Hartford Business Journal

10 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 7, 2025 Politics & Policy Senate Minority Leader Stephen G. Harding Jr. (center) has helped unify the message from Republicans in the legislature, 'identifying issues that I think the public wants us to pay attention to, and we're all rallying around that.' CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Senator Rising Sen. Harding makes quick climb from local politics in Brookfield to state legislature's minority leader advance my causes," Harding said. "So, I threw my hat into the ring." He met with then-Sen. Clark Chapin (R-Brookfield) to ask for advice and learn about the legislature. While sitting together in a Milford Dunkin' Donuts, Chapin handed him "a 200-page Senate issues book and said, 'Read that,'" Harding recalled. He spent the weekend reading the book. When Brookfield RTC members later met potential candidates, he was able to competently discuss the issues, he said. "I could probably argue that's the reason why I'm even talking to you, because they nominated me to run for state rep," Harding said. He went on to win the seat in a special election in February 2015. That was not the only big change for him that year. In August, Dean Lewis, head of the law firm Harding worked for at the time, died unexpectedly on Martha's Vineyard. He was 57. "I was forced to create my own law practice," Harding said, which he maintained on his own until recently joining the law firm Zabel Schellen- berg PLLC in Orange. Eyes on the Senate Newly elected to the House in 2015, Harding at the time was 27 and not yet married. He had higher ambitions. At first, he said, "I was just happy I got elected. And then, as I got into more of the daily operations of this building, I was able to see how much influence a senator has over a state rep." In fact, he said, he learned that being a senator would give him "more influence in pushing forward what was important to me, because being one of 36 (in the Senate) gives you a little more influence in implementing By David Krechevsky davidk@hartfordbusiness.com T o say state Senate Minority Leader Stephen G. Harding Jr. has had an impressive start to his political career may be an understatement. In roughly a decade, Harding has gone from being a 27-year-old lawyer and a first-time candidate for the state House to leading the 11-member Republican caucus in the Senate — the top elected Repub- lican in a legislature dominated by Democrats. Not bad for a guy who was born in the Bronx and raised in Brookfield — a small town of about 17,500 people in Fairfield County — and whose parents were not politically active. And, he may have even higher political ambitions, although he said he won't explore them until after the current legislative session ends on June 4. Harding's political career started after he graduated from Albertus Magnus College in New Haven in 2009, and New York Law School in 2012. He began by joining the Brook- field Republican Town Committee (RTC) and helping others with their local campaigns. The RTC then offered him a chance to run for the local Board of Educa- tion in 2013, and he won. He also later served on Brookfield's Zoning Board of Appeals. While gaining experience in local government, he also began his legal career, joining a small law firm in Milford as a part-time associate. "I was making nothing," he said. "I actually worked as a custodian at night at the local schools just to supplement my income." Eventually he was promoted to full- time associate, before switching to a smaller firm, the Law Office of Dean Lewis in Danbury, he said. His humble beginnings didn't fore- tell what came next — a meteoric rise to a position of power within the state Republican Party and state Senate. Hartford Business Journal sat down with Harding recently to discuss his ascension and how he hopes to use his experience to help the GOP statewide. Year of change Harding said he learned to appre- ciate community service from his father, Stephen Sr., a financial analyst and adjunct college professor who is the longtime president of the Brookfield Baseball & Softball Asso- ciation, a volunteer organization affiliated with the Connecticut Babe Ruth League. His mother, Anne Marie, is a designer who works in a local tile shop. His parents, he said, "would vote, but they stayed out of the local town committees and never ran for office." Harding, though, sought a larger political role in 2015. That's when state Rep. David Scribner (R-Brook- field), who had won his ninth-term in the 107th District the previous November, stepped down to become a state liquor control commissioner. "I immediately looked at it as an opportunity for me to get more involved in the community and STEPHEN G. HARDING JR. Senate Minority Leader (R-Brookfield) Age: 37 Occupation: Lawyer, Zabel Schellenberg PLLC Education: Bachelor's degree in marketing, Albertus Magnus College; Law degree, New York Law School

• Cover