Seth Bronko, who serves in the Connecticut State House of Representatives for the 70th district, came to speak at the university last Wednesday, and he discussed and encouraged people to get more involved in local politics.
Bronko started by discussing some points about what it can be like to be a Republican college student and how different it could be from being a Democrat.
“I liked kind of tapping into like-minded college students myself, and saw that it feels that I have to as a Republican sort of hide on campus, stay in the closet if you will while everyone else is coming out of the closet as a Republican you gotta be quiet. It felt like you kinda had to hide a bit,” he said.
Bronko was born in 1988 and has lived in Naugatuck since. He graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2011, and went on to co-own a family-run Naugatuck construction company. He also served as part of multiple different boards within the city such as the financial board. He first ran for the Connecticut State House in 2022 as a Republican, and defeated Democratic candidate Jeff Litke by approximately 13%. He won a second term in 2024 in a rematch against Litke by about 10%s.This session, Bronkoe is assigned to three committees in the Connecticut State House and has introduced 27 bills into the House this year.
During his time at the University of Connecticut, he had also helped build a Republican club on campus from about eight to 10 students when he first joined to about 40 to 50 when he graduated.
“I love when younger people are interested and want to be involved, and so that’s why I’m here,”he said.
Bronko urged audience members to pay attention to everyone who is being elected at your local level and not just federally.
“It’s very easy to just follow in the national media and only think about what’s going on down in Washington D.C.” he said. “What’s happening in your own backyard affects you way more than anything happening in D.C. so from the local level and the local government to your state government, and then onto the federal government. The federal government has taken up and kinda sucked the oxygen in the room with media and narrative, but if there’s one thing, I can press upon you guys today. Get plugged in locally, know who your representatives are, know who your mayors are, and how your town government works.”
Bronko also took a shot at a Housing Bill that was signed into law recently by Governor Ned Lamont, on which he voted no. “What we did basically, is we took your local decision making pretty much out of your local towns hands and put it at the state level,” he said. “They can build these big old housing complexes, leave zero parking, and slap it right in the middle of a commercial district and your local elected officials can do nothing about it.”
Bronko also took part in a Q&A where he was asked about various topics such as what’s being taught in college, but also about opinions on the political climate such as over the shooting of Charlie Kirk.
“We’re at a point now, where we saw it so clearly after Charlie Kirk died that there are two alternate realities. There are the people on this side who can’t even fathom how this side believes in what they do. There’s like this divide where we’re living in two worlds and it’s part of the problem and it’s why I think your generation is going to break that and bring back some sense of reality and that’s why it’s so important for you guys to step up and be vocal,” he said.
Bronko also said he feels the Republican Party is falling behind on messaging with how he feels the Democratic Party gets more emotional with messaging.
Bronko also pleaded for the national environment to change towards people before policy.
“We have to separate people from policy and understand that we’re all Americans first, we’re all people first,” he said. “We can argue and debate policy every day, but we have to have it based on the notion of respect and decency in doing all of that and politics has kind of just turned into this game of name calling the other side it’s the most ineffective drama filled and I think people are just over the drama.”
Ryan J. Wells, the treasurer of College Republicans and a freshmen intelligence analysis major who helped invite Bronko to campus said, “It’s amazing that we can representatives to come down here and talk about how individuals can engage in politics because it’s very important and civic responsibilities are important to me and I’m hoping that I can spread that with the people of University of New Haven.”
