East Lyme Republican First Selectman Paul Formica beat back a challenge from Madison's Daria Novak in Tuesday's primary in the Second Congressional District.
Formica accepted congratulations on his win at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday at his restaurant, Flanders Fish Market, in East Lyme. He will run against incumbent Democrat Joseph Courtney in November.
Shortly before 10 p.m. Novak began to accept the realization that she had lost to Formica and she conceded defeat.
She said she intends to rally behind Formica as he sets his sights on November and that she was gratified to have worked to push the Republican platform throughout the district in the last several months.
She also said she was proud of the campaign she had run.
"We did this the right way. We were positive. We never went negative, win or lose, we can not give up on this nation. We have to teach the younger generation that there's a right way to do politics," Novak told a group about a dozen campaign workers who gathered at her campaign headquarters in Madison.
She thank and congratulated her campaign staff for their work.
She and her campaign staff remained upbeat about the future. She said she hopes to make another stab at public office in the future.
Formica said he would bring "Main Street common sense values" to Washington if elected and he thanked Novak for her hard work and said he hopes "we can stand together and work to defeat Joe Courtney."
"What a great night! This is truly the American Dream! That a guy like me can start a business... become first selectman and now be the Republican candidate for Congress! In 1983, [when he first started his business in East Lyme] if you had told me this could happen, I would have told you you were crazy."
