Bradley leads 23rd Senate District, but Israel isn’t conceding

BRIDGEPORT — State Sen. Dennis Bradley looked headed to an easy re-election to a second two-year term representing the 23rd District.
Results from the AP showed Bradley winning the district handily late Tuesday.
The Secretary of the State’s office showed Bradley with a 2,409-571 lead over GOP challenger Josiah Israel as of about 11 p.m., but with only 3 of 18 precincts with results reported in to the statewide automated system.
Israel pointed to the remaining votes yet to be counted Tuesday and said he wasn’t conceding the race.
“I haven’t gotten any results in,” Israel said. “We’re still waiting. We’re still looking to see what’s going on here. I think it’s going to be a close race between me and him.”
Bradley was heavily favored in the heavily Democratic 23rd District, which covers Bridgeport’s East Side and much of Stratford’s South End.
As of about 11 p.m. Tuesday, only the precincts from Stratford were showing results on the state website.
Bradley’s opponent, Republican Josiah Israel, ran unsuccessfully for the City Council in 2019 prior to his run for state Senate this year.
“Change!” is the “cry of families living in District 23,” his campaign Facebook page said.
“We have been doing the same ole politics for over 20 years,” Israel says on his campaign page. “Nothing has changed just the politicians’ names that only come through at election time.”
A lawyer by profession, Bradley is a former chairman of the Bridgeport Board of Education and vice president of the Bridgeport Fire Commission.
If re-elected, he said his priorities would include criminal justice reform, protecting higher learning and access to higher education, encouraging new green jobs, and focusing on the state’s ports as a possible new hub of industry.
Efforts to reach Bradley were unsuccessful late Tuesday.