Susan’s top priorities are growing good-paying jobs and investing in public education and job training. During unprecedented and challenging times, she, alongside Governor Ned Lamont, has led with grit and grace, saving lives, putting our state on strong fiscal footing, and rebuilding our economy.

The Lamont-Bysiewicz Administration has delivered results, passing seven balanced budgets, making record investments in education, paying down pension debt, and securing the two biggest tax cuts in the history of Connecticut. She and Governor Lamont have made our state more affordable by capping the cost of insulin, expanding access to high-quality and low-cost child care, and creating a program to assist first-time home buyers. 

Susan advocated for Connecticut’s landmark paid leave program, which has helped more than 165,000 workers welcome a new baby, take care of a sick loved one, or recover from an illness. She was a leading voice for legislation to increase the minimum wage to $16.35 an hour with annual automatic increases for inflation, uplifting more than 170,000 families.

As Chair of the Governor’s Council on Women and Girls, Susan led the fight to defend reproductive rights and freedoms, making Connecticut a national leader in women’s health care.

As Secretary of the State from 1999 to 2011, Susan advocated for small businesses and fair elections. She helped thousands of businesses grow, registered thousands of voters, cut bureaucratic red tape, honored veterans, protected voters rights, and modernized voting technology.

As a state representative in the Connecticut General Assembly, representing the towns of Middletown, Middlefield, and Durham, she wrote legislation to ban dangerous “drive-through” mastectomies and ensure that women being treated for breast cancer had proper care. Additionally, she wrote the law to ban lobbyists from giving gifts to legislators.

As a business lawyer and a job creator, she has helped over sixty companies access millions of dollars in capital, expand their businesses, and create thousands of jobs in Connecticut.


Susan was raised in a large Catholic family as the proud granddaughter of immigrants who came to Connecticut from Poland and Greece with nothing but hopes for a better future. After many years of factory work, they saved enough to buy a farm in Middletown that became her childhood home. Growing up and working on the farm, she and her siblings learned the values of hard work, education, and persistence.

Susan’s passion for public service was inspired by her parents. She watched her mother raise four children while teaching law school and becoming the first female tenured professor at UCONN Law School. Her father, a World War II veteran, was the first in his family to go to college by taking advantage of the GI bill. He then ran a successful insurance business while also tending a 40-acre farm.

After graduating from Yale University, Susan met her husband, David Donaldson, at Duke Law School. They live in Middletown where they raised their three children, Ava, Leyna, and Tristan, who, like their mom, attended Middletown public schools and graduated from Middletown High School. She is the author of Ella: A Biography of Ella Grasso, Connecticut’s 83rd governor.