Primary election 2018: Connecticut's race for governor heats up

Connecticut's top primary election Tuesday is the race for governor. Since incumbent Gov. Dannel Malloy is retiring, the race is considered wide open.

On the Democratic side, there's businessman Ned Lamont, and Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim. Lamont is the party endorsed candidate. He previously ran for governor in 2010, but lost to Malloy. Ganim served seven years in prison for corruption charges, before making it back to public office in 2015.

On the Republican side, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton is the party endorsed candidate. Businessman David Stemerman, former Trumbull first selectman Tim Herbst, businessman Steve Obsitnik and businessman Bob Stefanowski are also running.

WSHU reporter Ebong Udoma says even though Connecticut is a blue state, Malloy is unpopular in Connecticut, leaving a chance for a Republican to win the general election. However, he says voters in Connecticut are wary of the politics in Washington.

"We have a situation here where the president is very unpopular in Connecticut and that will be a problem for the Republican candidate," Udoma said on CBSN. "So they have to, not distance themselves from the president, but at the same time not embrace him."

Connecticut is also seeing a surge of new voters since the 2016 election. The Connecticut Secretary of State's office says between the election and June of 2018, more than 80,000 new voters registered as Democrats, while around 43,000 registered as Republicans.