Connecticut — 4th District

D Democratic Jim Himes

Supports affordable healthcare and expanding access

Himes advocates for accessible, affordable healthcare for all Americans while protecting Social Security and lower prescription costs. He supported key healthcare initiatives in Congress and voted to pass the Social Security Fairness Act.

• Advocates for accessible and affordable healthcare for all Americans.
• Voted Yea on the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023 (H.R. 82).
• Voted Nay on terminating CDC COVID-19 vaccination requirements for foreign travelers (H.R. 185).

“fighting for accessible and affordable health care for all”

“Congressman Jim Himes advocates for affordable healthcare for all and safeguards Social Security to ensure stability for the American people.”

R Republican Michael Goldstein

Supports healthcare deregulation and market competition

Goldstein, a physician and attorney, calls for reforming the healthcare system through deregulation, eliminating administrative middlemen, and restoring free-market competition. He also advocates for enforcing Right to Try legislation and reducing FDA bureaucratic bottlenecks.

• Calls for slashing regulatory compliance burdens on doctors and medical practices.
• Advocates enforcing Right to Try law and holding the FDA accountable to make experimental treatments accessible.
• Proposes eliminating pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and insurance middlemen to lower drug prices.

“Our healthcare system has become overly expensive and overly bureaucratic.”

“The cure for high healthcare costs isn't more government. It's less.”

D Democratic Jim Himes

Supports green energy and climate action

Himes promotes green energy innovation, climate change mitigation, and local environmental protection initiatives. He consistently opposes Republican energy legislation aimed at expanding domestic fossil fuel production and rolling back clean energy incentives.

• Promotes renewable green energy initiatives and forward-thinking climate policies.
• Voted Nay on the Lower Energy Costs Act (H.R. 1), opposing expanded fossil fuel leasing and pipeline permitting rollbacks.
• Endorsed by Sierra Club Connecticut.

“Congressman Jim Himes promotes green energy, fights for environmental preservation, tackles climate change, and supports local eco-initiatives.”

“Jim knows that our greatest renewable resource is innovation, and he’s fought for forward-thinking energy policies”

R Republican Michael Goldstein

Supports pipeline expansion and nuclear energy

Goldstein blames federal regulations for Connecticut's high electric bills and advocates expanding natural gas pipeline capacity into New England. He also supports building mini-nuclear power plants and eliminating ideology-first energy mandates.

• Demands federal legislation to expand natural gas pipeline infrastructure into Connecticut.
• Supports building mini-nuclear power plants to expand reliable green energy.
• Opposes federal regulations and mandates that restrict fossil fuel infrastructure.

“Connecticut families pay roughly 60% more for electricity than the national average.”

“Ct. faces some of the highest electric bills in the country because federal laws block us from buying enough domestic natural gas to generate our electricity.”

D Democratic Jim Himes

Supports business innovation and targeted relief

Himes champions business innovation and financial reforms while supporting working families through targeted tax relief and federal infrastructure funding. He voted for major economic legislation including the American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

• Champions business innovation and supports working families through financial reforms.
• Voted Yea on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684) and the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act (H.R. 7024).
• Voted Nay on the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 (H.R. 2811) and the FY2025 reconciliation bill (H.R. 1).

“Congressman Jim Himes champions business innovation, supports working families, and leads financial reforms for a thriving, fair economy.”

R Republican Michael Goldstein

Supports cutting government spending and deregulation

Goldstein attributes high inflation and consumer prices to excessive federal spending, money printing, and over-regulation. He advocates for reducing government spending, cutting compliance costs, and expanding free-market competition.

• Attributes high consumer prices to reckless government spending and printing money.
• Calls for reducing wasteful government spending and lowering tax and regulatory burdens on small businesses.
• Advocates replacing government micromanagement with free-market competition.

“Our economy is suffering from high energy prices, reckless government spending & the printing of money.”

“Government micromanagement of the economy needs to be replaced by a free market based on competition and market forces.”

D Democratic Jim Himes

Opposes broad border enforcement legislation

Himes voted against major Republican border enforcement and detention bills, including H.R. 2 and the Laken Riley Act. However, he voted Yea on legislation making driving while impaired grounds for non-citizen deportation or inadmissibility.

• Voted Nay on the Secure the Border Act of 2023 (H.R. 2).
• Voted Nay on the Laken Riley Act (S. 5) and the impeachment resolution against DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (H.Res. 863).
• Voted Yea on the Protect Our Communities from DUIs Act of 2025 (H.R. 875).

R Republican Michael Goldstein

Supports closing border and strict enforcement

Goldstein advocates closing the southern border to illegal immigration, deporting criminals and traffickers, and defunding public benefits for undocumented entrants. He also proposes classifying the distribution of lethal fentanyl as murder.

• Calls for closing the southern border and deporting criminal illegal aliens, gang members, and traffickers.
• Proposes eliminating federal economic benefits for undocumented immigrants.
• Advocates federal laws to prosecute manufacturers and sellers of lethal fentanyl pills for murder.

“Our border must be closed to illegal immigration. Criminals, gang members, terrorists , drug, sex and child traffickers must be deported.”

“I will propose laws that make this crime murder and those who make and distribute these pills should be prosecuted for murder.”

