Now a member of Congress in the second Trump era, Jahana Hayes has a new sense of urgency.
Appearing this week at The Connecticut Mirror’s “In the Room” series hosted by John Dankosky at the C.H. Booth Library in Newtown, Hayes said she is speaking out more forcefully on the issues she cares about since she was first elected to represent Connecticut’s 5th District in Congress six years ago.
She reflected on her evolution as an elected official after four elections and her reasoning for becoming more “outspoken” when President Donald J. Trump returned to the White House.
Hayes was new to the world of politics when she first ran for Congress in 2018. She was a teacher in her home town of Waterbury and won National Teacher of the Year two years earlier.
She said she joined the ranks of Congress with a “little bit of an imposter syndrome,” conceding that she didn’t expect to win “because it was such a Herculean task.”
But this week, she asserted confidence in her job as a legislator and the perspective she brings because of her lived experiences. She purposely joined the House committees that oversee education and agriculture because of her job as a teacher where she taught kids whose only meals would be served at school.
Now, Hayes said, some issues are red lines for her, with nutrition and education at the top of the list.
“Even in an effort to be bipartisan, I have some hard lines. I’m not going to work with you if you don’t want to feed kids,” Hayes said. “I think today, in this environment that we’re in, I’m going down swinging on all the issues that I care about.”
“There was a time where I thought if we can get this, then we live to fight another day, and we work,” Hayes said. “But now everything seems urgent, like everything seems like this is the last change to get it right. So I think that I am a lot more outspoken on issues today in this term than I was before.”
U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes talks to supporters at the Courtyard Waterbury as she waits for election results to come in on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Aaron Flaum/ Hartford Courant)
The hour-long conversation delved into some of the issues she’s most familiar with, both because of her work on two committees and her personal experiences: the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and Republicans’ tax bill that would cut spending for nutrition assistance.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who lives in Greenwich, has been overseeing the overhaul of her department that Trump has promised to disband. Her promise to shift education back to the states and change some of the federal agency’s oversight and responsibilities could leave states like Connecticut to fill in the gaps.
Hayes believes many people have misconceptions about what the federal agency does, noting that it does not set curriculum and instead oversees things like student loans, Pell Grants and civil rights. She argued that there needs to be a “long-term investment strategy” in the public education. And she fears what will happen to special education if it is moved out of the jurisdiction of the education department.
And as Republicans have inched closer to passing their tax bill, Hayes was recently front and center as the House Agriculture Committee debated Trump’s “big beautiful bill” and the cuts that would be made to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. Hayes serves as the ranking member of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Foreign Agriculture, and Horticulture.
The proposed changes to SNAP would for the first time require states to pay for a portion of nutrition benefits for low-income individuals and families. That cost-sharing plan and new work requirements are raising concerns about whether states like Connecticut would need to cut benefits or change eligibility.
The GOP plan would impose stronger work requirements for certain able-bodied adults without dependents, raising the age limit from 54 to 64. The same would also apply to adults with children age 7 or older. They would be required to work or participate in related training for at least 80 hours a month.
“Hunger is a policy choice,” Hayes said. “I did not come to Congress to starve kids. You don’t get to say we saved $4 billion but we just throw 7 million kids off of a food safety net program. People don’t understand how dogged I am about food and nutrition.”
Over the past six years, Hayes said, she has learned more about how Congress works as well as the relationships between lawmakers. She noted that, in private, she felt like she could have conversations with colleagues and make progress on an issue. But that would change when she learned how they voted moments later.
“Your vote tells me where you stand on an issue. I don’t want to hear empty words. I don’t want to hear promises,” Hayes said. “You can’t tell me you care about something and then go in and vote about it and vote differently.”
That led to a question about why she said she regrets her vote in support of the Laken Riley Act, which requires the detention of unauthorized migrants who have been arrested or charged with burglary, theft, shoplifting, or causing serious injury. It was signed into law by Trump about a week after he took office in late January.
U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., waves to people voting on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 in Danbury, Conn. (Jessica Hill/Special to the Courant)
Hayes was one of a 46 House Democrats who joined Republicans in passing the bill. The congresswoman and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2, were the only members of Connecticut’s delegation to vote for the legislation.
She said she was reflecting on the 2024 elections and the message from voters on immigration as a top issue. For Hayes, the provision about detaining someone over assaulting a law enforcement officer stuck out. Her husband, Milford Hayes, is a retired police officer.
Looking back, she said she was wary of other parts of the bill, including concerns about a lack of due process. But she ultimately voted for it.
When she said she regretted it at a recent televised CNN town hall, Hayes said she was cautioned not to make public comments like that, especially as a woman. But on Thursday, she pushed back at that sentiment and said she believes that is part of an elected official’s job.
“What I’ve seen is that just bastardizing those little things like literally erasing due process to the point where our people are being shipped to foreign prisons, and this idea that every person who immigrates to this country for whatever reason is a criminal or a rapist or a murderer,” Hayes said.
“[Republicans’] intent was not to pursue an immigration strategy,” she said. “That provision was not worth the tradeoff of what I’m seeing now.”
When asked about Trump’s pardon of former Gov. John Rowland, Hayes argued that it “flies in the face of the party of law and order,” while noting Rowland’s “isn’t even the most egregious of the pardons.”
Rowland, a Waterbury native, represented the 5th District from 1985 to 1991 and went on to serve as governor. During his third term, he faced impeachment and a federal investigation that led to his resignation in 2004. He pleaded guilty to corruption charges and served less than a year in prison. He was convicted again about a decade later and sentenced to more time in prison.
Hayes said she believes in second chances but criticized Trump’s overall strategy of pardoning people who she believes haven’t taken accountability for their actions or those who sought clemency by attending fundraising dinners.
“We’re talking about just using the power of the presidency and the pardon power for political favor,” she said.
But she acknowledged the positive feelings toward the former governor that still exist in her hometown.
“I’m from Waterbury. There are people in Waterbury who still love John Rowland,” Hayes said. “I get it. But you did a bad thing.”
Lisa Hagen is CT Mirror and CT Public’s shared Federal Policy Reporter. Based in Washington, D.C., she focuses on the impact of federal policy in Connecticut and covers the state’s congressional delegation.