She’s late, but Betsy McCaughey could upend CT Republicans’ governor race

Hartford Courant – Sunday, January 25, 2026
By Christopher Keating

Betsy McCaughey has come back home.

After gaining political attention as New York’s lieutenant governor, McCaughey (pronounced McCoy) has reemerged in the state where she grew up and announced that she is seeking to oust fellow Greenwich resident Ned Lamont in the 2026 governor’s race.

An outspoken policy wonk who has appeared frequently on national television, McCaughey is quick on her feet and ready to offer opinions on a moment’s notice on health care, housing, taxes, and any other issue. On Friday, she traveled to the state Capitol in Hartford to release her new plan to eliminate the state income tax — a feat that has been touted but never accomplished by politicians over the past 35 years.

During the first three minutes of her news conference, McCaughey criticized “Money Bags Lamont,” along with “Kathy Hochul, the spineless governor of New York State” and Zohran Mamdani, the newly elected democratic socialist mayor of New York City.

“This state’s economy is almost dead, but we can renew growth and prosperity and opportunity in this state,” McCaughey said of Connecticut. “All across this country, you can see governors are lowering taxes. Where is Ned Lamont? His head is in the sand. … We can make Connecticut the tax haven of the Northeast — booming with opportunity. … Prosperity, here we come.”

The Lamont campaign responded through the Democratic Governors Association, which hit back against McCaughey’s “harebrained” plan.

“No one should be surprised that a former Trump economic advisor is proposing a disastrous economic plan that would benefit the wealthiest while raising taxes and costs on Connecticut families and businesses,” the association said. “MAGA McCaughey’s harebrained proposal would jack up property and sales taxes while gutting investments in schools, safety, roads, and bridges. Similar proposals have led to economic disaster in states like Kansas — and have been repeatedly rejected by Connecticut voters.”

While the criticisms have continued since McCaughey got into the race less than two weeks ago, some Lamont supporters are delighted that she has entered the contest, saying she will push the Republican Party to the right in a blue state where President Donald Trump is not popular in a general election.

While McCaughey has targeted her criticisms so far at “Rich Boy Lamont,” her immediate political task is gaining at least 15% of the delegates at the state Republican convention in mid-May. She is battling against former New Britain mayor Erin Stewart and state Sen. Ryan Fazio of Greenwich . She avoided criticizing her fellow Republicans on Friday but said she fully expects to capture more than 15% of the delegates at the convention and then compete in a three-way Republican primary in August.
Impact on the race

McCaughey’s entrance shakes up the race in what some had expected to be a two-candidate battle between Stewart and Fazio.

Some political observers say that McCaughey is an unpredictable wild card who can ratchet up the rhetoric as she has nothing to lose at age 77; She does not need to worry about her political future in the same way as the 38-year-old Stewart and 35-year-old Fazio.

Longtime political science professor Gary Rose of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield said that McCaughey should not be underestimated or dismissed as a lightweight by anyone in the political arena.

“Ryan is part of the Hartford establishment, and Erin is part of the mayoral-city establishment type of Republican,” Rose said in an interview. “Betsy McCaughey is really kind of the maverick in all of this, and that makes her interesting to some Republicans — the fact that she’s not part of the local or the state establishment. Betsy McCaughey is like the outsider type of individual here, and within the Republican Party, there is a receptivity to that type of candidate.”

After gaining a name for herself as New York’s lieutenant governor from 1995 until 1999, McCaughey eventually returned to Connecticut and has been living in Greenwich since 2012. While repeatedly referring to the governor as “Rich Boy Lamont,” McCaughey lives on a 4.5-acre estate in Greenwich’s famed “backcountry” in an upscale neighborhood of large properties that has a minimum lot size of four acres.

“One drawback is she lives in Greenwich and people might perceive her more as a New Yorker than as a Connecticut person,” Rose said. “They’re going to see her as somewhat of a Johnny-come-lately-type person. I’m sure they’re going to ask where she has been all of these years. She has experience as a lieutenant governor, even though it’s in the wrong state.”

Political analysts have different views of McCaughey’s impact on the race. But longtime Hartford Democratic political operative Matthew J. Hennessy says the biggest beneficiary could be Stewart.

McCaughey’s “entry now splits the Trump vote,” Hennessy said. “I think it helps Erin Stewart. There is an argument that McCaughey is more Trumpy [than Fazio]. Fazio would probably win the primary in a head-to-head with Stewart. Now, with the former lieutenant governor in the race, he’s got his hands full. Stewart has to be relieved that this lady is in the race.”

