Joe de la Cruz announces state senate campaign for 18th District
- Alisha Rayner
- Dec 8, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 24
By Kimberly Drelich
Groton — Former state Rep. Joe de la Cruz has announced his campaign to seek the Democratic nomination for the 18th District state Senate seat.
The district covers Griswold, Groton, North Stonington, Plainfield, Preston, Sterling, Stonington and Voluntown. State Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, holds the seat.
De la Cruz, 54, vice president of the Groton-based Hillery Co., has worked 38 years in the sheet metal trade, served three terms as a state representative and been a Groton town councilor, Representative Town Meeting member, and youth sports coach.
He is the president of Community Speaks Out, a Groton-based organization that helps people and families affected by addiction.
De la Cruz said is concerned about the future for his grandchildren, daughter and son-in-law and can't stand on the side anymore.
He said it's been a struggle for him knowing that he could be helpful, especially with cuts coming down on the federal level. He said it's important to have legislators who will make decisions that are tough but also fair, and he wants to make sure his voice will be there.
De la Cruz said it's been particularly hard over the past year to watch the country change before his eyes.
"I think we need to make a statement that that's not what we stand for," he said, "and I think we can do that by changing state legislatures, by getting people in that are going to speak up."
He said he expects a lot of tough votes in Hartford over the next few years, and he cited his experience working on tight state budgets. He said he is proud he worked on the state budget that installed the first "fiscal guardrails."
On reflecting on his time in Hartford, he said he thinks his voice was one of those that tipped the scale in favor of a minimum wage increase.
"I really think that my ideas and my ideals and what I believe in line up with people in this district more than I think most people would even expect, even folks on the other side of the aisle would expect," he said. "I think once they hear me and what I care about, I think they're going to be able to relate to me."
He said he feels his voice could have helped recently proposed legislation that would have piloted supervised spaces for people to use drugs, go into effect. He said other places that have used this model have found that when someone comes in and uses, that might be where they find their recovery.
De la Cruz and his wife, Tammy de la Cruz, helped found Community Speaks Out more than a decade ago after their late son Joey Gingerella faced addiction issues. Gingerella was shot and killed outside a Groton bar in 2016 when he tried to help a woman being assaulted by her boyfriend.
He said the organization is a part of him and his wife.
"We're never going to stop," he said.
He said he wants to legislate to make sure there are pathways for people, whether that's a pathway to recovery or a pathway to help people from neighborhoods that don't have access to resources.
De la Cruz plans to hold a kick-off event for his campaign at 10 a.m. Saturday at Par 4 restaurant at the Shennecosset Golf Course.
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