Kyle Gauck pitches a progressive, pugilistic vision for the Second District

Mathew Biadun | News-Editor

A motive for public service, thirty-five year old Kyle Gauck says, has always motivated his life. A U.S. Army veteran who served on a special forces group for two deployments, Gauck says he, "...wanted to make a difference in the world and stand up and do something bigger than myself. To do it and not just say it, I wanted to actually do it." After leaving the army, Gauck spent several years working for large aerospace companies in Connecticut like Pratt & Whitney, working specifically on contracts and supply chains.

"Then," Gauck says, "Donald Trump won the election."

"I wasn’t a fan of that for a number of reasons, so I began looking at what was happening at Washington, what was going on, and I didn’t feel like we were being represented in the way we should be represented, by Joe Courtney." Joe Courtney being the current U.S. Representative for the 2nd District, which encompasses Eastern Connecticut, and which he has represented since 2007.

"So I decided, y'know, why is politics any different than anything else in my life, when I used to step up, when I can do better or see something that’s being done wrong, why is politics different? So I stepped up into the ring for this.” Gauck launched his campaign last year, and points to his two daughters as major inspirations for running. "I'm a dad, I have two daughters. Kinda kicked off the campaign because one of the things I was concerned about was their futures."

To help educate Eastern students, the Campus Lantern reached out to for an interview. The following questions were asked in a phone interview with Kyle Gauck on January 28th.

Q: What specifically do you think Joe Courtney is doing poorly, or, not enough of?

“Sure, so, there’s a lot of things, right. We can start with my moral code. My moral code is that of the human experience, and that’s what our entire campaign is entirely centered around, the human experience. Are we doing and voting for and passing legislation that is going to make your life happier, healthier, and better all around? Yes or no? That’s kind of the litmus test."

"When it comes to Joe Courtney, he voted for things like tabling impeachment articles for Donald Trump, which, I didn’t think that was necessary or appropriate with the things Donald Trump has been doing. He also voted for the Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk, which again, outside of my moral compass, I would have never done something like that. He won’t sign onto the impeachment articles of Kristi Noem, he voted for a praise ICE bill…you know, the contracts he brings into the district are fantastic, but there’s a lot more we can do there, we can add clauses in there that would help distribute those funds…distribute them down through the working class…if it’s a government funded contract, we want to see that money allocated to the people.”

Q: Do you feel confident in your ability to get those contracts, like Courtney did?

“Absolutely, like I said, I worked on those contracts for the defense industry on the corporate side. So it’s about time I get to work doing it for the people. Another thing; this isn’t a bash Joe campaign, right. We think we can do it better, that’s why we’re running. It’s not a bash Joe campaign, it’s a ‘Joe isn’t doing enough’ campaign. I have background knowledge on those contracts, and we have a very steady, strong transition plan, where we will keep Joe on as a consultant, and make sure that he is introducing us to everyone he knows on the subcommittees he’s on, so we won’t lose any of those contracts, and the district won’t suffer for electing a new representative.”

Q: If you had to narrow your reasons for running down to three key issues, what are they?

"There's so many," Gauck laughed. "I can think of like nine off the top of my head." The three he settled on were:

1. Term Limits: "Term limits are big because we need to have a flow of constant ideas. If we’re legislating on ideas from the 1960s in 2026, that’s a big problem, right. And we also can’t have people getting too comfortable in Congress, and trying to appease their friends that they’ve been longtime friends with, over their constituents.”

2. Affordability: "Affordability is obviously a really big one, that’s obviously a big thing people are facing, especially in places like the Second District and rural America, and we have a very solid plan to put corporations back in check and use laws that are already on the books, reinvigorating them to today’s times, to put corporations in check and bring down the prices of everyday items Americans need to survive. There will be no more price gouging."

3. Corporate Money in Politics: "Undoing Citizens United, getting corporations out of politics. We have a policy - we are going to tax the hell out of corporations that donate to campaigns. What we’re going to do with that tax money is that we are going to fund grassroots campaigns that refuse to take corporate donations. So let’s say you want to run against a candidate that does want to take corporate donations, like Joe Courtney, lots of money from corporations, and you want to run a grassroots campaign where you don’t take any corporate donations. We would take the taxes from the donations given to Joe Courtney and funnel them into your campaign so that you can run an equally fair campaign against Joe Courtney." Gauck specified that these campaign funds would solely come from the tax on corporate donations, not from any other form of taxation. He himself refuses to take corporate donations.

Q: How will you tackle the affordability crisis?

Returning to his previous idea of bringing back old laws and reinvigorating them, Gauck said, "“What we can do is cap the cost, or the profit margin, that the company can make on the consumer side. So if you’re buying a loaf of bread on the consumer side for seven dollars, and the company wants to increase their profit margin, they can’t increase it to eight dollars. They’d have to go to the manufacturing side, lean out the process to be leaner and more efficient, so then they can increase their profit margins on the front end rather than gouging the customer…there’s a lot that we can do, and that we will fight for…and it’s not just bread. That includes your oil bill, your gas bill, what you need to survive."

