Ruth Fortune

Ruth Fortune is an at-large member of the Hartford Public Schools Board of Education in Connecticut.

Fortune (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Connecticut's 1st Congressional District. She lost in the Democratic primary on August 11, 2026.

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a mother, an attorney, a wife, and a member of the Hartford Board of Education. When I was twelve, my parents moved our family to the US from Haiti. When we first arrived, we shared a bedroom among eight relatives and were undocumented for a decade. I internalized the shame of being called “illegal” and carried it as a dark family secret. In January 2010 – just four months before I graduated college – a devastating earthquake struck Haiti and destroyed a large part of the country. The Obama Administration turned this tragedy into a lifeline for undocumented Haitians by granting us Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which offers protections from deportation and authorization to work legally in the US. Getting TPS transformed my life. Without it, I would have only hung my college diploma on the wall of my small bedroom instead of using it to build a better life for myself.

Policy isn’t abstract when it’s your life on the line. Government has the power not just to regulate lives, but to liberate them. Leaders forged by the fight to survive are fundamentally different from leaders who pick their fights. We have enough career politicians who have never personally navigated systemic barriers. We need leaders like me who understand a single law can mean the difference between despair and dignity because they have lived it. They must know how it feels to navigate a world that tells you “wait your turn” while the doors of opportunity keep revolving for the same few people.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

The chaos and cruelty coming out of Washington DC affect marginalized and vulnerable communities first and often the hardest. We need leadership grounded in lived experience, integrity and competence at a time when too many families can’t afford basic necessities like housing and healthcare. The wealth gap is wider than ever and our civil liberties are under attack by our own federal government. I’ve navigated and overcome systemic barriers firsthand, and as an attorney focused on how people build, protect, transfer or lose wealth, I understand both the obstacles and the solutions. That perspective uniquely equips me to fight for economic fairness, opportunity, and a stronger democracy in Congress right now.So many of our challenges, like unaffordable housing or food insecurity, are all actually one problem. Wages have not kept up with rising costs. The federal minimum wage must be a living wage that covers the minimum cost of living. I will fight to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $25 an hour and tie wages to inflation, meaning when prices go up, people’s paychecks will go up. Every person who works full time will earn at least $50,000 annually and their pay will go up annually to keep up with inflation.

It’s time to restore balance and fairness to our economy. Small businesses are the backbone of our local economies and must be supported through this adjustment through tax credits, federal grants and zero-interest loans.The US is the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We can afford to invest in our own wellbeing and education by providing universal healthcare, covering long-term care under Medicare for our seniors, funding K-12 public schools fully and offering early childhood learning and childcare to all families.

It’s time we stop being a country where medical debt destroys lives, where seniors are forced into poverty just to receive the long-term care they need, and where children with the same God-given potential face vastly different futures simply because of the zip code they grow up in.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I'm interested in making our laws more just and value justice above all - economic justice, educational justice, voting justice, housing justice, labor justice, racial justice, environmental justice, reproductive justice, criminal justice, LGBTQ+ justice, health justice and digital justice.

I also firmly believe in term limits and have committed to serving up to five (5) terms in the House if elected.