2 Dems Seek Progressive Mantle
By Sam Gurwitt | New Haven Independent | Feb 24, 2020
While Bernie Sanders was pulling off a left-Democratic victory in Nevada, two local candidates with similar roots in progressive politics summoned supporters to separate fundraisers on the same day — for the same seat.
The two candidates — Justin Farmer and Jorge Cabrera — are eyeing the Democratic nomination this year for the same seat, representing the 17th State Senate District, with similar working-family and social-justice-oriented pitches.
And they’re in part tapping the same pool of core Hamden progressives, some of them veterans of past Bernie Sanders campaigns, to get them there.
Saturday morning, as Sanders was piling up a victory in the Nevada Democratic presidential caucuses, Farmer, who is currently a Hamden Legislative Councilman, stood on the grass outside the Keefe Community Center for a campaign event and rallied an energetic group of 70-plus people, most of them young, for environmental sustainability, better public transportation, and tax equity.