NORWALK, Conn. — NancyOnNorwalk hosted the 2025 Democratic mayoral primary debate Thursday at the Norwalk Public Library’s Main Branch. The forum brought together candidates vying to succeed Mayor Harry Rilling, who is stepping down after 12 years in office.
Watch the full recording of the debate below.
A transcript is also available beneath the video. Please note: it was generated using Zoom’s built-in transcription service, which may not always capture every word accurately.
I attended the productive debate last night, and felt that Barbara’s astonishing opening, and substantive answers to questions were both solid and and convincing. It’s going to be difficult to be ready to replace Mayor Rilling given his vast experience at governing, yet I feel Barbara is prepared to handle anything. She also has the experience and temperament to accomplish complicated tasks, which include listening sometimes more than one speaks.
As someone who attended the debate last night, I was VERY impressed with Darlene Young’s years of experience, positions, flow, ability to adapt, and her judiciousness to not make empty, blustery promises. She has a practical but progressive mindset and the proven ability of working with people who hold various political ideologies in house to get things done for the people of the city. I thought she did well to speak to tax payers of all brackets, small business owners, working class citizens, and people with lower incomes. It’s so refreshing to hear a leader who doesn’t just say healthcare is important for everyone but has gone out of the way to create systems that make the care more accessible and affordable to those people. Darlene is the one!! Joyful, energetic, realistic, empathetic, grounded.
I want to make sure people really take a look at some of the things not being mentioned. Barbara has an interesting and intriguing history as a teacher and council president, but relies too heavily on it to prove she is fit for office. It didn’t quite work. She fumbled quite a bit and was very dependent on her notes to form cogent thoughts. Barbara was also a bit condescending towards Darlene in how she pointed her finger and described admiring Darlene as her opponent, but only in relation to Barbara being president and Darlene beneath her. That behavior was just about as despicable as the council meeting Barbara kept referencing, practically spitting in how she condemned people for their conduct. Barbara – If you’re so concerned with the tone in which people address the board of education, perhaps you should fix your own tone first and treat people who live here and serve alongside you with the highest respect.
I found Barbara’s opening and closing remarks unremarkable and very safe. As well, Barbara made several comments that gave more of a sense of her being a status quo, establishment, respectability-politics driven democrat than a leader who is willing to risk it, and learn from people who don’t live and look like her. One flurry of comments that disturbed me was when she mentioned “opening up the government to the people” as Mayor and visiting all neighborhoods in Norwalk to talk to the people. She quickly redacted that, saying “well not all neighborhoods,” and settled on people gathering at city hall. Now, why in the world would you show fear and disfavor for some neighborhoods in Norwalk if you’re claiming to love the diversity and be a voice for the people? What does opening up the government mean to Barbara? She didn’t give a great explanation. Just sounds like one of those empty talking points to get more votes.
Again, Darlene is a great and real candidate that we need right now.
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