Luke Bronin

Early life and education

Bronin completed high school at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire before he attended Yale University as an undergraduate. Upon graduation he attended the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He returned to the United States to earn a law degree at Yale Law School.

Private sector

After graduation from Yale Law School, Luke Bronin joined The Hartford Insurance Company in the Asylum Hill neighborhood of Hartford, where he worked first as associate counsel and assistant to the General Counsel, and then as chief of staff to the President of The Hartford’s Property and Casualty Division.

He is a partner at the private law firm Hinckley Allen LLP.

Public service in the Obama Administration

During the first term of President Barack Obama’s administration, Luke Bronin served in appointed positions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He first served as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Secretary of the United States Treasury, Neal Wolin.

Bronin was then named Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes.

He also testified before Congress in his official capacity.

Military service

Bronin is commissioned as an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve. He was a member of the military's anti-corruption task force during his deployment to Afghanistan from September 2010 to April 2011. He left active service as a Lieutenant.

Public service in Connecticut

In January 2013, Bronin returned to Hartford, Connecticut, to join the administration of Governor Dannel Malloy as General Counsel. As General Counsel, Bronin worked with the Governor, who led efforts to repeal the death penalty in Connecticut, to be the first state in the country to raise the minimum wage to $10.10, to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, and to increase funding for early childhood education.

Political activities

In 2004, Luke Bronin ran the re-election campaign of then-State Senator Andrew J. McDonald, a Democrat. MacDonald went on to become Chair of the State Senate Judiciary Committee, General Counsel to Governor Malloy, and the first Connecticut Supreme Court Justice from the LGBT community.

In 2006, Bronin served as deputy campaign manager for Dannel Malloy’s run for Governor of Connecticut.

In 2015, he ran in and won the Democratic primary in the Hartford Mayoral election against an incumbent, Mayor Pedro Segarra. In July 2015, Bronin received the endorsement of the Hartford Democratic Town Council. Then, in a September 2015 primary, Luke Bronin beat Mayor Segarra by a ten-point margin. Following the primary victory, Bronin was endorsed by Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy and Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy. Luke Bronin won the general election on November 3, 2015 and became Mayor-elect.

Volunteer activities

Luke Bronin serves on the board of the Hartford Public Library, recognized as “a national model for community engagement efforts.” He also serves on the board of the Amistad Center for Arts and Culture at the Wadsworth Museum of Art, which stewards “an important collection of 7,000 works of art, artifacts and popular culture objects that documents the history of people of African descent in America.”

Personal life

Luke Bronin is married to Sara Bronin, whom he met when they were both Rhodes Scholars. She is a professor at University of Connecticut Law School and is the past president of the Connecticut Hispanic Bar Association. They have three children.

Bronin is a songwriter, guitarist, and singer, with a self-titled album of 7 songs. One of his songs was played on the television show Dawson's Creek.