Christopher Rivers
Christopher Rivers (Democratic Party, Working Families Party) ran for election to the Connecticut House of Representatives to represent District 48. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Rivers completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Christopher Rivers was born in Waterbury, Connecticut. He served in the U.S. Army from 2003 to 2016. Rivers earned a high school diploma from Naugatuck High School, a bachelor's degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2010, and a graduate degree from Georgetown University in 2018. His career experience includes working as a nonprofit director, engineer, data scientist, diplomat, and consultant.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Connecticut House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for Connecticut House of Representatives District 48
Incumbent Mark DeCaprio defeated Christopher Rivers and Lance Lusignan in the general election for Connecticut House of Representatives District 48 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Mark DeCaprio (R) | 51.1 | 7,506 |
Christopher Rivers (D / Working Families Party)  | 47.7 | 7,018 | ||
| Lance Lusignan (Independent Party) | 1.2 | 175 | ||
| Total votes: 14,699 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Christopher Rivers advanced from the Democratic primary for Connecticut House of Representatives District 48.
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent Mark DeCaprio advanced from the Republican primary for Connecticut House of Representatives District 48.
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Rivers in this election.
2022
See also: Connecticut House of Representatives elections, 2022
General election
General election for Connecticut House of Representatives District 48
Mark DeCaprio defeated Christopher Rivers and Lance Lusignan in the general election for Connecticut House of Representatives District 48 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Mark DeCaprio (R) | 51.2 | 5,876 |
| Christopher Rivers (D) | 47.5 | 5,450 | ||
| Lance Lusignan (Independent Party) | 1.2 | 143 | ||
| Total votes: 11,469 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Christopher Rivers advanced from the Democratic primary for Connecticut House of Representatives District 48.
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Mark DeCaprio advanced from the Republican primary for Connecticut House of Representatives District 48.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Christopher Rivers completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Rivers' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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My entire life has been focused on public service. I enjoy solving tough problems and helping people.
I started public service through the church I grew up in. I continued it to earn my Eagle Scout. I then went on to enlist in the CT Army National Guard and deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom III.
From there, I went on to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point. I led over 100 combat missions in Afghanistan as an Army Engineer. Then, the Army asked me to serve as a data scientist.
Following my service, I went on to work at the US Department of State and earned two Masters from Georgetown (Public Policy and Foreign Service).
When my wife left Active-duty service, we moved back to CT. Since moving back, I've been involved on the Colchester Board of Education and volunteer throughout the community.
That experience makes me see that we need to get politics focused back on solving problems rather than theater.
In this age of political division, we must find ways to listen to one another, collaborate, and focus on the things we have in common.
It’s hard work, but our community is worth it.- I’m running because as someone who has spent time as a Soldier, Engineer, Diplomat, Data Scientist, and Consultant, I know we have tough problems, and we need people willing to tackle them head on. My campaign is about putting problem solving over the typical political theater we have been seeing.
- The biggest problem we need to address is affordability. We need to do more to build on the historic state income tax cuts for the middle class. We need to not tax pensions and retirement income. We need to take on Eversource and their absurd rate hikes. And we need a tax system that ensures the well off and well connected pay their fair share. Plus, we need to curtail the seemingly endless flow of unfunded mandates from the state which puts too much pressure on local property taxes to flip the bill for big ideas in Hartford.
- We owe the next generation a world class education PreK through Post Secondary and beyond. We also owe them a cleaner environment than we have now, and we owe them a state economy and government budget that is sustainable that offers the services people need in a more efficient way. There is a balance to achieve in services and affordability.
In that capacity, our state representative has a role in writing state laws, building budgets (both spending and revenue), and overseeing the state government.
Most of the campaign will focus on that primary role.
What often gets overlooked is a State Rep’s ability to also act as a conduit to state resources (think grant manager). Towns like ours don’t have dedicated professional staff to scan and apply for grants and other programs.
I’ve seen why this is important firsthand:
In the Colchester Schools, we’ve been able to secure over $780,000 from the State to fix the 30-year-old HVAC system through a grant I highlighted and pushed for throughout the application period.
The WJ Bond had been open for too long past construction, so I called around the State government to find the right person to action it. Closing that bond was so far behind schedule, the state could have charged us a 10% fee (around $2,500,000). We’ve (School and Town leaders and staff working together) been able to get that fee waived and are in the final steps to close out that project bringing over $3,500,000 back to our town.
These are the sorts of things that won’t make it into campaign slogans, but they are also important to balancing the services we want with our towns’ ability to pay for them.
Historically, our state economy is very lopsided…we have some of the best paying jobs in the country and working-class folks and their jobs tend to get squeezed. We need an economy that can work for everyone.
We need to have technology solutions that allows people to see where their tax dollars are going.
That means we need sound budgeting processes, talented employees, and technology that all works together.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2022
Christopher Rivers did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 26, 2024
