Biography
State Representative Eleni Kavros DeGraw was elected in November 2020 to represent the 17th District in Avon and Canton. She is currently in her second term.
In her first term, she brought back nearly $2 million in bonding dollars to her district, passed the phase-out of the personal income tax on Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), passed a Workforce Disability Pipeline bill, and a Veterans Municipal Property Tax Credit bill. In her second term, she passed Connecticut’s first Student Loan Debt Relief bill and the Purple Alert System legislation to aid families with missing adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
She is a member of the Bipartisan Women's Caucus, the Fire and Safety Caucus, the Climate Caucus, and the Intellectual and Developmental Disability Caucus.
Eleni is a graduate of James Madison University and The Campaign School at Yale (formerly the Women’s Campaign School at Yale) as well as Emerge Connecticut, the State Legislative Leadership Foundation Emerging Leaders program, and the Council of State Governments Eastern Leadership Academy. Throughout her career, she has served on many boards and currently is a member of the Board of Connecticut Foodshare’s Development Committee and the James Madison University College of Arts and Letters Board.
She is Chairwoman of the Planning and Development Committee and serves as a member of the Public Health and Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committees.
A resident of the Farmington Valley for 25 years, Eleni lives in Avon with her three children and her husband, who is the founder and CEO of a service-disabled veteran-owned small business.