Candidates: State House of Representatives District 64
The Connecticut House of Representatives is the lower house in the state’s General Assembly bicameral system of government. There are 151 members in the House who, alongside the State Senate, work to legislate and set the limits for state spending via the budget in conjunction with the Governor. Through the budgeting process, Representatives play a key role in lowering and raising taxes. They also help provide key constituent services, helping residents of the District navigate interactions with State agencies. The 64th District includes nine towns in the Northwest Corner of the State: Canaan, Cornwall, Goshen, Kent, Norfolk, North Canaan, Salisbury, Sharon, and Washington.
CANDIDATE: Maria Horn
OFFICE: State Representative (incumbent)
AGE AND PARTY: 62, Democratic
POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Eight years as State Representative, Salisbury Board of Finance
State Rep. Maria Horn is seeking re-election for a fifth two-year term in the Connecticut House of Representatives. Horn, of Salisbury, was initially elected to the House in 2018. She is an attorney by trade who hails from Ohio and attended Princeton University. Horn received her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School and has worked for J.P. Morgan and Co., law firm Debevoise and Plimpton, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division. As for her prior experience in government, Horn has also served on the Salisbury Board of Finance.
Horn became the chair of the House Public Safety Committee during her second legislative term and has also served on the Environment, Energy and Technology Committee and Appropriations Committee. She is the current Co-Chair of the Finance, Bonding, and Revenue Committee. In May, as she accepted the Democratic Party nomination for reelection, Horn told attendees that she joined the State General Assembly in 2018 after winning her race because she wanted Connecticut to stand up to the changes that President Donald Trump ushered in during his first term. She added that now that she is an experienced Legislator, she plans to use that experience to ensure that Connecticut stands up to even more radical changes, as she sees them.
Her experience, as a Co-Chair of the Finance, Bonding, and Revenue Committee, will be key, she noted. In that role, she participates in negotiations for the State budget. The most recent two State spending plans saw historic cuts to personal income tax, large investments in early childhood education, and tax cuts to working families with children, according to Horn. She said she hopes to continue being fiscally responsible while also delivering relief on local property taxes across District 64.
CANDIDATE: Katelynn Borraiz
OFFICE: State Representative (challenger)
AGE AND PARTY: 36, Republican
POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Seeking first elected office
Not much is known about Horn’s opponent Katelynn Borraiz, who did not face a Republican challenger in August during the Primary Election. She did not have a campaign website with biographical and political information for voters as of Sept. 26. She has a Facebook page, “Katelynn for the 64th,” with 56 followers.
In a public appearance with other Republican Party candidates at a restaurant in Kent in July, Borraiz said she wants to see Connecticut thrive. Part of her plan to bring shine to the Nutmeg State includes lowering taxes and what she described as astronomically high energy bills. She also said the State General Assembly overreaches into the lives of people in the State.
At the event in Kent, Borraiz also noted she is engaged in litigation with the Connecticut Department of Children and Families “because of my choices.” She added that she is in support of “medical freedom and parental rights.”
Borraiz is on record as having opposed SB 6, “especially Section 5”, which would have required the Department of Education to notify the Department of Children and Families when a parent/guardian withdrew a child from public school, so that DCF could identify potentially at-risk children who were removed from the public school system. The bill did not pass the legislature.
Borraiz has also identified herself as an anti-establishment politician.
Very little is known about Borraiz’s work history, but in a Facebook post from August she suggested she works two jobs.
