twenty eight years in Congress, and you’re the champion of Social Security, and we’re six years away from insolvency,’’ Gilchrest said to Larson during a candidate forum in New Haven last week. “I’d say that that’s a failure.”

Larson pointed out that he’s poised to become the chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, should Democrats flip the House. As for why his legislation hasn’t passed yet, he said most of his time in the chamber has been spent in the minority. 

“I’m the progressive in the race,” Larson asserts. He voted against authorizing the Iraq War in 2002 and was an early backer of Barack Obama in 2008. And he maintains close ties to organized labor, a powerful force in Connecticut politics. (By contrast, Larson says Bronin has had a strained relationship with unions, dating from his time as Hartford’s mayor, a claim Bronin and his supporters reject.)

Larson has received help from his friends in the state delegation, including Sen. Christopher S. Murphy and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, whose leadership PAC has contributed to his campaign.

Warning signs

The tone of the Democratic race has become increasingly hostile in the final stretch, and campaign money has emerged as a major flashpoint. Larson has cast Bronin as a political opportunist whose run has been fueled by a network of billionaire donors, while Bronin has attacked Larson for accepting political action committee donations from corporations and unions. 

“I made the decision at the start of this race that I was not going to take a single dollar of corporate PAC money … because it’s one of the reasons Washington [has become] so cautious,” Bronin said at last week’s forum. “It’s also one of the reasons that it’s so easy for incumbents to just sit there year after year after year.”

Bronin, who has consistently outraised — and outspent — Larson, won the endorsement of the delegates at the district convention in May, a surprise that many in the state read as a flashing warning sign of Larson’s vulnerability.

In contrast to Larson’s working-class background and state school credentials, Bronin grew up in Rye, N.Y., and Greenwich, holds degrees from both Yale and Yale Law School and studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar. A Navy veteran who served in Afghanistan, he held positions in the Obama administration and was a legal adviser to former Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

“Do you think he ever had to worry about what was going on in the homes of people like this?” Larson asked at his Bristol event, gesturing to the unionized workers gathered around him.

Bronin has the support of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a longtime friend, and The Bench, a new group focused on recruiting and supporting younger Democratic candidates. 

VoteVets, which backs candidates with connections to the military, has spent nearly $1 million on ads promoting Bronin, part of a burst of outside money that has flooded the district in the final weeks before the primary.

“If we’re going to defeat Donald Trump and the MAGA movement that he’s built, we need to build a movement outside the walls of the Capitol that is strong enough to make real change,’’ Bronin said.

The winner of the primary is almost certain to prevail in November and could hold the staunchly blue seat for a long time, though Bronin said he favors term limits.

Larson has repeatedly declined to say whether this will be his last run, invoking former Sen. Christopher J. Dodd’s maxim not to publicly put an end date on your political career while still in office.

Bill Finch, a former Bridgeport mayor and Larson supporter, cautioned against pushing the congressman off the political stage.

“It doesn’t matter if he’s 32 or 72, John is the same person,” Finch said. “If people get lazy and stodgy and lose touch with their constituents, then I’m all for generational change. But that’s not the case here.”