McCaughey’s role as a host on the conservative Newsmax television channel will impact the race, he said.

“It’s now a national Republican primary,” Hennessy said. “The folks who get their information from Newsmax is a small group, but it’s folks who would be active in a Republican primary. She has solid name recognition among that highly charged group.”

But Rose, the Sacred Heart professor, said McCaughey is a multi-faceted candidate that defies some labels.

“I’m not sure why Betsy McCaughey would be perceived as a Trumper,” Rose said. “I think she is in her own category.”

Trump at her wedding

McCaughey has lived an interesting and colorful life on a personal and political level that has brought her national attention.

She has ties to Trump that date back decades. Trump attended McCaughey’s wedding in December 1995 in New York City to Wilbur Ross, the wealthy Wall Street investment banker who Trump later named as the U.S. commerce secretary. Ross was an influential player in the Cabinet, appearing at numerous White House meetings on various topics.

The wedding reception was described by a columnist as “an over the top affair” aboard the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier-museum with 600 guests, including Trump, Martha Stewart, and celebrities from New York’s social scene. McCaughey was serving as the 47-year-old lieutenant governor at the time, and the reception included politicians like New York Gov. George Pataki and U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

McCaughey’s political peak came in 1994 when she became the state’s second-highest-ranking official under Pataki as they defeated incumbent Democrat Mario Cuomo in a surprising upset. McCaughey was vaulted into the spotlight for being on the ticket that ousted a Democratic icon who had won three terms in New York state.

But McCaughey soon fell out of favor with Pataki, and he made the unusual move of dropping her as his running mate for the 1998 election. McCaughey responding by abruptly becoming a Democrat and running for governor against her own boss. In a bitter race, McCaughey was bankrolled by Ross, her then-husband, but then he suddenly pulled the plug on $2.25 million that had been promised. That prompted McCaughey to sue her husband for backing out on his campaign funding promise.

Running on the Liberal Party line, McCaughey won only 1.65% of the vote and barely finished ahead of “Grandpa” Al Lewis, the Green Party candidate who was best known as an actor in the 1960s on “The Munsters” television series. With 10 candidates splitting the vote, Pataki cruised to victory in a bizarre election.

On the day after McCaughey lost the biggest election of her life, Ross filed for divorce.

CT GOP

While some observers note that McCaughey has never held public office in Connecticut, others say that is not a major deterrent because the state’s Republican Party has changed drastically in recent decades.

In repeated primaries, Connecticut Republicans have chosen outsiders who have never held public office over those who have worked their way up through the system.

Republicans chose wrestling executive Linda McMahon for the U.S. Senate in the August 2012 primary over U.S. Rep. Chris Shays, who served for 21 years in Congress and had close ties to President George W. Bush and other major party figures. She also won the August 2010 primary over U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, a moderate who won elections in both the state House and the U.S. Congress. Republicans also chose Greenwich business executive Tom Foley and Bob Stefanowski of Madison in races for governor, even though they had not held any major public offices in the state. In that tradition, some analysts said McCaughey can compete in a primary against a sitting state senator from Greenwich and a former mayor from New Britain.

Like McCaughey, Fazio said that he, too, would cut taxes if elected.

“I have a long record of vocally fighting against the income tax and fighting for lower taxes across the board,” Fazio said Friday. “As governor, I will pass the largest income tax cut in state history, delivering $1,500 in relief per family. I am the only candidate in this race with the record, experience and know-how to cut wasteful spending and reform the tax code to make historic tax relief a reality.”

Stewart’s campaign declined to comment for this story.

Trump in future

The biggest impact in the race would be an endorsement from Trump because his MAGA supporters traditionally follow his lead, particularly in low-turnout Republican primaries.

In 2022, Trump’s endorsement of little-known Leora Levy of Greenwich helped her defeat former House Republican leader Themis Klarides, a high-profile leader who had served in the state legislature for 22 years. Klarides had won the party’s convention and was widely seen as the frontrunner, but that was wiped away by Trump’s last-minute endorsement of a national party fundraiser who was not well known to the general public.

This year, less than seven months before an expected August primary, Trump’s stance remains uncertain.

When asked by The Courant to rate her chances of gaining Trump’s endorsement, McCaughey responded, “I would welcome an endorsement, but I stand on my own two feet. Donald Trump is doing everything he can for America, and I’m going to do everything I can for Connecticut.”

Asked by a second reporter if she would seek Trump’s endorsement, McCaughey said, “I don’t have to seek it, honey. If he decides to give it, I will welcome it, but I’m sure I can win without it.”

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