Gov. Ned Lamont is installing Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves, an immigrant who leads one of the nation’s most diverse cities, as next chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee, a move underscoring that the governor is keeping his options open about seeking a third term in 2026. “I like Roberto. He knows the party apparatus pretty well,” Lamont said Wednesday night on his way to the Ansonia-Naugatuck football game on Thanksgiving eve. “I love the fact he’s a mayor and executive who comes out of the business world, as do I. And he can tell a message as to what our party is about.” Alves will succeed Nancy DiNardo, who had been expected to step down when her term expires in January, the unofficial start of a two-year election cycle that will culminate in a gubernatorial election. The choice of an urban mayor comes after successive statewide elections in which the urban vote has been shrinking. Lamont needed a strong city vote to win a close election in 2018, but his comfortable reelection in 2022 came on the strength of a suburban vote that more than offset a poor turnout in the cities. City Democrats have been looking for a sign that Lamont would take an interest in investing in the party’s infrastructure. On Wednesday, he gave it. Lamont’s official stance about a third term is that he is open to a run but is not close to making a decision. Whether he would take a hand in selecting a new chair or stay on the sidelines was a question that party officials were closely watching. The governor declined to comment Wednesday on whether his selection of Alves is a sign that a campaign for a third term is, at least, now more likely than not. If Lamont does not run, the choice leaves the state organization with a leader not committed to any of the contenders to succeed him, including Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz. Jimmy Tickey, the party’s vice chair, was interested in succeeding DiNardo. He was an aide to Bysiewicz during her first year as lieutenant governor and now is on the staff of U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4th District. Bysiewicz praised Alves in a statement: “Roberto Alves exemplifies the very best of our state’s values, immigrating to Connecticut as a child, graduating from Danbury High School, and going to work as a technical sales engineer at Cartus.” Alves came to the U.S. in 1989 as a 5-year-old from Brazil, the son of parents who overstayed a tourist visa. He will take over the party’s leadership the same month that Donald J. Trump, who has promised the mass deportation of immigrants in the country without legal status, is inaugurated as president. In his first race for mayor, Alves never hid nor highlighted his past as an undocumented immigrant. “I’m hesitant to use it politically, and I don’t talk about it politically, because people are conservative, and it [rubs] on some people the wrong way,” Alves said in 2021. Alves became a U.S. citizen in 2017. The same year, he ran his first race for an at-large seat on the city council, finishing third on the slate of seven Democrats in a year when only one Democrat won. He won a council seat in 2019. The choice of state chair is technically up to a vote of the Democratic State Central Committee, but the committee typically defers to the choice of a governor when Democrats hold the office. Alves is known to be a favorite of the governor. He campaigned for Alves in 2021, when he lost a race for the open mayoral seat, and he broached the idea of him taking over the party once before. “This time I felt I’m better suited,” said Alves, who was a regional sales executive prior to his election as mayor in 2023. “Now, I’m in the state every night, every morning and every weekend.” He said his new duties will complement his role as mayor. He noted that mayors often serve on boards — though few as high-profile as the one he will be leading. Alves is a former state treasurer of the party and former Danbury town chair. DiNardo is in her second stint as state chair. She was first elected in 2005, five years before Dannel P. Malloy was elected governor and ended the Democrats’ 20-year losing streak in gubernatorial races. She was succeeded by Nick Balletto in 2015. Former Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman succeeded Balletto as the public choice of Lamont, whose relationship with Balletto was cool, at best. Dinardo returned to the post in 2020 after Wyman stepped down. “It’s been an honor to lead the Connecticut Democrats, and I thank Gov. Lamont for giving me the opportunity to serve again,” she said in a statement. “Roberto Alves will make a great chairman, and I wish him the very best.”