The Waterbury Times|Op/Ed|Aug 9, 2026

Dear fellow Nutmeggers,

I write in support of Jonathan De Barros’s candidacy in the Republican primary on August 11, 2026, to run for the Fifth U.S. Congressional District. As a United States Army Reserve veteran, I wholeheartedly support his candidacy. Jonathan gives the CTGOP the best chance to beat the likely Democratic candidate, incumbent Jahana Hayes.

The last Connecticut Republican U.S. Congressperson or U.S. Senator was from the Fourth Congressional District and lost to the Democratic challenger in 2008. That is 18 years and counting.

The last time a Republican held one of the five Connecticut constitutional offices of governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, treasurer, or secretary of state was Jodi Rell, who left office in January 2011, and Michael Fedele, who left as lieutenant governor at the same time. We have not had a Republican attorney general since 1959. That’s 67 years!

I’m tired of losing, and I trust my fellow Republicans are tired of losing. Our present CTGOP leadership pushed Chris Shea to be the candidate for the Fifth Congressional District, who has almost no shot at beating likely incumbent Jahana Hayes.

Candidate De Barros was imprisoned for 19 years and is standing today as an unabashed Republican and Make America Great Again candidate. He gives us the best chance of beating the likely Democratic candidate, Jahana Hayes. Mr. De Barros is a native of Waterbury, the hometown of Jahana Hayes, and is about five years her junior. He knows Hayes’ family history and where the skeletons are buried, not to mention her record as a committed statist.

And if you somehow missed it, the Chris Shea campaign has been running flyers and social media from the playbook of a 1966 Southern Democrat, and at the same time, his campaign has revealed that they don’t know what the Republican Party is about and stands for.

Their campaign mailed out a circa-1966 flyer warning that Mr. De Barros had pleaded guilty to manslaughter and spent 19 years in prison. They edited out the phrase “Make America Great Again” from a hat Jonathan was wearing in order to make Jonathan appear as a gangster with “a violent past,” “manslaughter,” “time served,” and “killing.”

All of these are typical tropes against Black candidates from the Jim Crow South. Mr. Shea’s campaign appears to have missed the Christian concepts of humility, compassion, forgiveness, redemption, and love, and has caused backlash, and rightfully so.

If running against the expansion of the width and breadth of the state, its taxing and regulatory labyrinth, and in support of “Faith, Family and Freedom” isn’t Republican redemption, I don’t know what is.

Chris Shea’s Democrat tactic of warning that he will protect us from a Black male citizen shows that he is unaware of President Trump’s signing of the First Step Act in 2018 to reauthorize the federal Second Chance Act. Chris Shea’s tropes are an embarrassment to the Republican Party.

Please vote for Jonathan De Barros—and redemption—on August 11, 2026, in the Republican Party primary for the Fifth Congressional District.

Peter Thalheim
Maj., ret., USAR JAG Corps
Stamford, CT

The opinions expressed in this guest op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Waterbury Times.

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