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The State Senate District 36 candidate, brother to Stamford Mayor Carolyn Simmons, was born and raised in Greenwich and now calls Stamford home.
The district comprises Greenwich, North Stamford, and portions of Stamford, New Canaan, and Newfield-Westover-Turn of River.
He left a brief career on Wall Street to teach middle school math in Harlem.
Within a few years, at 26, Simmons became one of the youngest acting school principals in New York.
Later, he went on to serve in Gov. Ned Lamont’s and President Biden’s administrations.
Simmons, a Democrat, is running for a two-year term against incumbent Sen. Ryan Fazio (R) in the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Name: Nick Simmons
Age: 35
Occupation: I have tried to devote my career to service and trying to solve problems to make our lives better. This began, when I served as one of the youngest acting school principals in the state of New York at a middle school in Harlem when I was 26 years old.
I was most recently Governor Ned Lamont’s Deputy Chief of Staff and helped to lead and craft policy in everything from workforce development, education and economic development.
I also served as a Senior Advisor in the Biden administration where I was asked to help oversee school reopening and school recovery during Covid-19.
I have been lucky to serve in many policy positions and see how much impact you can have in a position like State Senator. The core motivation of my career has been to try and solve problems through public and private sector work.
What is your party affiliation? Democrat
What past offices have you held? This is my first time running for office.
Current Race: State Senate District 36
If elected, what would you do to improve roads and trains in Fairfield County?
This is one of my top priorities. Our corridor of I-95 (the Stamford Corridor) is the most congested section of highway in America, more than in LA, Washington, or Boston. When I was working in Hartford, I saw how small a percentage of the overall transportation budget was spent on improving our corridor.
I believe we have been under prioritized because it has been decades since we sent to the State Legislature a delegation fully in the majority party. Because we have not been at the table, we have missed out on hundreds of millions of dollars.
Instead of spending his time trying to fix I-95 and Metro North, our current State Senator has been fighting for an extreme right-wing agenda like trying to kill a common sense safety bill to ban assault weapons and opposing bills to protect women’s reproductive rights. These are views that don’t represent Greenwich, Stamford, and New Canaan.
I will work relentlessly and fight with our other State Representatives and Senators—we would be a powerful and big delegation combining Stamford, Greenwich, and New Canaan to use our political capital to prioritize fixing I-95 and Metro North.
I served as a leader from the Governor’s Office on the investments to rebuild the Stamford Train Station. I have seen how to get this kind of work done and can help us do it for the whole District from the State Senate.
If elected, what is your position on state spending and the state budget?
Lowering taxes and living costs and growing the economy will always be my top priority. I believe we need to attract more taxpayers to our state and not implement more onerous taxes. I saw firsthand how Governor Lamont was able to turn our state’s economy around from the lost decade of the 2010s into the period of growth we are in now. I was proud to be a part of the governor’s senior team in an administration that was able to achieve consistent balanced budgets, stick by spending guard rails, pay off record debt, and build out record rainy-day funds all while passing the biggest tax cut in the history of the state.
Connecticut received two state credit upgrades from outside creditors, paying less on debt and allowing us to devote more funds to smart spending like on education, workforce development, and infrastructure. The budget guard rails need to stay in place and I would like to serve as a champion in the senate for these policies and protecting and continuing the economic turnaround that Governor Lamont has achieved.
What is another top issue or priority in your town or district that you would address in office?
Fighting for our values—women's reproductive rights and gun safety. My opponent actively tried to defeat Connecticut’s comprehensive gun safety bill which enacted common sense gun safety measures like closing loopholes to keep guns out of bad hands, strengthening background checks, banning assault weapons, increasing penalties for gun law violators, and requiring guns to be safely stored in homes.
I was teaching in Harlem when Sandy Hook happened, and in its aftermath, like many other teachers, I had to plan where I’d take a bullet for one of my students. We had months and months of active shooter drills.
Sen. Fazio also voted against the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act in our state which protects abortion rights and women's rights to travel to Connecticut for abortion.
When I was growing up here it would be inconceivable to me that our state senator would vote against bills that would protect our community from gun violence and protect the reproductive rights of the women in my family .
Every day I hear we need someone in Hartford who, without a shadow of a doubt, will protect reproductive rights and protect us from gun violence.
Why should people vote for you?
In Connecticut, we prioritize leadership that is practical, pragmatic, and helps solve people’s problems—leadership that prioritizes getting things done over heavy politics. We have a history of doing that when we are at our best; we stand out in the country compared to other states. We care deeply for women’s rights and fighting gun violence and protecting communities from gun violence. We believe in economic growth and being pragmatic in growing our economy and making the place a great state for all of us to live in.
I love this community deeply. This is where I was raised, where my whole family is, where I’m raising my family. I care deeply about our values and representing our values in Hartford. And I want to solve the problems we face: lowering taxes and costs, rebuilding our schools, fixing I-95. I have a long, long track record of getting that done in the Governor’s Office and in the Biden Administration. I can’t imagine a greater honor than being able to represent my home in Hartford.
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