DeLauro Endorses Lamont At Women’s Roundtable

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont reeled in another endorsement from a high-profile Connecticut Democrat during a roundtable conversation in downtown New Haven about women’s rights at the local, state and national levels.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro formally endorsed Lamont, a Greenwich businessman, in his bid for governor during a 45-minute conversation at Blue State Coffee on Wall Street with nearly 20 other local and state female politicians, labor organizers, small business people, and healthcare advocates.

The group pressed Lamont to uphold women’s rights in the workplace not just as an economic issue, but as a moral issue.

“I may be a guy,” Lamont said, ​“but I’m a feminist. I’m a feminist for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that Connecticut will never live up to its full potential unless if each and every one of you, your daughters, children of color, have the best opportunity in this state.”

He promised New Haven State Rep. Robyn Porter that, if elected governor, he will make sure that the state legislature passes a $15-dollar minimum wage, and paid family medical leave legislation next year.

“We are the firewall to what’s coming out of Washington D.C.,” he said.

Lamont has already wracked up a number of high-profile local, state and national Democratic endorsements for his campaign. He’s received the endorsement of New Haven Mayor Toni Harp, New Haven State Sen. Martin Looney, U.S. Reps. John Larson and Joe Courtney, the endorsements of the state AFL-CIO labor unions, and the endorsement of the state party, which came back in May during the party’s convention in Hartford.

Lamont faces Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim for the Democratic nomination for governor during the state primary on Aug. 14.

DeLauro said she is endorsing Lamont for governor because he is a ​“fierce advocate” for women’s rights and because he represents the state’s best chance to elect a Democratic governor who will combat the Trump administration’s manifold efforts to erode federal protections for women in the workplace.

As the ranking Democratic Party member of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Appropriations’ Labor Subcommittee, DeLauro said, she has seen firsthand the attacks that the Trump administration have made on women’s rights.

She said the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has proposed prohibiting doctors who receive federal funding through Title X from referring patients to abortion providers. She said the administration has moved to defund Planned Parenthood, dismantle the Affordable Care Act, overturn a 2013 law guaranteeing pay equity for federal contractors, and even stop collecting pay data based on gender.

“They say its too onerous,” she said. But that data collection, she said, provides the necessary information for understanding how women are discriminated against in the workplace by receiving lesser pay than their male counterparts.

She said white women receive 83 cents on the dollar in comparison to their male colleagues. Black women, she said, earn 64 cents on the dollar, and Latinas earn 54 cents on the dollar.

New Haven State Rep. Toni Walker said these attacks on women’s rights are not limited to Washington D.C. She said Connecticut Republicans as well have worked to defund the state’s Medicaid and erode funding for childcare and pay equity.

“None of this will help the business community,” she said. ​“It will drive people out of the state.”

“Its not just an economic issue,” Porter said. ​“It’s a moral issue. No one should work a full-time job and still qualify for food stamps… I think the real thing is bringing dignity to work. And when you do that, you actually increase the economy. Wage growth equals economic growth. It’s a fact.”

Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the full roundtable conversation.