Tag: William L. Harkness

Angela Xiao State attorney-general hopeful William Tong knows the Elm City’s votes are a must for Democrats running for office in Connecticut. As midterm elections near, Tong opened with an appeal to Yale’s voters — telling attendees about his own background and political career. He then delved into a discussion about the race, his plans for the position and an interpretation of the legal field’s current atmopshere, before ending with another appeal to vote. “That’s true in cities across the country because Democrats stand for, in general, fairness and equity and social change. “I was surprised by how personal [Tong] was,” attendee and YULAA member Nathalie Beauchamps ’21 said. He was the first Asian-American to be elected to a state-level position in Connecticut’s history. Tong also highlighted his hope of holding the petroleum industry accountable for damage to the environment and climate change. Tong told attendees that “the next frontier for us is to join Rhode Island in suing Big Oil for climate change.” He noted that Rhode Island’s pioneering attempt to challenge the petroleum industry is rooted in an argument credited to former Yale Law School professor and former Law School dean Harold Koh, who also served as the State Department’s Legal Adviser under former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton LAW ’73. Tong won the three-way Democratic primary with 57.8 percent of the vote and faces Republican state attorney Susan Hatfield in the general election. Residents of Connecticut will go to the polls to vote on a plethora of state-level positions on Nov. 6.