This article is from We-Ha,com, written by Ronni Newton

The turnout in Tuesday’s special election for the 5th State Senate District was low, but the margin of victory was large for West Hartford’s Derek Slap who garnered over 63 percent of the vote in a four-way race, according to unofficial results published by the Secretary of State’s Office.

“This kind of campaign, two months from start to finish, you can only do it with an incredible team,” a victorious Slap told We-Ha.com after the results were announced.

Slap joked that when he was driving back to West Hartford on New Year’s Day he made a resolution to go to the gym more often in 2019. The next day he learned that Beth Bye had accepted an offer to lead the Office of Early Childhood and would be resigning from the 5th State Senate District seat she had won in November. Slap announced his candidacy that same day, and he said he hasn’t made it to the gym at all.

Derek Slap speaks to supporters following the announcement of his victory in the 5th District State Senate race. Photo credit: John Lyons

What Slap did instead was walk the neighborhoods and knock on doors throughout the 5th District, which includes all of West Hartford and Burlington, part of Farmington, and a sliver of Bloomfield.

He said he’s really proud to have run a positive campaign, and his goal in serving in the State Senate is to expand his ability to “practice the politics of inclusion and bringing people together.”

Taking a leadership role sponsoring the pay equity bill in the last session, he said, was a perfect example of what can be accomplished with a bipartisan approach. The bill had died in the house the previous year, and Slap was proud that it then passed with all but five House members voted in favor of it.

“Tonight was a referendum on those kinds of politics,” Slap said. “No negative mail, negative tweets … it was what I wanted to do and I am really gratified that kind of campaign resonated with the voters.”