Sitting in her dining room on a just before spring sunny Saturday morning, former Darien First Selectman Jayme Stevenson could seem, from outward appearances, to appear to be the pinnacle of privilege. Instead, the fair-haired mother and grandmother, against the backdrop of her stunning Darien home, wants Connecticut residents to understand who she truly is, where she has come from, and why she feels strongly compelled to run for Congress in 2022.

Representing Darien

Stevenson has earned some well-deserved time off, though relaxing doesn’t seem to be in her vocabulary. For the last decade-plus, she has kept the town of Darien running like a well-oiled machine, often in the face of harsh backlash from a small group of partisan critics within Darien borders and those in state power. She’s done it without the help of Darien’s state representation, apart from State Rep. Terrie Wood, the town’s lone Republican state representative and a long-time close friend of Stevenson’s.

The mother of five points out that throughout the most challenging past two years, she guided the town through a pandemic — during which she never missed a day working in the office — Stevenson never heard once from Darien’s state representatives outside of Wood.

“They never cared enough about Darien residents or businesses to ask how we were doing…if we needed help. I have a different expectation of my elected officials.” she said.

Stevenson notes that Darien’s consistent lack of state representation or a voice at the table compelled her to seek positions and leadership in state-run organizations such as the Western Connecticut Council of Governments, the Southwest Metropolitan Planning Agency, and the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.

Jayme Stevenson’s Childhood

But the reason she feels compelled to run for public office again begins from a childhood based on being taught the importance of good education, hard work, and the sacrifices it takes to get ahead.

Jayme Stevenson, nee Jackson, was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1961. Far from the likes of Darien, Reading, the fourth largest city in Pennsylvania, was and continues to be one of the poorest cities in the United States.

Around the time Jayme was born, Reading was experiencing a sharp downturn in prosperity through the 1970s due to the decline in heavy industry and railroads on which Reading had been built and a national trend of urban decline.

She was born to parents Carol Ann Jackson and John Calvin Jackson Jr. Her mother was the daughter of Italian immigrants. Her father and all of his brothers, and Jayme’s brother, John III, served in the military.

“My family had a strong and proud military background,” Jayme said. She and her brother were the first of their family to go to college, and she said they both were fortunate enough to go to an excellent public school. Jayme was active in school and said the school had a Broadway-level theater program, which is where she discovered her love of singing. She also twirled rifles as Captain of the Color Guard in the school’s accomplished marching band, which competed internationally.

“My parents understood that education was the key foundation for my brother and me to have a better life,” Jayme said.

Jayme’s parents were very “middle-low income,” she said. The family shared one car, and their home had one bathroom, and she said she never wanted more than what they had.

“I had a very happy childhood. We had large family gatherings for every holiday. I was close to all my cousins,” she said.

Her brother, John, earned a commission to the United States Air Force Academy, served our country for 26 years, and retired as a Colonel. He flew F15 Eagles, trained others to fly fighter jets, attended War College, and even managed air security for the Olympics in Greece. One of Jayme’s paternal uncles, Flight Officer Elmer Jackson, was killed in the battle for Sicily during World War II.

Stevensons College Years

Jayme attended Albright College in Reading for two years, where she studied psychology and biology to pursue a medical degree. In a somewhat unusual move for Reading natives, Jayme opted to leave the small college and transfer to Arizona State University. She graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Communication with a Telecommunication and Business Management degree.

“My parents mortgaged their life to send me to college. They just didn’t have the means, otherwise,” she said.

While her parents were able to help finance her tuition through student loans, that was the only financing they could provide. Jayme worked throughout college, and a particularly fond memory was her job as a bartender at the local student watering hole, the Devil House.

She joined a sorority at ASU, Delta Gamma, where she met many incredible women who remain her friends.

During her years at college, Jayme said she was actively involved in community service and college activities, serving as an orientation leader at Albright and on the student governing board at ASU. She was also elected to the homecoming court at ASU.

“I loved being actively engaged in my community,” she said.

Upon graduation, Jayme took a job as the assistant to a cable executive in New York City — but quickly, the excited girl from a small Pennsylvania town learned the job in the big city wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Instead of getting immersed in the business, she was the “coffee and errand girl.”

“That wasn’t what I wanted. And it wasn’t what my parents wanted for me,” she said.

Supporting Her Dreams

Jayme left New York and moved back to the familiarity of Arizona — but this time, she needed to support herself entirely financially.

