By Lisa Hagen / CTMirror.org, with additional Westport Journal reporting

Both Republican Party-endorsed candidates vying for the U.S. Senate and 4th Congressional District nominations in Tuesday’s primaries were rejected by voters.

Matthew Corey prevailed over Gerry Smith in the contest for the Senate nomination, and in November will face U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat seeking a third term.

And Michael Goldstein defeated Bob MacGuffie in the race to take on U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, the Democratic incumbent running for a ninth term.

In the Senate contest, Corey defeated Beacon Falls First Selectman Gerry Smith, with a statewide result of 54 to 46 percent, with 95 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press.

For the 4th District nod, Goldstein beat MacGuffie, with a districtwide tally of 53 to 47 percent with more than 95 percent of the votes counted.

With 776 of 799 precincts reporting to the Secretary of the State’s office, turnout statewide in Tuesday’s Republican primaries was little more than 7 percent — about one-third of the turnout in the GOP’s U.S. Senate primary two years ago.

In Westport, registered Republicans who voted during Tuesday’s primary and the week-long early-voting period favored both of the endorsed candidates.

• In the U.S. Senate contest, local Republicans gave Smith, the endorsed candidate, 122 votes to 97 for challenger Corey, who went on to win the statewide race.
• In the 4th Congressional District race, MacGuffie, the endorsed contender, won 118 votes to 102 for Goldstein, who prevailed in the districtwide contest.

Forty-four Westport Republicans cast ballots during the seven days of early voting preceding the Tuesday primary.

Total voter turnout for the primaries was light, with 225 of Westport’s 3,477 registered Republicans casting ballots.

Corey will try to unseat Murphy a second time

Corey, a bar owner from Manchester and Navy veteran, prevailed over Smith, the Beacon Falls first selectman who won the GOP endorsement at the state party’s convention in May.

Republicans have not won a Senate race in Connecticut in more than four decades.

Corey was the GOP nominee in the 2018 race against Murphy, but lost with less than 40 percent of the vote. 

Following his victory Tuesday, Corey posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that he spoke with Smith in a “very gracious phone call” and will work with him to take on Murphy in the general election.

“Chris Murphy’s career has made life here increasingly unaffordable for CT’s middle class. Tonight I start bringing the case to unaffiliated & Democratic voters that they need a Senator who fights for them,” Corey posted Tuesday night.

Smith was hoping to avoid a Senate primary after clinching nearly 70 percent of the vote in a four-way contest at the GOP convention. But Corey secured enough of the vote and garnered more than the 15 percent threshold to force a primary.

Corey had more built-in name recognition from his past bids for Senate, as well as for U.S. Rep. John Larson’s seat in the 1st Congressional District.

Corey had argued that a primary challenge ensured that the fight for the U.S. Senate was not an “afterthought” for the Republican Party.

“Nobody was making the case why Sen. Murphy doesn’t deserve another six years. I was willing to take the backlash,” Corey said in an interview last week, referencing some of the pushback he received for staying in the race after Smith’s convention endorsement.

Ben Proto, the chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party, said Corey’s longtime involvement in GOP politics and his name recognition from past races likely helped him mount a successful primary in a shorter timeframe. But Proto said it is difficult to extrapolate why both convention-endorsed candidates lost with a voter turnout of less than 10 percent.

Corey ended July with $32,000 left in the bank, compared to Murphy’s campaign account of more than $9.7 million.

Goldstein wins 4th District nod on second try

MacGuffie, a Fairfield resident and former financial executive who led the state’s Tea Party movement, got in the race earlier than Goldstein, a Greenwich physician and attorney.

MacGuffie had secured the endorsement at the May convention on the second ballot. While he has the party’s official backing, Goldstein got endorsements from a number of elected officials in Greenwich, as well as state Senate GOP Leader Stephen Harding and Leora Levy, the 2022 GOP nominee for U.S. Senate.

Goldstein argued that MacGuffie was “more interested in yelling” about Himes than in finding solutions and giving voters a reason to back an alternative to the congressman. MacGuffie had pushed back that there were not other candidates willing to take an “aggressive stance” against the Democratic congressman seeking a ninth term.

None of the state’s incumbent Democratic federal officeholders faced primaries Tuesday. 

Connecticut’s delegation has seen little turnover in recent years, and some lawmakers have been in office for decades. This year’s most competitive race, in the 5th Congressional District, did not have any contested primaries. Democratic Rep. Jahana Hayes is slated to face Republican George Logan in a rematch with the U.S. House majority on the line again.

Heading into the general election this fall, Republicans are hoping to increase their representation and break through the state’s all-Democratoc congressional delegation. 

But in the Senate and 4th District races, the odds are more stacked against them.

The GOP has not won a U.S. Senate election in Connecticut since Lowell Weicker won re-election in 1982. 

And Republican Chris Shays held the 4th District seay for more than two decades until he was unseated by Himes, who has held the congressional seat since 2008. The once-competitive House district has now become one of the safest blue seats in the state.

There was little daylight between the GOP candidates on the issues. They largely aligned on economic issues like inflation, concerns about the U.S.-Mexico border, high utility bills and traffic congestion on major highways. But they differed more on their style and approach to the race.