Klarides to Announce Senate Candidacy Sunday on Dennis House Show.

Former state Representative Themis Klarides will announce her candidacy for the U.S. Senate on Dennis House’s This Week in Connecticut on WTNH. Klarides texted this unedited message to lobbyists, supporters and others Saturday afternoon:

“Hello my friend ! I have made the decision to run for US Senate against Blumenthal . Take a look at Dennis house show tomorrow at 10 am I’m on!”

Sunday’s announcement is most notable for the unsinkable Dennis House extending his reign as the television host to whom candidates disclose their plans.

Here’s Thursday’s Daily Ructions story breaking the news of Klarides’s candidacy.

Klarides had spent $400,000 of her own money ratcheting up a bid for the Republican nomination for governor to little effect. A 2021 gambit to convince rival Bob Stefanowski to make the former House minority leader his running mate failed. Klarides’s connection to Eversource through her marriage to top company executive Greg Butler threatened to doom the ticket.

Klarides will face Democratic incumbent U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal. The 75 year old Greenwich Democrat is seeking his third term. Republicans are hoping angry Connecticut voters will express their discontent with President Joe Biden by defeating traditionally popular Democrats.

Fairfield Republican Peter Lumaj has so far proved immune to Klarides’s cajoling to abandon his bid for the party’s Senate nomination. Greenwich Republican Leora Levy, who cast Connecticut’s “28 spicy votes” for Donald Trump at the party’s 2020 nominating convention, continued to examine her options on Saturday.

Published January 29, 2022.