Exclusive: WATCH: Rep. Jahana Hayes caught between a rock and a Hamas place
During a Pride Month flag-raising event in New Britain, pro-Hamas protesters singled out Rep. Jahana Hayes (D., Ct.), the Washington Reporter can confirm exclusively.
“Hey Jahana, what do you say?” the tiny crowd shouted into a megaphone. “How much money did AIPAC pay?” The group repeated the antisemitic jingle, along with others commonly heard at jihadist college encampments across the country. After a chorus of “shame,” the small gathering also asked: “How many kids have you killed today?”
Hayes is an ironic target for pro-Hamas protesters, because she has done little to earn their ire. Left-wing groups such as the Working Families Party were essential in Hayes’s initial election as well as during her most recent re-election, which she won by just over 2,000 votes. This narrow margin of victory may help explain her anti-Israel voting record. After eking out a narrow victory in 2022, the Working Families Party took credit for making “the difference” for Hayes.
Since then, Hayes has taken well-deserved flak for meeting with the leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization too antisemitic for even President Joe Biden. CAIR’s leader infamously praised Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack well before Hayes met with the organization’s Connecticut chapter — for which she’s taken serious heat on the campaign trail.
While in office, Hayes has also regularly sided with some of America’s most anti-Israel elected officials. Earlier this year, she joined Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), and others in asking Biden to stop weapons transfers to Israel, and last month she voted against the Israel Security Assistance Support Act despite voting in favor of an earlier Israel aid bill.
Hayes fled the event, posting a statement explaining her rationale: “As an ally and supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community, I recognize events like this flag raising as a celebration and acknowledgement of their struggle and the contributions they continue to make in our communities,” she wrote. “I look forward to celebrating Pride this month, and every month, and will continue to be a champion on issues effecting [sic] this community in Congress.”
This November, Hayes faces a rematch against Republican George Logan, who has regularly outraised her on the campaign trail, and whose campaign has garnered praise from national Republicans. Rep. Richard Hudson (R., N.C.), the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), told the Reporter in an interview last week that Logan is “doing a better job of fundraising, he’s got more support locally. This is a district that is in reach for us. I think we’ve got a good opportunity there.”
Given Hayes’s narrow margin last cycle, and Logan’s improved candidacy, every vote will matter for the incumbent. House Republicans are already planning to invest heavily here. The Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC has already announced a $1.1 million commitment in the Hartford media market. And last week’s Pride Parade is unlikely to have won her any support.
