MAGA Haven? An Elicker campaign email.
An interview with the mayor on Monday: “This is about us crushing someone that promotes that kind of ideology."
An unnamed “MAGA opponent” has popped up in three of Mayor Justin Elicker’s reelection campaign fundraising emails over the past week — including in an email with the subject line, “is New Haven going MAGA?”
Elicker acknowledged Monday that there’s little chance that his so-far one declared potential Republican challenger, Steve Orosco, a supporter of President Donald Trump, will win this year’s mayoral race.
“But this isn’t about us winning,” Elicker said Monday. “This is about us crushing someone that promotes that kind of ideology. This is about New Haven making a statement about who we are.”
Elicker, a three-term Democratic incumbent, offered that response during a video interview with the Independent after a Monday morning press conference about a groundbreaking for 65 new affordable apartments for seniors and people with disabilities.
Elicker has run for mayor four times in New Haven. Each time, as a challenger in 2013 and 2019 and as an incumbent in 2021 and 2023, he has faced candidates from within the Democratic Party.
Not so this year. No Democrats are campaigning against him as he seeks a fourth two-year term in office.
One potential opponent has declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination: Orosco, a mixed-martial artist from the East Shore who has run past campaigns for alder and state senator.
In various campaign fundraising emails sent out in advance of the end of the second quarter on Monday, Elicker’s campaign has used the specter of Orosco — and, really, Donald Trump — as a means of getting people to invest in his reelection campaign. (The second-quarter campaign finance reports, which cover the time period April 1 to June 30, are due July 10. Click here to read about first-quarter campaign fundraising.)
In an email sent out on Monday, June 23, about the coming second-quarter campaign finance report deadline, Elicker’s reelection campaign stated: “These quarterly reports are important moments for campaigns. Not only will the press report on our campaign’s progress, but any sign of weakness could attract more support for our MAGA opponent.”
In an email sent out on Tuesday, June 24, entitled, “is New Haven going MAGA?,” Elicker’s reelection campaign asked if New Haven should “embrace Donald Trump and elect a MAGA Mayor? That is the question voters will face this fall when they choose between between Mayor Elicker and his MAGA opponent.”
And in an email sent out Monday morning, Elicker’s campaign wrote, “If we don’t pick things up in the next few hours we will fall short of our quarterly fundraising goal. Doing so could be just the opening our MAGA opponent needs to attract more support for their campaign. We don’t want that to happen.”
Asked on Monday about that “is New Haven going MAGA?” email, Elicker replied, “The likelihood of a person that is so vocally supportive of Donald Trump winning in New Haven is small.” He described these emails as an opportunity to draw attention to how New Haven has stood up to the Trump administration in recent months. (Click here and here to read about lawsuits filed by the Elicker administration against the Trump administration in regards to funding cuts directed as sanctuary cities and climate change-combating programs.)
New Haven, meanwhile, hasn’t had a Republican mayor since 1953. Every holder of contested elected office in New Haven is a Democrat. And registered Democrats in New Haven currently outnumber registered Republicans by around 10 to 1, with 37,056 registered Democrats, 3,675 registered Republicans, 19,003 registered unaffiliated voters, and 596 registered third-party voters.
“I hope residents are seeing that the work we’re doing at City Hall is pushing back on someone who undermines everything we stand for,” the mayor said about the president Monday.
He described New Haven as “a welcoming city that embraces people that are looking to be a positive and productive member of our community. A city that invests in vulnerable populations. A city that believes that us all living together is an opportunity for us to learn from each other and become better people. That is the opposite of what Donald Trump is doing.”
In an email comment sent to the Independent Monday afternoon, Orosco criticized Elicker’s “MAGA opponent” callouts as “his only fundraising tactic to fire up his base.”
Orosco went on to ask a series of questions: Is MAGA to blame for low reading and math proficiency levels among New Haven Public Schools students? Is MAGA responsible for the Board of Ed’s budget deficit? Is MAGA responsible for “record-breaking fentanyl overdoses” and for high poverty rates and a police shortage?
“No. MAGA isn’t the problem in New Haven. This administration is,” Orosco said. “Mayor Elicker can keep pointing fingers. I’m pointing to fact and demanding accountability, because the foundation of our city is completely broken.”
Watch the video above for a full interview with Elicker, in which he talks about top issues he’s heard from voters, as well as about his takeaways from Zohran Mamdani’s surprise win in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary.