When Richard Blumenthal, now a two-term Democratic incumbent, first won his seat, it was 2010, and Republicans were obliterating Democratic candidates up and down the ballot. Up against businesswoman Linda McMahon (the wife of Vince McMahon, who until recently was the chairman and CEO of WWE – she also became Trump’s Small Business Administration administrator), Blumenthal’s victory made him the only non-incumbent Democrat who was not running in a special election to make it into the Senate (non-incumbent Democrats Chris Coons of Delaware and Joe Manchin of West Virginia were both elected in special elections that same day). Blumenthal’s 12 point victory over McMahon was somewhat of a surprise, as many forecasters felt it was a close race and Blumenthal had been forced to run to the populist right, noting that he would have have voted against the Troubled Asset Relief Program with Republicans were he in the Senate while hitting McMahon for outsourcing.

There are echoes of this race now as Blumenthal seeks his third term, facing down businesswoman Leora Levy. Levy, who was born in Cuba, leans heavily into her anti-communist bonafides, which is all well and good – but she also touts her devotion to former President Trump (who nominated her to be his ambassador to Chile, though she languished in Senate limbo and was never confirmed). A Republican National Committee member, Levy voted for the resolutions censuring anti-Trump Republican members of Congress and called the January 6 storming of the Capitol “legitimate political discourse.” Backed by Trump in her primary at the last minute, she defeated moderate (and anti-Trump) former Connecticut state House Minority Leader Themis Klarides in an upset in this heavily Democratic state. Klarides had been backed by moderate Republican governors like Maryland’s Larry Hogan and Massachusetts’ Charlie Baker, both of whom demonstrated there is a lane for moderate and pragmatic Republicans to still win in heavily-Democratic states, but Republicans – against their best interests – were rabid to pick the most extreme candidate.

Instead, the state-level party’s fealty to Trump will do nothing but deny them a chance to make a race more competitive in a blue state and draw Democratic resources towards protecting their safe incumbent. In a Levy versus Blumenthal election, it’s unlikely Democrats need to focus on the state at all.

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