Former U.S. Rep. Chris Shays made it official Monday and filed the necessary paperwork to challenge Republican Linda McMahon for the U.S. Senate.
“This is a tough state, but folks in Connecticut want good, Yankee common sense. They‘re not into ideology,” Shays said Monday during an interview at the state Capitol.
After filing his paperwork with the Secretary of the State’s office Shays visited the state Capitol Press Corps in the state Capitol.
This weekend McMahon appeared on WFSB’s “Face the State” and said Shays should think about her 2-to-1 victory over him at the convention and consider uniting the party for the general election. She echoed a similar theme Friday during her informal acceptance speech from the convention floor.
“I know that some people on the McMahon camp have said it would be nice if I didn’t run,” Shays said Monday. However, he said he heard so often from the more than 1,200 delegates that they had promised their vote to McMahon before he got into the race, but will be working to make sure Shays is victorious in the Aug. 14 primary.
He said he promised from the time he entered the race that he would be on the Aug. 14 ballot even if that meant he had to collect signatures to get there. Shays won about 32 percent of the delegates Friday, which automatically qualifies him for the primary.
A March 22 Quinnipiac University poll shows Shays one percentage point behind the endorsed Democratic candidate U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy.
The same poll shows McMahon leading Shays 51 to 42 percent in a Republican primary.
Shays continues to focus his campaign on electability using the Quinnipiac University poll as proof that he had a better chance of beating Murphy in November.
“If I win [the primary] I think it will be one of the top 10 most competitive races in the country,” Shays said.
