Senator Derek Slap
Deputy Majority Leader
Chair: Aging
Vice-Chair: Human Services
Member: Commerce; Higher Education & Employment Advancement
About Derek:
State Senator Derek Slap was elected in the special election on February 26, 2019 to represent the 98,000 residents of the 5th State Senate District towns of West Hartford, Farmington, Burlington, and the western portion of Bloomfield. He had previously served one term as state representative for the 16th House District, serving constituents in West Hartford, Avon and Bloomfield.
Derek makes his home in West Hartford with his wife, Alex, daughters Maggie and Zoe, and son, Charlie. He is Vice President of Advancement at The Village for Families and Children, working to grow and support technology activity across the state. Derek is a lecturer at Sacred heart University and has been a lecturer in Political Science at Yale University and an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University, Central Connecticut State, Southern Connecticut State and Eastern Connecticut State universities. In 2017 he won an “ARC Angel Award” from ARC for his advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities
Legislative Goals:
As always, one of Derek’s most important goals is enacting an affordable, balanced and sustainable biennial budget that meets the disparate needs and demands voiced by a wide variety of Connecticut residents. Derek works across party lines to identify potential spending cuts and ways to make government more efficient wherever possible.
Derek believes that Connecticut’s fiscal health also depends on creating a stronger economy – one that generates more revenue from high-quality jobs. Workforce development, investments in transportation and higher education must also play a role.
Derek believes that the communities he represents enjoy wonderful public schools, and that it is critical, as difficult budget decisions are made in Hartford, that these communities are not unfairly targeted. Derek believes that all children deserve a quality education which provides them with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. Derek also believes public school teachers must be embraced by policymakers as partners in the effort to strengthen and protect our schools.
Additional Legislative Priorities:
This year, Derek is focused on addressing the public health crisis of teen vaping with a multi-pronged approach: increasing the smoking age from 18 to 21; prohibiting the sale of flavored vaping liquids (which are especially popular with teens); and taxing electronic cigarette liquids at the same rate as cigarettes and other tobacco products.
Derek is also committed to fighting age discrimination in the hiring process by seeking to
prohibit employers from inquiring about birth or graduation dates on employment applications; the bill has more than two dozen co-sponsors and is supported by the Connecticut AARP.
Recently, Derek has sought to close the wage gap between men and women in Connecticut, arguing that different pay for the same work isn’t only unfair, it’s bad for working families, the economy, and for Connecticut’s overall competitiveness. Derek supports pay equity between men and women to protect employees and prospective employees from gender-based discrimination on wages and compensation.
Derek has also worked to improve transparency and accountability on the Metropolitan District Commission, supporting legislation that adds a non-voting member to the MDC board of directors in the form of a consumer advocate, and requiring the MDC to disclose detailed information about applications for land use, zoning, wetlands and tax abatements before it holds a hearing or acts on the request. Derek has also sought drought protections written into law so bottled water companies cannot continue to pump water from reservoirs during a drought while families are asked to conserve.
Experience and Education:
Derek is the former Chief of Staff for the Senate Democratic Caucus, where he managed a 70-person staff, helped achieve significant budget savings, and worked with citizen activists to address issues such as gun safety, school security and mental health reforms; GMO labeling; and access to high quality pre-k.
Before his tenure as Chief of Staff, Derek was Director of Communications for Senate Democrats for four years. Derek has also been Deputy Chief of Staff/Communications Director for the Secretary of the State, Communications Director for the DeStefano for Governor campaign, and Director of Public Information for the City of New Haven.
You may recognize Derek from TV; he was a news anchor and reporter at NBC Connecticut from 1999 until 2004, and before that worked at TV stations in Florida and at CNN Headline News in Atlanta.
Derek earned his MBA from the UConn School of Business and bachelors’ degrees in Broadcast Journalism and International Relations from Syracuse University, where he graduated Magna cum Laude.