Democratic Mayoral Challenger Becomes A Republican

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Torres, at a Westville Democratic Ward Committee meeting in May.

Mayce Torres is still running for mayor — but now as a Republican, not as a Democrat.

That means that New Haven will likely not have a contested Democratic primary this September, but could have a contested Republican primary.

On July 22, Torres changed her local party affiliation from Democrat to Republican with the registrar of voters office. Soon thereafter, she filed with the city/town clerk’s office to run for mayor on the Republican line.

For the past several months, the Hill resident and former alder candidate has been vying for the Democratic Party nomination in her bid for the city’s top elected office.

Her change in party affiliation now means that first-term incumbent Justin Elicker has an unobstructed path to the November general election. Elicker unanimously won the Democratic Town Committee’s endorsement on Tuesday after his main Democratic primary challenger, Karen DuBois-Walton, officially dropped out of the race. No other Democrats have filed to compete in the Sept. 14 primary.

If Torres succeeds in petitioning onto the Republican primary ballot, she would face off against endorsed Republican mayoral candidate John Carlson.

There are 2,579 registered Republicans in New Haven. In order to petition onto the primary ballot, Torres would have to collect and submit signatures from 5 percent of local registered Republicans — or at least 129 names in total. In comparison, there are 36,008 registered Democrats in the city, 16,608 registered unaffiliated voters, and 616 registered third-party voters.

Torres has previously told the Independent she intends to petition her way onto the ballot. She did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article.

Torres has attended multiple Democratic Ward Committee meetings across the city over the past few months in the runup to Tuesday’s Democratic Town Convention.

At those meetings, she spoke candidly about the challenges of growing up and living in the Hill.

I watch kids playing across from prostitutes, across from people selling drugs,” she said during Westville’s Ward 25 Democratic Ward Committee meeting in late May. Five minutes away from me there’s opulence. We’re becoming the haves and the have nots.”

She repeated that message at Fair Haven’s Ward 14 Democratic Ward Committee meeting in early July.

This is a city of thinkers, a city of hope,” she said at that meeting. If we integrate the haves and the have nots, we would be so much more powerful.”

Torres did not win any of the straw-poll, nonbinding votes for mayor held by Democratic Ward Committee in the runup to Tuesday’s convention. Elicker won 20 and DuBois-Walton won four. Torres also did not receive any nomination at Tuesday’s convention, which Elicker won unanimously.

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