Hey, Nick Simmons begins Senate campaign with video introduction.

Democrat Nick Simmons launched his campaign for the 36th Senate District seat with a homey almost subdued video. The seat, which includes all of Greenwich and parts of Stamford and New Canaan. It is currently held by Republican Ryan Fazio.

Simmons will need to get by fellow Greenwich Democrat Trevor Crow. The life coach lost her 2022 campaign against Fazio by 89 votes in her first bid for public office. Crow began her 2024 campaign by inadvertently announcing at a Greenwich Democratic Town Committee meeting that she’d violated the state’s campaign finance laws.

Greenwich is no longer a reliable Republican bastion. Along with many affluent suburbs across the nation, it has delivered growing majorities for Democrats in state and national elections since Donald Trump became the face of the Republican Party. Fazio lost a competitive race for the 36th District seat in 2020 when he challenged first term Democrat Alexandra Kasser. He won a special election in 2021 after Kasser resigned.

Fred Camillo, Greenwich’s Republican first selectman in his third term, won a thumping victory in November, a year after Democrats claimed the tony town’s three House seats. March brings Republican town committee primaries that reflect the growing fractions in a party in decline and riven with ideological differences and suspicions.

Simmons is the brother of Stamford’s Democratic mayor, Caroline Simmons. She ought to have some influence in delivering convention delegates to her brother, though she’s had some ongoing tussles with the local party committee.

Nick Simmons left his position in Governor Ned Lamont’s office earlier this month.

Published February 22, 2024.