Q: What would you suggest to tackle the national debt?

“So we have a big debt problem in this country, on the consumer level and on the national level. It’s spoken a lot about as leverage, but it’s only leverage if you can pay it back. When you can’t pay it back, it becomes bad then. Right now, the only current plan is to tax everybody in the country to try and pay down the interest. We shouldn’t be balancing the budget on the backs of working families. That’s just not responsible. The responsible path is growing the economy and making the tax code more fair."

"What does that mean? That means we need to stop closing the loopholes for big corporations and the ultra-wealthy, cut wasteful subsidies, and lower healthcare and prescription drug costs. I personally support a wealth tax…on fortunes over fifty million dollars, so that’s who we would consider the ultra wealthy, which would be less than .005% of Americans, which would raise just north of three trillion dollars over ten years. And we can use that money to not only help everyday Americans and invest in everyday Americans, but also to pay off the debt.”

Q: A lot of these ideas are fairly progressive. Do you consider yourself a progressive on the left of the party, more like Zohran Mamdani, rather than on the center?

"I’m a progressive, in that, I put people first, for whatever that’s worth…there will never be a day when corporations can call us and say they are our constituents and that we should vote this way. Never a day. There will always be a day when someone in the district who is a voter can call our office and say, I’m from the district, I want you to vote on this bill in this way. I’m progressive in that everything I do will be centered around the human experience and making that better for everywhere here. Where I find I’m most centrist is that I want to make things more affordable and make everyone healthy and happy and free, freedom.”

Gauck recollected on a moment last year, when he had a booth out at the Maritime Festival in New London. He remembers telling a woman his policies on affordability, and being asked if he was a Republican or a Democrat. When he responded Democrat, she slammed his card back on the table and said, "you are not allowed to have these policies, they are Republican policies!"

“It depends on whose reading it and how I think," he says. "I’m very centrist in the fact that I want to help everybody and that’s all I want to do. I'm also very progressive, in the fact that I want to help everybody.”

Q: What's your strategy to beat Joe Courtney in the primary?

“We’re working on hammering away at those DTCs, the Democratic Town Committees, and so we either need to petition the voters to get over 3000 signatures, or get 15% of the delegates at the convention. We’re focusing on both…we’re doorknocking, we’re campaigning, we’re meeting out with people and informing them that he has a challenger. He’s been in the office twenty years come this election, and it’s time for a change.”

Q: The First District is facing a similar show-down between a long-time incumbent, John Larson, and several challengers. Do you support Larson, or one of his followers?

"...I'll say this. I believe in term limits, and I think a lot of those terms have passed."

Q: If you had to name some successes and failures of the Trump Administration, what would they be?

“There’s a lot of failures, in my opinion. Obviously what’s going on with Homeland Security and ICE it’s…there’s not even a word for how atrocious it is. What’s happening, what’s going on in this country right now, is the most undemocratic, unfree thing possible. It goes against our Constitution, our core beliefs as Americans…the One Big Tragic Bill, we’re adding to the deficit by trillions of dollars, and in turn are cutting things like SNAP benefits, like Medicare, Medicaid, cutting things for working families, for veterans. In return, we’re seeing a tax break paid for by these cuts, for people who make north of $350,000, with the more money you make, the bigger a tax break you get. That just doesn’t seem very equitable, and it seems as though Donald Trump is doing what’s best to support his billionaire friends and himself over working class families.”

Gauck criticized the people around Donald Trump, such as J.D. Vance and Kristi Noem, calling them 'pick me people'. He also levied criticisms against the legislative branch. “No one’s putting him in check. Congress is not doing its job and keeping him in check. That’s how the Constitution was written…and right now, none of that is working.”

“One thing I’ll say that he did good. It’s not exactly him, but, I agree with one person in his cabinet on one issue, and that’s RFK on getting food dyes and added preservatives out of our food as the European countries have already done. We see enough cancer, we see too much, in fact. I do believe that there is a cycle of cancer treatment and medication that is corporate driven, and I do agree with RFK on that, we need to get some of this stuff that is terrible for our bodies and minds out of our food.”

Q: If you had to give an elevator pitch to a college student in the district, as to why they should vote for you, what would it be?

"Here’s the truth right. Congress is not fighting for you, and I will. I will every day vote for what’s in the bounds of my moral compass within our philosophy of the human experience. Unlike today, where you have to worry about how Joe Courtney is going to vote on any single issue, or whether he will do what’s best for these corporations, because he’s sponsored by them all; you won’t have to worry about that with me. You will know that every time you vote, I am voting with your best interests on the line."

"And to make it clear, I do believe democracy is on the line. We may not have much of a democracy left next time so…get involved at the state, at the local level. Come volunteer, door knock; get involved, and fight back.”