D Democratic Jim Himes

Supports public education and early childhood learning

Himes views public education as central to economic success and supports legislation to expand early childhood learning and universal pre-school. He voted against restricting transgender females from participating in female school athletic programs.

• Supports legislation to expand quality pre-school and early childhood education.
• Believes the long-term success of the economy relies on public education.
• Voted Nay on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 (H.R. 28).

“Jim believes that the long-term success of the American economy lies in the strength of our education system.”

“Recognizes the importance of early childhood education and supports legislation to help make quality pre-school education available to all.”

R Republican Michael Goldstein

Supports school choice and career pathways

Goldstein supports school choice, vouchers, and expanding vocational/technical career pathways starting in middle school. He opposes political indoctrination and Critical Race Theory in classrooms while championing parental rights.

• Supports school vouchers, technical high schools, and vocational training.
• Proposes career pathway programs starting in middle school partnered with local employers.
• Opposes CRT and political indoctrination in public schools.

“Vocational training vouchers. Technical high schools. Career academies. No more waitlists for kids who want to work.”

“Our children need the best quality education possible not indoctrination. Parents have the absolute right to fight for that.”

D Democratic Jim Himes

Supports strict gun safety measures

Himes actively campaigns for commonsense gun safety legislation to end gun violence and opposes special interest groups like the NRA. He treats gun violence as an urgent public health crisis.

• Advocates taking on the NRA and special interest groups to pass federal gun safety laws.
• Identifies gun violence as an urgent issue affecting communities every day.

“taking on special interests like the NRA to end gun violence”

“Every day, 100 Americans are killed by guns and hundreds more are injured. But the effects of gun violence impact all of us, every single day.”

R Republican Michael Goldstein

Opposes gun restrictions increasing healthcare costs

Goldstein aligns with conservative principles supporting constitutional liberties. He explicitly criticized recent gun legislation for driving up healthcare and administrative costs.

• Argues that recent federal gun legislation unnecessarily increases healthcare costs.
• Supports constitutional liberties and America First principles.

“The new gun legislation increases healthcare costs”

D Democratic Jim Himes

Supports intelligence oversight and national defense

Himes serves as Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, overseeing 17 federal intelligence agencies. He voted for National Defense Authorization Act reauthorizations and antisemitism awareness legislation while expressing past skepticism toward unilateral military intervention in Syria.

• Oversees 17 federal intelligence agencies as Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
• Voted Yea on the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2024 (H.R. 2670) and the Antisemitism Awareness Act (H.R. 6090).
• Expressed deep skepticism regarding military strikes in Syria.

“As Ranking Member of the House Permanent Committee on Intelligence, Jim oversees 17 federal agencies that make up the U.S. Intelligence Community.”

“I remain deeply skeptical that a military attack will improve the situation on the ground, quiet the conflict, or improve our National Security.”

R Republican Michael Goldstein

Supports America First foreign policy and Israel

Goldstein advocates an America First foreign policy that strongly supports Israel and uses American energy exports to financially weaken foreign adversaries like Russia and Iran. He also supports strengthening democratic alliances in Asia.

• Pledges strong support for Israel and countering Iranian nuclear and military aggression.
• Proposes using U.S. energy production to lower global energy prices and deprive adversaries of funding.
• Supports strengthening military alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, and India.

“We must use economic power to weaken the countries that are our military adversaries through lowering global energy prices leaving countries like Russia and Iran with less money to fund wars and terrorism.”

“Supporting Israel”

D Democratic Jim Himes

Supports transparency and accountability

Himes voted for major government transparency and ethics measures, including the Epstein Files Transparency Act and the expulsion of Representative George Santos. He also publicly called on President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race.

• Voted Yea on the Epstein Files Transparency Act (H.R. 4405) and expelling Rep. George Santos (H.Res. 878).
• Voted Yea on declaring the office of Speaker of the House vacant (H.Res. 757).
• Publicly called on President Joe Biden to step aside as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee.

“I no longer believe that is Joe Biden, and I hope that, as he has throughout a lifetime of public service, he will continue to put our nation first and, as he promised, make way for a new generation of leaders.”

R Republican Michael Goldstein

Supports term limits and regulatory oversight

Goldstein signed the U.S. Term Limits pledge, arguing that congressional service should not be a lifetime career. He advocates for re-asserting congressional authority over regulatory agencies to curb executive branch overreach.

• Signed the U.S. Term Limits pledge.
• Advocates for federal legislation to strictly limit administrative agency rulemaking.
• Emphasizes full financial transparency and government accountability.

“Being a congressman is not a lifetime job. The longer someone stays in office the more detached they become from those who have elected them.”

“Congress must play an active role, through legislation, to ensure that the regulatory state is limited to carrying out the laws passed by Congress rather than rewriting them.”

D Democratic Jim Himes

Supports federal abortion rights and family planning

Himes strongly supports reproductive rights and family planning services. He consistently opposed Republican efforts to defund family planning organizations or enact federal abortion bans.

• Opposed Republican efforts to defund family planning services.
• Opposed federal abortion bans and restrictions on reproductive freedom.

“Jim stood against Republican attempts to defund family planning, and he opposed multiple efforts to ban abortion at the federal level.”