Erick Russell

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Erick Russell
Image of Erick Russell
Connecticut Treasurer
Tenure

2023 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

2

Predecessor

Compensation

Base salary

$206,062

Elections and appointments
Last elected

November 8, 2022

Personal
Birthplace
New Haven, Conn.
Profession
Attorney
Contact

Erick Russell (Democratic Party) is the Connecticut Treasurer. He assumed office on January 4, 2023. His current term ends on January 6, 2027.

Russell (Democratic Party, Working Families Party) ran for election for Connecticut Treasurer. He won in the general election on November 8, 2022. He advanced from the Democratic primary on August 9, 2022.

Biography

Erick Russell was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Haven and a law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law.[1][2]Russell's career experience includes working as an attorney at Pullman & Comely.[3][4]

Elections

2022

See also: Connecticut Treasurer election, 2022

General election

General election for Connecticut Treasurer

Erick Russell defeated Harry Arora, Jennifer Baldwin, and JoAnna Laiscell in the general election for Connecticut Treasurer on November 8, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Erick Russell
Erick Russell (D / Working Families Party)
 
52.4
 
652,031
Image of Harry Arora
Harry Arora (R) Candidate Connection
 
44.9
 
559,123
Image of Jennifer Baldwin
Jennifer Baldwin (Independent Party) Candidate Connection
 
2.0
 
24,709
JoAnna Laiscell (L)
 
0.7
 
8,564

Total votes: 1,244,427
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Connecticut Treasurer

Erick Russell defeated Dita Bhargava and Karen DuBois-Walton in the Democratic primary for Connecticut Treasurer on August 9, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Erick Russell
Erick Russell
 
57.5
 
63,808
Image of Dita Bhargava
Dita Bhargava
 
22.8
 
25,282
Karen DuBois-Walton
 
19.7
 
21,853

Total votes: 110,943
Candidate Connection = 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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Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled. Harry Arora advanced from the Republican primary for Connecticut Treasurer.

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Erick Russell did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign website

Russell’s campaign website stated the following:

Financial Literacy

The Treasurer is uniquely positioned to help families and communities across the State develop financial resilience and literacy, so they can live healthy, productive, and financially stable lives.

The Treasurer is uniquely positioned to help families and communities across the State develop financial resilience and literacy, so they can live healthy, productive, and financially stable lives. Whether it be navigating the impacts of climate change, a global pandemic, or the day-to-day challenges of accessing affordable housing and making ends meet, we have a responsibility to ensure every person has the tools and knowledge to make well-informed decisions about their financial futures.

  • Expansion of existing financial literacy programs
  • Develop a working group for financial literacy curriculum to offer to local boards of education
  • Partner with private industry to offer financial literacy programming across the state


Socially Responsible Investment and Corporate Governance

Erick will promote strong corporate governance practices, ensuring the State’s investments reflect our values, and enhancing the financial integrity of the State.

The Treasurer is also responsible for promoting strong corporate governance practices, ensuring the State’s investments reflect our values, and enhancing the financial integrity of the State. As a large shareholder, the Treasurer sits on boards of companies with whom we do business and can leverage the State’s investments to help promote socially responsible corporate governance and diversity. As a gay, black attorney working in the financial industry, Erick knows how critical it is to have diverse voices represented in board rooms and in state government.

  • Divesting from gun manufacturers
  • Developing a comprehensive plan for moving away from fossil fuels
  • Corporate Diversity
  • Encouraging responsible environmental practices
  • Promoting fair labor practices
  • Advocating against excessive executive compensation


Baby Bonds

Connecticut Baby Bonds passed with bipartisan support during the 2021 legislative session. The program aims to strengthen the state’s economy and help lift people out of poverty. The program creates a trust for children born into poverty, and would allow those children to use those resources for higher education, the purchase of a first home, or to invest in a small business after the child turns 18 years old.

