Sen. Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven) announced today that he will not seek reelection to the Connecticut State Senate in 2026. He has represented the 11th State District since 1993 and served in the Connecticut General Assembly since 1981.

He is the longest-serving Senate President Pro Tempore and was the longest-serving Senate Majority Leader in Connecticut's history.

He released the following statement:

“Serving the people of Connecticut in the General Assembly for 46 years has been the great privilege of my public life, and it is not a privilege I have ever taken lightly. To this day, I still find it hard to believe that a child of Irish immigrant parents and growing up in the Fair Haven section of New Haven became the longest-serving Senate Majority Leader and Senate President in state history. In many ways, I grew up and grew old in the General Assembly. I was elected to the House unmarried and now leave with three amazing grandchildren. I entered the General Assembly before I began law school and went on to be engaged at a leadership level with every issue pending before the State Senate for the last 24 years. After all this time, I want to leave the General Assembly while more people are still encouraging me to stay than to leave. I believe that after many years in Senate leadership, the time has come for someone else to take the helm. I have the utmost confidence that the Senate Democratic caucus will continue to produce superb public policy under the leadership of Senator Bob Duff, who is primed and supremely ready for the challenge.

“No career of this length is sustained without the love, support, and sacrifice of those who are closest. My loving wife Ellen has been my partner, confidant, and source of comfort and strength through it all, and I am more grateful to her than I can adequately express in any statement. My son Michael and my grandchildren, Matthew, Anna, and Isabel, have reminded me, across all the years, sessions, and late nights this work demands, of what a commitment to public life means in all respects. They are my greatest joy. I am grateful to my colleagues in the General Assembly, past and present, and to Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff for his partnership and his friendship. I am grateful to our Chief of Staff Courtney Cullinan and former Chief of Staff Vinnie Mauro, whose dedication made our caucus's work possible, and to the constituents of the 11th Senate District and, before that, the 96th House District, who have honored me with their trust across so many years.

“I was raised by New Deal Democratic immigrant parents and believe to my core that enlightened public policy can deliver positive transformation when government takes its obligations seriously. I have spent more than four decades in the Capitol, believing that government, when it is honest, purposeful, and willing to make hard choices, is a singularly powerful tool available to a democratic society for advancing human dignity. That belief has not wavered.”

A celebration of Senator Looney's work will be held in late May.