“I had to make my own way. I continued to bartend. I worked for IBM part-time. I had to buy my own car and fund my own apartment. There was no money left for furniture,” she said. Jayme joked she also sold some of the earliest mobile telephones that were hard-wired to the customer’s car.

Despite that hard work, Jayme was struggling and lonely. She’d gone from a 1,200-student college to a 45,000-student university. She had no family or friends in Arizona.

“Despite my wonderful friendships, I really missed my family. I missed the East Coast. Christmas lights on a cactus were not cutting it for me,” she said.

Meeting John

It was not long after this, circa about 1984, that Jayme, an accomplished vocalist, flew back to Reading to attend and sing at a childhood friend’s wedding, a frequent request for her. There, she met John Stevenson, her eventual husband, who knew the bride and groom from college.

They enjoyed each other’s company, but Jayme was in a relationship. However, John was not to be deterred. He continued to pursue their new connection, and when she came back to the East Coast for another wedding, John arrived to see her. Jayme, while flattered, again explained she was unavailable. John altered strategies, Jayme said, laughing, and it was clever.

He opted to take Jayme’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, out to dinner instead. Her father and John bonded over golf, and John and Jayme’s friendship continued. Much like Jayme, John came from a strong, military family that valued hard work. John’s father flew 35 missions as a tail gunner in World War II… the average life of a tail gunner was five missions.

His father was of Scottish background. His grandmother was a housekeeper in Greenwich, and his grandfather was a woodworker and fixed bicycles. John’s family was based in Stamford, and his parents moved to Darien because of the town’s good schools.

“We really connected on the important things in life, like family values,” she said. Meanwhile, Jayme’s urge to return to the East coast grew more pronounced, likely influenced by her strengthening friendship. She got a job unrelated to her major, at Standard & Poor’s, in New York, in their new asset-backed financing department. Because Jayme worked in the area that rated asset-backed mobile homes, she traveled to the south in a largely male-dominated field.

Eventually, she and John married and lived on the bottom two floors of a Brooklyn brownstone he owned. She had her first child, a daughter, Alexandra, and continued to work until the birth of her second child, Samantha, in 1991. They settled in Darien, where John was raised and had three more children, Charlett, McKenna, and John.

Championing Her Community

Much like her youth, Jayme’s passion for service inspired her involvement in Darien. She sang in the choir of the First Congregational Church for 13 years, stopping only when she became First Selectman as the time investment was too significant. She served on the board of the FCC nursery school, eventually becoming president. She did on and later became chairman of the Darien Nature Center board. She served as chairman for both the Royle Elementary School PTO and Darien High School Parent Teacher Association.

“I am rooted in this town. I’ve lived in Darien longer than anywhere else. This is my home,” she said.

As her children began to grow up, she was approached in 2009 by David Campbell and Jerry Nielsen, members of long-time Darien families and owners of two of the town’s most successful businesses, to run for the Board of Selectmen on the Republican slate.

The War Against Opioids

Shortly before their successful election, a news story reported a story that outlined the challenge for the Stevenson family that has led to Jayme’s passionate interest in fighting the war against opioids. Her daughter Alex, now a married mother of one social worker in Vermont, had struggled with addiction while a successful volleyball and softball player at Darien High School.

The family together made it through that dark time, and Jayme has since been honored for her work in fighting these horrible substances.

“I’m deeply passionate about drug misuse and how it destroys families. The terrible problem of fentanyl has been exacerbated by our failed immigration policies at the southern border. This one is deeply personal to me,” she said.

The Campbell/Nielsen/Stevenson ticket prevailed, with Jayme as a selectman. She ran in the next election in 2011 for the top spot. And there she remained until her final term that ended last November — when the Town Hall staff paid tribute to her in a tearful celebration.

Representing Connecticut in Congress

She announced her intention to run for Congress in February against incumbent Jim Himes. Jayme points out that, unlike Himes, she has worked directly with the Connecticut residents on the ground. She has navigated the pandemic, numerous hurricanes, power outages, storms, protests, and racial tensions throughout her tenure. Her work has been successful; she points out that she’s developed relationships with our residents, various organizations within the state, and fellow municipal leaders on both sides of the aisle.

“I have served directly with and for the people of Darien, and while on the Council of Governments, I was elected to the leadership by my bipartisan peers, and I’m very proud of that,” she said.

