The bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures elected Connecticut Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff as its vice president during an annual summit held earlier this month in Boston. The one-year term puts Duff on track to become the group’s president in 2027.
The NCSL serves more than 7,000 state lawmakers and 30,000 legislative staff across the nation. The group elected Duff, D-Norwalk, as vice president on Aug. 6, beginning a multi-year leadership transition that will make him president-elect in 2026 and president the following year.
Duff represents the first Connecticut legislator to serve as a member of the NCSL’s governing body. In a press release, he said he would channel the group’s collaborative approach to problem-solving.
“It’s not lost on me that this will provide Connecticut with direct connections to some of the best ideas, people and resources in the country,” Duff said. “I’m focused on what this election means for my state – this is great news for Connecticut Senate Democrats, the Connecticut Legislature and the 3.6 million people who call Connecticut home.”
Since assuming his current leadership role in the Senate in 2015, Duff has overseen passage of a number of landmark policies including a restructuring of Connecticut’s education funding formula, paid family medical leave, and the largest package of tax cuts in the state’s history.
As vice president of the NCSL, Duff will serve alongside the group’s new president, Rep. Marcus C. Evans Jr., D-Illinois, and president-elect, Sen. Barry Usher, R-Montana.
According to a Thursday report from Stateline, the bipartisan group of legislators spent much of the summit in Boston grappling with the fiscal ramifications of President Donald Trump’s federal spending law, which made deep cuts to state funding for health care and food assistance programs.
“We have no idea yet how we’re going to respond,” West Virginia Republican House Speaker Roger Hanshaw said, according to Stateline. “I don’t want to speak for any other state … but I would speculate that’s true for nearly every other state.”
