Party committee meets tonight to elect Republican National Committee members. Levy faces challenger Stravato.

Incumbent Leora Levy and Annalisa Stravato will face each other Tuesday for the spot reserved for a woman from Connecticut on the Republican National Committee. The contest has become a proxy battle among the shrinking factions of the state party.

Levy dismayed fellow members of the party establishment when she defeated convention-endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Themis Klarides in a 2022 primary. Levy defeated Klarides by a wide margin, suggesting delegates at the party’s nominating convention were out of touch with rank and file members. The Greenwich Republican’s apostasy has not been forgotten. If Team Klarides had exerted as much effort to defeat Levy in 2022 as it is in blocking her re-election to the RNC, that landslide primary defeat might have had a different result.

Levy has been an effective and reliable fundraiser in a party that finds itself chronically short of dough. She has rescued the party’s parlous finances more than once. Levy’s also engaged in some significant shapeshifting since the annus horribilis of 2016, going from Donald Trump critic to cheerleader. Trump nominated Levy in 2019 to serve as ambassador to Chile. The Senate did not act on her nomination.

Committee members received an extensive email from Levy on Sunday. It attempts to refute the accusation making the rounds that her 2022 Senate candidacy sank George Logan’s bid for the U.S. House from the 5th CD. Levy was an effective fundraiser for Logan in 2022 and sponsored an event for him at the start of his current campaign. It featured James Comer, the deluded House chair of the Judiciary Committee.

Stravato served as the state party committee’s vice chair from 2015 to 2017. She dropped her bid for a second term when she appeared likely to lose. She currently serves as one of Wilton’s two Registrars of Voters. She is also a member of the state party committee, though online campaign finance records show she made no contribution to the Logan campaign.

Levy received a video endorsement from U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas). She has, Cotton explained, supported him from his first campaign for the House of Representatives in 2012.

Stravato has the support of party chair Ben Proto. She also received an endorsement from Sid Holbrook, who pointed out in his message that he served as a chief of staff to a governor. That was felonious former governor John G. Rowland, who resigned the office 20 years ago next month. Rowland greeted Stravato at this month’s party nominating convention.

The party committee is comprised of 74 members, two each from the state’s 36 state senate districts, a member of the College Republicans and a member of the Young Republicans.

The RNC seat reserved for a man will go once more to John Frey.

Published May 28, 2024.