Matthew L. Lesser is an American politician who represents the 9th 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 ...

. First elected to the State House in 2008, Lesser was re-elected in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016. In 2018 he was elected as state senator for the 9th district, winning 57% of the vote.

Political career

Early years

In 2006, Lesser, as a full-time student at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

and President of the College Democrats of Connecticut, organized the largest student voter mobilization drive in the country. Lesser was elected as Chairman of the Middletown Planning and Zoning Commission.

State House

On May 20, 2008, Lesser, then a student at

, was selected to run as the second youngest candidate for State Representative at the Democratic 100th District Convention. Lesser received the endorsement of then-Connecticut Secretary of State

Susan Bysiewicz Susan Bysiewicz ( ; born September 29, 1961) is an American politician and attorney who is the 109th lieutenant governor of Connecticut, serving since January 9, 2019. She previously served as the 72nd secretary of the state of Connecticut from 1 ...

, who once held the 100th District State representative seat. Lesser also received support from State Senator Tom Gaffey and Middletown DTC Chairman Dan Russo. Lesser defeated three-term incumbent Ray Kalinowski. In the state House, Lesser served as the chairman of the Banking Committee. Additionally, he sat on the Government Administration and Elections and Insurance and Real Estate Committees. Since taking office in 2009, Lesser has written and passed a number of laws, including Connecticut's first in the nation Student Loan Bill of Rights, an act prohibiting fracking waste from being dumped in Connecticut, and updated workplace safety standards. An advocate of

voting rights Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

, Lesser considered running for Connecticut secretary of state in 2018 and formed an

exploratory committee In the election politics of the United States, an exploratory committee is an organization established to help determine whether a potential candidate should run for an elected office. They are most often cited in reference to candidates for pre ...

, but said he would only run if Denise W. Merrill did not seek election. In 2012, Lesser was elected to the Democratic Party's National Platform Committee.

State Senate

Lesser announced a run for state senator in May 2018. He won the August 2018 primary against former state representative Antonio Guerrera. The general election featured some controversy when the campaign of Republican candidate Ed Charamut sent our a mailer to voters attacking Lesser, featuring an altered image of Lesser clutching $100 bills; the mailer garnered national media attention and was denounced for its use of antisemitic tropes. Lesser won the general election in November and was appointed as Senate Chairman of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee in the following month. As a state senator, Lesser has written laws to guarantee mental health parity, expand access to

epinephrine Adrenaline, also known as epinephrine, is a hormone and medication which is involved in regulating visceral functions (e.g., respiration). It appears as a white microcrystalline granule. Adrenaline is normally produced by the adrenal glands and ...

devices and

EpiPen An epinephrine autoinjector (or adrenaline autoinjector, also known by the trademark EpiPen) is a medical device for injecting a measured dose or doses of epinephrine (adrenaline) by means of autoinjector technology. It is most often used for t ...

s in public venues, and to cap the cost of

insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the ''INS'' gene. It is considered to be the main anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabolism o ...

at $25, the lowest such cap in the United States. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Lesser wrote a law expanding access to

telehealth Telehealth is the distribution of health-related services and information via electronic information and telecommunication technologies. It allows long-distance patient and clinician contact, care, advice, reminders, education, intervention, mon ...

. During the 2019 legislative session, Lesser championed a health care reform effort to create a

public health insurance option The public health insurance option, also known as the public insurance option or the public option, is a proposal to create a government-run health insurance agency that would compete with other private health insurance companies within the United ...

in the state of Connecticut (dubbed "the Connecticut Option"). He overseeing the bill from his position as Co-Chair when it passed out of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee. The bill also passed the House Appropriations Committee on a 29–19 vote. The effort ultimately failed amid opposition from health insurers.Shefali Luthra
Insurers Sank Connecticut's 'Public Option.' Would A National Version Survive?
KHN (March 4, 2020).

Personal life

Lesser lives in Middletown's North End with his wife Sarah, their son, and their dog Lucy.

Electoral history

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lesser, Matt 1983 births 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American politicians Democratic Party Connecticut state senators Jewish American state legislators in Connecticut Living people Democratic Party members of the Connecticut House of Representatives Politicians from Middletown, Connecticut Wesleyan University alumni