2nd Republican Pursues DeLauro Challenge

Rafael Irizarry could afford to spend all day relaxing or hitting the links. Instead he’s running to become the first Latino to represent Greater New Haven in the U.S. Congress.

“I’m retired. I run my own business. I could be home and playing golf. I want something changed in the community, something changed in the state of Connecticut,” Irizarry said during an appearance Tuesday on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven.”

“The Latino community needs to wake up. We bring a lot of things to the economy. We’re growing. This is good. … We need more leadership, more people in the Hispanic community to represent the best interests for that particular community. The first time the Irish came to the United States. The second was the Italians. Now was the Blacks. Now the Hispanics. We’ve got the train we need to follow.”

Irizarry, a 63-year-old retired state mental health counselor from Stratford who operates a one-man delivery service, is one of two Republicans so far to announce they’re seeking the Republican nomination to challenge 16-term incumbent Democrat Rosa DeLauro this year for the Third U.S. Congressional District seat. The other is New Haven’s Michael Massey. (Read and watch an interview with him here.)

Irizarry refrained from criticizing DeLauro or Massey personally. He credited DeLauro for her accomplishments over the years; he argued that it’s time for new leadership to emerge with new ideas and new approaches.

Irizarry leaned heavily in the interview on his own personal story: Born in Puerto Rico. Abandoned to the streets at age 8 by his single-parent mother, who struggled with drug addiction. Rescued by a Mother Teresa-affiliated orphanage, then raised by foster parents.

In 1984, Irizarry moved to Bridgeport. Three years later, he won a seat on the City Council there, serving eight years as a Democrat. He later moved to Stratford. He switched parties seven years ago because he felt the Democrats had moved too far to the left on issues like crime.

If elected, he said, he would push for more money to hire police as well as to offer them psychological training. He argued that government is ​“holding back” police from doing their jobs. He said he’d support limiting the number of years newly arrived immigrants can receive food stamps and subsidized housing, emphasizing the need to work. He criticized the Biden administration for ​“opening the door and letting everybody come” into the country instead of monitoring immigration to keep out criminals.

On foreign policy, Irizarry said he would vote as a Congressman to cut off aid to Ukraine: ​“We can’t continue to send a blank check. 

“Forget it. Don’t count on us. We need to fix the roads. We need to put the money in education. We have to take care of your house first before you give something to somebody else,” he said.

He was asked if he would continue U.S. military aid to Israel for the war in Gaza.

Yes, he would. He grew passionate in explaining why.

“I love the Jews. Maybe I got some blood in my body probably Jewish, too,” Irizarry said. ​“Let me tell you something: If you do something wrong for Israel, this is the nation protected by God. If people don’t want to believe that, that’s fine. You believe whatever you want to believe. But you know? That’s the reason the United States prospers. This nation was founded on God’s principles.

“If you try to attack or you continue to attack, I want to be supportive to my last drop of my blood. I support Israel. If you attack Israel, you attack me personally. You attack this nation personally. Israel is a good people. Its people, they’re working hard.

“You don’t have no rights to kill them, to do something bad to them. If you go into my house to try to kill my family, you know what? I come back, I will do the same to you. Don’t say I’m bad. That’s respect.”

Click on the above video to watch the conversation with Congressional candidate Rafael Irizarry on WNHH FM’s​“Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of Dateline New Haven.