Connecticut Baby Bonds passed with bipartisan support during the 2021 legislative session. The program aims to strengthen the state’s economy and help lift people out of poverty. The program creates a trust for children born into poverty, and would allow those children to use those resources for higher education, the purchase of a first home, or to invest in a small business after the child turns 18 years old.

  • Support the funding and implementation of Connecticut Baby Bonds
  • Provide for structuring and building out of the program
  • Advocate for federal legislation to provide for federal tax-exemption of Baby Bond proceeds to beneficiaries
  • Provide financial literacy education for beneficiaries of the program


Connecticut Safe Harbor Fund

The Connecticut Safe Harbor Fund would offer financial assistance to those who travel to Connecticut for legally protected abortion care and includes a plan to partner with State Treasurers in pro-choice states across the country to form a nationwide coalition of states providing safe and legal abortion care in a private and affordable manner.

In response to the continued assault on the right to abortion care, Erick proposes building on Connecticut’s groundbreaking Reproductive Freedom Act by establishing a fund to offer financial assistance to those who travel to Connecticut for legally protected abortion care. The plan also includes partnering with State Treasurers in pro-choice states across the country to form a nationwide coalition to make abortion travel safe, timely, efficient, affordable, and private.

The Safe Harbor Fund would connect people seeking abortion care who live in anti-abortion states with the financial support they need to travel to Connecticut for the care they need, want, and choose for themselves. Resources from the Safe Harbor Fund would go directly to abortion care providers in Connecticut already providing trusted, compassionate, and private abortion care, and would be used to provide financial support for those patients traveling to Connecticut for that abortion care. Those resources would also be available for safe lodging options while in Connecticut for care.

Even before the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe, which reversed nearly five decades of legal precedent and eliminated an individual’s constitutional right to an abortion, states across the country, in anticipation of that decision, had enacted legislation banning or restricting access to abortions and other healthcare procedures, even in instances of rape, incest or medical necessity. Women of color, the working poor, and members of the LGBTQ+ community are more negatively impacted by the recent Supreme Court decision, as they are more likely to lack the financial resources to travel to safe harbor states like Connecticut.

The plan calls for the Office of the Treasurer to partner with other State Treasurers across the country to encourage the establishment of similar funds in those states and to coordinate a nationwide coalition of pro-choice states that are willing to pay travel and lodging expenses for those traveling to their state from anti-choice states for legal and safe abortion care. The goal of the nationwide coalition would be to assist patients with accessing care in a state that is as close to the patient’s home state as is feasible, and in the most efficient, safe and cost effective way possible. Russell has already begun to discuss this idea with legislators, non-profit organizations, abortion care providers and State Treasurers to further develop this plan.[5]

—Erick Russell’s campaign website (2022)[6]

Issues

ESG

See also: Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), State financial officer stances on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)
Environmental, social, and corporate governance
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Select a topic from the dropdown below to learn more.

Russell took stances supporting environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), an approach to investing and corporate decision-making.

State financial officers, including treasurers, auditors, and controllers, are responsible for auditing other government offices, managing payroll, and overseeing pensions. In some states, these financial officers are also responsible for investing state retirement and trust funds.

Pro-ESG statements during state treasurer campaign (2022)

Russell’s 2022 campaign website said: “The Treasurer is also responsible for promoting strong corporate governance practices, ensuring the State’s investments reflect our values, and enhancing the financial integrity of the State. As a large shareholder, the Treasurer sits on boards of companies with whom we do business and can leverage the State’s investments to help promote socially responsible corporate governance and diversity.”[7]

Russell's campaign site listed six specific areas of ESG policy focus: “Divesting from gun manufacturers,” “Developing a comprehensive plan for moving away from fossil fuels,” “Corporate Diversity,” “Encouraging responsible environmental practices,” “Promoting fair labor practices,” and “Advocating against excessive executive compensation.”[8]

See also

Connecticut State Executive Elections News and Analysis
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External links

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by
Shawn Wooden (D)
Connecticut Treasurer
2023-Present
Succeeded by
-