Vincent Tocci ’26 is running for the Connecticut House of Representatives as the youngest candidate currently seeking office in the state. Tocci, 22, is the sole Democratic candidate attempting to unseat Kurt Vail, the five-term Republican incumbent of the state’s 52nd District.
Tocci is a political science major from Woodstock, Conn. In an interview with the Record, he elaborated on his decision to run for office and plans to address the challenges facing his native district.
Tocci said his political aspirations were solidified during a 2024 Winter Study internship at the office of Democratic Senator Chris Murphy ’96. At age 25, Murphy unseated Republican Angelo Fusco in Connecticut’s 81st District. “[Murphy] was telling me about his story, and how he pretty much was doing the same thing that I’m doing,” Tocci said. “[This] connection that Williams was able to get me really made me more ambitious and more likely to run for the seat.”
While studying abroad in Jordan, Tocci was motivated to run for office after seeing the news of Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election. “I realized that young people need to be involved more in politics,” he said.
Tocci has centered affordability in his hometown campaign. “I want to stay in my community, and I want to be able to live in my community, [but] that [is] unlikely to be the case because of cost and affordability,” he said.
Growing up in a family of labor union members, Tocci’s parents were able to raise him in a stable middle-class environment in rural northeast Connecticut, he said. According to Tocci, most families don’t have that opportunity today. “[Now], a lot of people say, ‘Look, I love living here, it’s a beautiful town, but I need to find a job,’ so they end up going to Boston or some of the larger cities in Connecticut,” he said.
Jobs and political representation are also focal points of Tocci’s campaign. “There’s a strong need for working-class representation in the state of Connecticut and broadly in the Democratic Party, as we’ve seen more of the working class shift [their] vote towards Donald Trump,” Tocci said.
To tackle affordability, Tocci emphasized the necessity of striking a “delicate balance” between retaining the charm of his district’s smaller communities and creating more opportunities for young adults in up-and-coming cities, such as Stafford, the most populous town in Connecticut’s 52nd District.
“Stafford is a place where they want to introduce more industry,” Tocci said. “You need to get [the town] as much grant funding as possible to be an attractive location for businesses to go and stay in northeast Connecticut, which will attract more people, and then you need to keep the cost of living as low as possible in all the other rural towns surrounding it.”
One of his potential constituency’s chief concerns, Tocci said, is the financial burden of unfunded state mandates, which obligate municipalities to self-fund certain programs like special education and tax breaks for veterans. Tocci said that while many Connecticut residents might support the aims of these mandates, smaller communities without adequate funding often need to raise taxes and reduce municipal budgets to keep up with the spending they require. “We end up neglecting important things — school repairs in Woodstock, particularly, have been pushed off for many years because of that,” he said.
The issue, Tocci said, is exacerbated by Vail’s inaction. “He only passed one bill in the last legislative session,” he said. “He thinks his job is safe, and he doesn’t show up for the district anymore. I’m offering a real, energetic campaign where I will show up for the people of my district and represent them in Hartford, because the person who we have there now isn’t.”
When asked for comment, Vail told the Record he has worked hard to represent his district in the legislature. “I’ve been very active — I have 100 percent turnout and have never missed a day in 12 years,” he said. Alongside his video series, “Behind the Vail,” where he interviews local businesses and residents, Vail cited his support for public funding towards the Connecticut Foundation Solutions Indemnity Company, which has helped over 1,000 homeowners subsidize repairs for their foundations.
Vail said that he looks forward to another constructive race with a youthful competitor. He defeated Democrat Ethan Werstler, then 24, in 2024. “It’s nice to have young people involved,” he said.
Tocci pointed to his age as an asset, saying that effective governance requires new perspectives. “Our generation, we need people representing us in politics,” he said. “Our future is being determined by other people, and we need to be there at the table in order to really change the current trajectory.”
Election day is Nov. 3. If elected, Tocci’s term would begin in Jan. 2027.
