Toni Nathaniel Harp (born August 6, 1947) is an American politician who served as the 50th

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as ...

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...

. Harp, a Democrat, was previously a state senator in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

from 1993 to 2013. A resident of

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...

, Harp represented the western half of the city as well as part of West Haven while in the

Connecticut Senate The Connecticut State Senate is the upper house of the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The state senate comprises 36 members, each representing a district with around 99,280 inhabitants. Sena ...

Early life and career

Harp was born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and graduated from

Roosevelt University Roosevelt University is a Private school, private university with campuses in Chicago and Schaumburg, Illinois, Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1945, the university was named in honor of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Frankli ...

and received a Master of Environmental Design from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. Prior to becoming mayor in the City of New Haven, Harp served as a State Senator and a New Haven Alderman; she defeated incumbent Senator Charles H. Allen III for the Democratic nomination in 1992. In 2007, Harp introduced a bill to have the state pay for free diapers for poor mothers. Immediately following the

Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and t ...

in 2012, State Senator Harp introduced a controversial bill for mandatory mental health screenings of all Connecticut school children.

Mayor of New Haven

In Spring 2013, Harp announced her intention to run for Mayor of New Haven, a position long held by

John DeStefano, Jr. John DeStefano Jr. (born May 11, 1955) is an American politician who served as the List of mayors of New Haven, Connecticut, 49th mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven, Connecticut, from 1994 until 2014. He was the Democratic Party (United ...

Harp won the election over her opponent, Justin Elicker, by 10,602 to 8,865 votes, or 54.46 percent to 45.54 percent. She was reelected in 2015 with 88.83 percent of the vote against three independent candidates. She was reelected to a third term in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

with 77.61 percent of the vote against an independent candidate and

Working Families Party The Working Families Party (WFP) is a minor political party in the United States, founded in New York in 1998. There are active chapters in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Ne ...

candidate. She is the first woman and the second

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

(after

John C. Daniels John C. Daniels (April 25, 1936 – March 14, 2015) was an American politician who served as the mayor of New Haven, Connecticut from 1990 until 1994. Early life and career Daniels was born in Macon, Georgia.

) to serve as Mayor of New Haven. In April 2019, Harp announced that she would seek election to a fourth two-year term. Justin Elicker, Harp's 2013 opponent, defeated her by 58.8% to 41.5% in the Democratic primary. She ran under the

label in the general election. She was defeated by Justin Elicker 70% to 30% in the general election on November 5.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harp, Toni 1947 births African-American mayors in Connecticut African-American people in Connecticut politics Democratic Party Connecticut state senators West Haven, Connecticut Living people Yale University alumni Roosevelt University alumni Women state legislators in Connecticut Mayors of New Haven, Connecticut 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians Women mayors of places in Connecticut Working Families Party politicians African-American women mayors

Early life and career

Mayor of New Haven

See also

References

External links