Anabel Figueroa

Anabel D. Figueroa is a Salvadoran American politician serving the 148th District in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 2023 to 2025, and on the Stamford Board of Representatives since 2001.

Career

Politics

Local politics Figueroa has served on Stamford's Board of Representatives since 2001, representing District 8.

In 2017, she joined a slate of Democratic candidates on the Board of Representatives call "Reform Stamford", promising to provide more checks on the city's Mayor.

During her time on the Board of Representatives, Figueroa has been subject to two ethics investigations: in 2019, she was subject to an inquiry regarding her vote on nominating the city's Police Chief, due to her husband and son both being affiliated with the Police Department; in 2021, she was subject to a second inquiry regarding her vote on the reappointment of one of the members of the city's Board of Ethics members who had previously been involved in the first investigation against her. Figueroa subsequently launched a campaign for his former seat. In the Democratic primary for the seat, Figueroa ran against former Board of Representatives member Jonathan Jacobson.

Figueroa ran for re-election for this seat in November 2024, during the general election. On the date of the primary, August 13th, the Democratic City Committee Executive Board called on her to resign for comments she made in late July, where she said "The Hispanic vote is going to determine on August 13th who will win to represent or who will continue to represent you. We cannot permit a person who is of Jewish origin, of Jewish origin, to represent our community.", in reference to Jacobson. On the afternoon of August 13th, Figueroa offered an apology that was deemed insufficient by many of Jacobson's supporters, and later apologized again. Unofficial results released that night showed Figueroa losing to Jacobson, 37.4% to 62.6%.

Electoral history Figueroa was elected in the special election for the 148th District on February 28, 2023, winning 61.0% of the vote, versus the 39.0% won by Republican candidate Olga Dimitria Anastos.

Political positions Anabel Figueroa has opposed abortions on demand, and spoke at an anti-abortion rally where she said "Latinas don't really look for abortions". Figueroa has voted against a bill to provide legal protection to Connecticut medical personnel who perform abortions from criminal prosecution, and to require public higher education institutions to create plans to provide students with reproductive health services.

Figueroa has supported the use of the term "Latine", as opposed to "Latinx", as a gender-neutral term for the Latin American community, and voted in favor of a bill to require state agencies to use the term. Later on August 13th, she released a statement apologizing for the remarks, but added "My message is that we need leaders who represent our districts. There is almost no Latino representation in Hartford, and I am currently the only Latina state representative in southern Connecticut. There is a strong Latino community in the 148th district, and I will ensure their voice is at the table and never leaves it. This has nothing to do with religion, and as a bilingual speaker, I misspoke when describing my opponent's background". However, ten days later, she rescinded her resignation letter. Figueroa has lived in Stamford, Connecticut since 1983. She studied at Norwalk Community College to become a therapeutic recreation director and a certified nursing assistant.