He's an engineer by training, a former two-term state senator and a small business owner.
Republican George Logan is hoping to bring change to Connecticut's fifth congressional district. He's working to unseat the incumbent, Jahana Hayes, who has won with more than 50% of the vote in her last two elections.
So what will it take to turn a seat red in our deep blue state?
Mike Hydeck: So you have said, you believe Connecticut needs a change in Washington. In your opinion, what's not happening now in the fifth district that you believe you can do better?
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George Logan: Well, you know, I think the moderate voters and conservative voters in the Fifth Congressional District have no representation down in Washington. I want to change that. I want to bring some sensibility down to Washington. I think we need some better checks and balances to counter the Biden-Harris administration in Washington. I think Nancy Pelosi and a lot of her far left liberal proposed bills and policies have been hurting our district. This has been hurting our country. And I think we need some better balance down there. I think the incumbent is just not doing a good job representing the people of the district.
Mike Hydeck: When you say far left legislation, what do you mean specifically?
George Logan: Well, let's take a look at inflation, for example. These massive spending packages have increased inflation, as we spend more, nothing's for free. And yet they continue to go down the same path. You know, when I take a look at the open border crisis that we have down at the southern borders, that's an issue that the incumbent has said nary a word about. That's something I want to go down to Washington to help to fix it. We need to close our borders, we need to fix our immigration issue. I believe by closing our borders, it's going to assist us in terms of the uptick in crime that we're seeing in our district, and also the issue with opioids and fentanyl coming across the border. That's another area. Education is another area. You know, the incumbent was once Teacher of the Year, but now I think she's failing our kids. When you take a look under her watch, as far as reading comprehension scores are at a very low level. Under one party rule, the Democrat leadership in Washington has had plenty of time to fix our education system. And they haven't been able to do that. I want to get back in and go down to Washington and try to encourage lawmakers down there to focus on the basics. Math and science.
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Mike Hydeck: Let's talk about education for a second. In two recent publications, Connecticut was ranked second in the country as far as our education system is concerned. What specifically do you think needs to be fixed in that respect? And that included test scores and overall quality of life in the WalletHub survey, specifically.
George Logan: Well, we have some of the best schools, private schools, in all the United States of America, if not the world, right. So when we talk about my district, the Fifth Congressional District, we have kind of a working class district, and I'm talking about this, take a look at those reading comprehension scores in Waterbury. Let's take a look at those reading comprehension scores in Danbury and New Britain and Meriden. There, they're almost at a crisis level. That's what I'm talking about. So a lot of the federal dollars that are coming down to the state level, and then trickling down to the municipal level, with all the strings that are attached to it, you know, and the lack of local control for what our kids are being taught in school, it's not filtering down to the education that our kids are receiving. And that's what I'm talking about in terms of we need to go in a different path. Because I'm hearing it from the parents all over the district.
Mike Hydeck: You are also a small business owner, you told me it's an HVAC installation company. For years, Connecticut has been called unfriendly as far as small business is concerned. First, do you agree? And what would you like to fix?
George Logan: Yeah, absolutely. One, I think at the state level, at the federal level, I think there are too many regulations that's hampering business growth. It's hampering our entrepreneurs from actually being able to expand their businesses, hire more people, so we can have more people working, more people paying taxes, more people with opportunities to grow and to improve their families. Right now, companies are really constricted by all of the regulations and rules that are coming down at the state level and at the federal level. I'm in favor of smaller government, not bigger government. My opponent is in favor of bigger government. Every time the government tries to fix a problem, has a tendency of making it worse. Whether it's our economy, whether it's education, whether it's our safety, right. My opponent wants to defund the police. Right? I want to support our law enforcement. I believe we need more police officers patrolling the streets. I think we need to be tougher on crime, not softer on crime. Those are the differences between myself and my opponent.
Mike Hydeck: Let's go back to small business once again, real quick. One of the things that Connecticut is having trouble with is we have over 100,000 jobs open but the training is not there for them, including a business like yours, an HVAC installation company. People are not trained in the trades, it seems as if both the federal government and state government are moving monies toward that end. Do you think you can do better?
George Logan: Yeah, moving it in terms of words, right, but I'm telling you out in the street, that's not what's happening. The problem is also that it's hard for people to afford to live here. So when you're talking about folks that are trying to get a job in a manufacturing or jobs in the trade, one, those jobs are limited in terms of skills for jobs that are required. And two, you know, folks have a hard time coming to Connecticut because of the high cost of housing, because of the high cost of goods like groceries and gasoline. That is what's hampering it. So you help fix the economy. You make things cheaper, you tamper down this inflation issue, you make gas prices more reasonable than they are now. I want to go down to Washington to work towards energy independence, I think it's going to help gas prices. And we're gonna be able to encourage more folks to come to Connecticut, come to our wonderful schools and universities, bring their families to Connecticut, we will be able to solve that employee workforce problem here in Connecticut. But we need to make things more affordable so people will want to come to Connecticut to live and work and raise their families.