“I can say I am unequivocally qualified for Congress — even Mr. Himes has never served the people as directly as I have. I think successful municipal leaders are unique in the breadth of management experience and problem-solving skills,” Jayme said.
“I manage a multi-million-dollar business with thousands of employees and stakeholders through emergencies, floods, and a global pandemic. I’ve seen where the government lacks and what they should and, more importantly, shouldn’t be doing. Government has become overly intrusive in our lives.” she said.

Jayme cited the example of the confusion in deeming what businesses were essential to staying open vs. closed during the pandemic.

“Where was Jim Himes when they ordered our main street small businesses to close, yet big box stores could remain open?” she said.

Jayme likened the government’s exposure to the unveiling of the man behind the curtain during The Wizard of Oz.

“People now see the government putting masks on kids and calling parents who want them removed ‘domestic terrorists.’ Government should be there to protect our constitutional and God-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…not to be a surrogate parent.” Jim has proven over his 14 years in Washington that he supports government being a central decision-maker for your family and your business,” she said.

“Inflation is rampant with no end in sight. Prices for all your necessities…food, diapers, home heating fuel, and gas, are on the rise. Violent crime is up, and the importance of law enforcement is dismissed with a lack of support,” she said. Since she left office in November, Jayme has continued to expand her community service. She supports Liberation Programs in their fight against substance abuse. She is on the board of Life Bridge Community Service in Bridgeport, which focuses on the mental health of kids and families in vulnerable zip codes. She also served on the board of the Rowan Center, which offers support and counseling for victims of sexual violence. She also recently joined the board of Stamford EMS and served on the States’ Attorney’s Community Engagement Board.

Investing in the Future

Jayme has also recently joined efforts on a startup company called TiCoat, based in North Windham, developing a permanent surface coating technology that kills all organic content on contact — a permanent surface cleaner.

Jayme is invested in the future as a mother of five and a grandmother of two. She hopes people recognize that to realize all our full potential; we need “government to get out of the way.”

As Darien’s leader, she tried to do that during the pandemic. She said she worked in her office every day and didn’t issue further mandates beyond what the state put forward.

“People made their own decisions. They didn’t need government mandating or having Darien Police monitor their actions,” she said.

“I know businesses were grateful and appreciated our approach — we carefully managed the pandemic without trying to instill more fear,” Jayme said.
She also noted that Darien was one of the first small towns to offer testing so that residents didn’t need to drive to other further cities early on during the pandemic.

“When I took the first selectman’s job, it was with full seriousness. I raised the job to be a 24/7 responsibility and engaged at the regional and state level. I knew how important it was to build those relationships,” Jayme said.

She returned to her initial point — “We don’t have representation at that level. I had to be Darien’s strongest advocate.”

Jayme raised her belief in term limits and decried ” political elitism ” regarding many of Darien’s Democratic representatives on the state and federal levels; Jayme raised the idea of term limits and denounced “political elitism.”

“I am proud of the fact that I retired myself. I believe in term limits. Government is out of balance. Our system is intended to represent the diversity of thoughts and ideas. We are in a dangerous period where the ruling class here and in Washington doesn’t want to give your voice any oxygen if you hold an opposing viewpoint, and they are quick to “cancel” you if you disagree with them,” she said.

She said the misperception of her coming from Darien, given her and her family’s roots, means that, if anything, she has more in common with those supporting Democrat candidates than the candidates they are voting for.

Leading the People of Darien

“I’ve spent more than the last decade with my boots on the ground in the fourth congregational district. He’s never managed a town through a flood or a pandemic or a fire or crafted a sustainable multi-million dollar budget,” Jayme said.

Himes, according to Jayme, has become very aligned with his party leadership and serving it vs. serving the people he represents.

“Maybe it’s a power play. Maybe it leads to the committee he gets to chair,” she said.

“But what I don’t think it leads to, and voters can ask themselves this — has this translated to giving us a better life? Are our children, particularly those in our cities, better educated and on a path to success? Are businesses thriving? Can families afford their daily necessities, and can they put a little away for the future? Are we safe on our streets, and is our country stronger today and energy independent?”

She pointed out that people tend to vote differently in state and local elections vs. federal elections — and said they should expect the same of their reps on all levels.

Jayme also said she believes people are tired of partisanship.

“I don’t think people want that anymore. They want someone to get the job done, be open to different viewpoints, and solve today’s complex problems,” she said.