Vote 2026: Fazio, Lamont face-off in feisty first debate for governor

After months of taking swipes at each other on the airwaves, Ned Lamont and Ryan Fazio finally faced off in person. This turned out to be a surprisingly feisty debate. Senator Fazio will give the first opening statement. Republican Ryan Fazio hammered the two-term governor on Connecticut's high cost of living, especially electric bills. I think the viewers out there will be very surprised to learn that Governor Lamont's holding Eversource accountable. when he has a texting relationship with the CEO and the CEO says don't leave town until we have our billion dollar deal finalized. I do have a relationship with the business leaders of the state. That does not mean I do not hold them accountable. The candidates also clashed on ICE agents in Connecticut. A two-year-old boy in Stamford, Connecticut, Liam Rivera, was beaten and killed by a person in the state illegally. I can't believe you're exploiting that one story out of Stamford that has nothing to do with immigration. Both sides did find common ground on controversial data centers and flock cameras. Absolutely, there's more pressure on Ryan Fazio. Political analyst Gail Alberta says Fazio needed to land some punches. What does Fazio need to do in this debate? There are a couple things that you should be looking for. One will be whether or not Fazio is able to connect with undecided voters and increase his name recognition. What does Leather Eye need to do? For Lamont, one of the big goals is not to do anything that would put him in political jeopardy while he's at the debate. Well, this debate won't even matter to 140,000 voters. That's how many people have already cast a ballot early, and that was as of Wednesday. John Craven, News 12.