Wilson takes 46th state House District in Norwich

Nov. 5—NORWICH — First-term Democratic state Rep. Derell Wilson won reelection over Republican challenger Nicholas Casiano on Tuesday night in the 46th District, which covers the urban and southern sections of Norwich.

Updated tallies posted Wednesday morning on the Secretary of the State's website from the three Norwich precincts in the district showed Wilson received 4,833 votes to Casiano's 2,509 votes.

"I'm humbled to continue to serve the 46th District as representative," Wilson said Wednesday. "I thank each and every voter for putting their trust in me to continue to serve Norwich and the state of Connecticut."

Wilson, 32, a substitute teacher and paraeducator at the Integrated Day Charter School in Norwich, is among the youngest current state legislators. But he came to his first legislative term with extensive political experience as a campaign worker, Norwich alderman, unsuccessful 2017 mayoral candidate and five-year chairman of the Norwich Democratic Town Committee.

Wilson also was cross-endorsed on the Working Families ballot line.

Registered Democrats greatly outnumber registered Republicans in the 46th District, with 4,191 Democrats, 1,829 Republicans and 5,708 unaffiliated voters. Another 197 voters are registered with other parties.

Casiano, 41, an engineer at Sea Corp. in Rhode Island and a six-year U.S. Navy veteran who was stationed in Japan, moved to Norwich in 2011. Casiano ran unsuccessfully for Norwich City Council in 2017 on the Libertarian ticket. He said he switched to Republican affiliation to seek the nomination this year.

Casiano campaigned this fall on his libertarian ideology of greatly reduced government spending and eliminating state mandates that he said choke municipalities and waste taxpayer money.

"It's a tough district," Casiano said Tuesday night. "We'll see what it is, and look ahead to 2026."