Rick Lopes is an American politician who currently represents the 6th District in the

Connecticut State Senate The Connecticut State Senate is the upper house of the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The state senate comprises 36 members, each representing a district with around 99,280 inhabitants. Sena ...

since 2021. Lopes formerly represented the 24th District of the

Connecticut House of Representatives The Connecticut State House of Representatives is the lower house in the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The house is composed of 151 members representing an ...

Member-elect of the Connecticut State Senate. Lopes ran for the 6th District seat in the

during the 2020 election. Lopes won the election against Republican Incumbent Gennaro Bizzarro. Lopes began his two-year term in the

on January 3, 2021 and will seek re-election in 2022.

Early career

Rick Lopes has owned and managed a property management business serving

West Hartford West Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, west of downtown Hartford. The population was 64,083 at the 2020 census. The town's popular downtown area is colloquially known as "West Hartford Center," or simply "The C ...

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

, and

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. Rick Lopes graduated from

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

with a Bachelor's degree in Literature, as well as a second Bachelor's degree in Sociology. In 2003 he earned a Master's degree in Social Work (MSW) from the University of Connecticut.

Political career

Lopes won a special election in 2012 against Republican candidate Peter Steele. Steele and Lopes would go head to head in the 2012 General election as well. With Lopes being victorious. Lopes would win re-election in the 2014 election as well. Defeating Republican Gennaro Bizzarro. Lopes would win the 2016 and 2018 elections. Defeating Republicans James Sanders and Sharan Beloin-Saavedra respectively. In 2019, Rick Lopes ran against Republican State Senator Gennaro Bizzarro in a special election after Senator Terry Gerratana resigned for a position in Governor Lamont's administration where Lopes lost. However, Lopes would ultimately win the seat in a 2020 general election and help add to the Democratic majority in the

Electoral history

2020

Rick Lopes defeated Republican Incumbent Gennaro Bizzarro. Bizzarro has represented the 6th District since 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lopes, Rick Democratic Party members of the Connecticut House of Representatives Democratic Party Connecticut state senators Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Politicians from New Britain, Connecticut 21st-century American legislators University of Connecticut alumni 21st-century Connecticut politicians American people of Portuguese descent