State Sen. Ceci Maher (Wilton, D-26) has decided she will not seek re-election, she told GOOD Morning Wilton in an exclusive interview.
Maher, elected in 2022 to represent Connecticut’s 26th Senate District — including Wilton, Westport, Weston, Ridgefield, Redding, Darien, New Canaan and part of Stamford — said her decision reflects both personal priorities and a broader belief that public leadership should make space for the next generation.
Now in the middle of her second two-year term, Maher has served as chair of the legislature’s Children’s Committee, where she focused on strengthening the state’s children’s mental-health system and expanding access to child care.
Recalling the example of George Washington stepping aside after two terms to establish a precedent for leadership transition, Maher said she believes elected officials should think carefully about when it is time to move on.
“As a boomer, it’s time to get out of the way,” she said.
“I love the job, so it’s hard not to run again, not to legislate again, not to be out in the wider community again,” Maher said. “But I really believe if we run just because we can, it keeps the stopper in the system. My belief is the next generation needs to be in it and needs to be learning how to do this.”
Maher will turn 73 in November, and she said family was an important factor in her decision.
“I’ll be 73 in November. I don’t want to be 75 in the legislature,” she said. “I have two grandchildren and a third on the way. I won’t see them if I run again.”
There are also some personal joys she hopes to spend more time on after leaving office. Maher said she has been seeing someone who lives in New Jersey and wants to nurture that relationship. She’s also looking forward to returning to her garden — something she said she has had little time for during the past two years in office.
Another priority will be mentoring.
“Time is not given to mentoring,” she said. “I want to mentor, and I want the joy of my responsibility to share what I know with the next generation.”
Soon after taking office, Maher was appointed chair of the legislature’s Children’s Committee, a role she said initially carried little prominence.
“It was always sort of a backwater assignment,” she said. But she said she set out to change that perception.
“We have changed it, how we talk about it. We have done something,” she said.
Under Maher’s leadership, lawmakers advanced several initiatives aimed at improving the state’s support systems for children and families. The legislature moved forward with reforms to strengthen Connecticut’s children’s behavioral-health system, including expanding youth crisis services and creating a state Office of the Behavioral Health Advocate to help families navigate care and insurance barriers.
Lawmakers also established a permanent Early Childhood Education Endowment, seeded with hundreds of millions of dollars in state surplus funds, intended to expand child-care access, support providers and gradually reduce costs for families.
In her remaining time in office, Maher said she hopes to see the legislature pass a state child tax credit, a long-debated proposal that would provide refundable tax relief to families with children.
“It was transformative to people living in poverty during COVID,” she said, referring to the temporary federal expansion of the Child Tax Credit in 2021, which expired after one year. “I would love to see that happen [in Connecticut] before I leave.”
Making the Children’s Committee more prominent is something Maher considers one of her most meaningful accomplishments.
“That the next person who chairs it won’t feel like they’re inheriting a committee that does nothing means so much,” she said.
Maher acknowledged that stepping away from a role she loves is difficult. But she also said choosing not to run again allows her to approach the rest of her term without political calculations.
“There’s something great about term-limiting yourself,” she said. “You can vote in a way you believe would be better for Connecticut, better for our district ultimately, even if it didn’t look that way on the surface.”
She pointed to her vote supporting recent housing legislation as an example — a position that drew criticism from some constituents.
“I know it’s the right thing for Connecticut. It’s the right thing for business. It’s the right thing for lowering taxes,” Maher said. Still, she acknowledged it was “scary” to receive hundreds of critical emails from constituents.
As for who might succeed her, Maher said she hopes someone strong will step forward. While she has spoken with a few people she believes might be interested, she encouraged anyone considering a run to reach out to her to learn more about the role.
Overall, she said her time in office has been deeply meaningful.
“At 68, one doesn’t often get to meet thousands of people, or get exposed to learning and doing so much,” Maher said. “I am honored to have served. It really was just such an enormous gift.”
Before joining the state Senate, Maher spent decades working in the nonprofit sector. She led the growth of educational opportunity programs at the Horizons National Student Enrichment Program, served as executive director of Person-to-Person, where the organization expanded from serving 15,000 people to 25,000 people annually and provided more than 2 million meals each year to residents in need across seven towns in lower Fairfield County, and later served as interim executive director of Sandy Hook Promise.