I grew up in Washington on a dairy farm that’s now only a memory.

When my legs were long enough to reach the pedals on the little tractor, I was put to work scraping cow manure before dawn on weekends. During the winter, I played hockey on the Washington hockey team - back in the day when Washington, Kent, and New Milford all had enough young families with kids to sustain their own hockey programs.  I went to Washington Primary School and then Shepaug, where I met a girl, Claire Love, who I would end up marrying. Claire’s mother is a formidable presence with a deep southern drawl. While she was taking pictures of us before we headed off to prom, she blurted out “Y’all will make such beautiful babies someday.” Extremely inappropriate, very embarrassing, but it turns out she was correct. Today we have two beautiful children, Madeleine who is 8, and Orlando, who is 6. 

In middle school I started working at Maple Bank Farm in Roxbury. Working with fruits and vegetables in the open air had much more appeal to me than spending five hours in the pit in the milking parlor in 95-degree heat and 110% humidity in the summer, dealing with my father bossing me around. While working in the fields in Roxbury I’d think about what I wanted to do with the life ahead of me. The plan was to go off to college, go to New York for a few years, come back to Litchfield County and start my own business, maybe growing fruits and vegetables, and start a family out here. Even when I was eager to get out of the area for a bit during my teen years, I recognized how special this area was, and it was where I wanted to end up. I know a lot of my high school classmates felt the same way. 

In 1998, I graduated from Shepaug and headed off to college, first to the University of Minnesota, and then to Cornell University, where I graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in Economics in 2002. After graduating, I headed to New York as planned and started working as a legal assistant in a law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft, thinking I might go to law school. However, I’d always wanted to start a business, and figured if there was ever a time in my life to take such a risk, it would be in my 20s. I maxed out my credit cards, and got my e-commerce business selling decorative branches and other lasting botanicals going. I named it Nettleton Hollow after after the road we used to run the heifers home from their summer pastures. Much to my surprise, it worked out. I looked into the possibility of pursuing the next part of my life plan - moving back to Litchfield County, ideally my hometown. However, the housing options were limited largely to moving back in with my parents. I decided to stay in Brooklyn. 

Around the same time, my grandmother was alone and struggling in her big, empty farmhouse.  My grandfather had died in 2003. While her sons and daughters-in-law would stop in multiple times a day, it still wasn’t enough. I was near the start of my adult life, she was near the end of hers, but we both needed the same thing - an apartment in the area we loved. Eventually she was convinced to move into Chestnut Grove in New Milford, where she thrived, developing a new social scene, and even getting a “boyfriend.”

Claire and I got married in 2012, had our daughter Madeleine in 2015 and son Orlando in 2017. Both times Claire was pregnant, she would start looking for a place to raise our children in the area we grew up. In 2017 we purchased a house in Kent. We finally got back to Litchfield County, albeit as the “New Yorkers” my mother would scoff at when I was growing up. Early on, we were sitting at the bar at a local restaurant, and got into a conversation with an older couple. Turns out they were parents of my childhood hockey rivals on the Kent team, and they had taught Claire’s sister at Kent School. They had retired and were thrilled to have moved into the condos in town, within walking distance of the restaurant. When Claire and I left, we talked about how wonderful this little town of about 3,000 had condos right in the center of town for teachers to retire in.

Back in New York, my first foray into politics occurred in 2019. Amazon had proposed building “HQ2” in our neighborhood, and most people were thrilled. It was a tremendous investment that was estimated to produce 25,000 jobs. However, our state senator at the time managed to scuttle the deal to appease a very vocal minority, but one that could end his career in a Democratic primary. Less than a year before, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had beaten a 10-term incumbent in an overlapping congressional district. I considered it my civic duty to make sure my state senator was challenged by a moderate Democrat who thought the opportunity for an Amazon HQ2 at least deserved a fair hearing. I considered myself a “provisional candidate,” and stepped aside when another candidate came in. 

We were finally were able to move back here full time in 2020. I quickly got involved locally, joining the board of Kent Affordable Housing in 2021, and becoming the president in 2022. I started volunteering at the Kent Food Bank, and still do so regularly. In these various roles I’ve seen how the cost of living, particularly housing, has impacted so many, and have been working hard to make a difference. 

Serving as a State Senator would provide the opportunity to help create lasting change for our district and state. It was a great honor, and honestly a surprise to have been asked to run. I’m a true blue Democrat on the key issues - reproductive rights and gun safety for instance - but my background and positions, which I’m not shy about, don’t fit the current mold. I’m excited for this race, advocating for, and hopefully shaping policy that will create a more affordable and sustainable future for this district and Connecticut. Onward!