HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT) said Wednesday that voters turned out in Tuesday's election in part because "their voting rights were being impacted," and that Congress has a responsibility to investigate the Trump administration.

"People showed up because they were upset. People showed up because they wanted to see change. People showed up because their voting rights were being impacted and they risked being disenfranchised," Hayes said at a post-election briefing with Gov. Ned Lamont and other Connecticut Democrats, which was carried by CT-N. "We cannot now say that these things are not a part of our priority. We have to address them."

Asked what the state's congressional delegation will focus on next year, Hayes said one of the biggest priorities is rescinding cuts to Medicaid and SNAP made in the "one big, beautiful bill" that have not yet taken effect.

But she said lawmakers' job "is not a single-issue job," and that Congress also has a duty to conduct oversight. She said that when Congress had the chance in the past to enforce regulations and close gaps, "we didn't do as much as we could."

"We will also be legislating, but we have a responsibility to subpoena people and bring them in and peel back some of the layers of what has been happening," Hayes said.

"They didn't show up for us to do exactly what we've done in the past," she added. "You keep doing what you're doing, you keep getting what you're getting. And people showed up for something different."

'The American people took their power back'

In her opening remarks, Hayes said it was the first time since she was elected that her general election race was called on election night. Her biggest takeaway, she said, was that "the American people took their power back."

She said she cannot win her district "without the help of Republicans and unaffiliated" voters, and that Democrats, Republicans, unaffiliated voters and first-time voters all helped elect the party's slate.

Hayes described a line of same-day registrants outside a polling place in Danbury at 8 p.m., and said she spoke there with a man who had just become a citizen and was voting for the first time. She said she told him he was voting "for all of the people in this community who can't vote, who can't show up, who don't have a voice."

"If the policies of this administration were working, today would be a very different outcome," Hayes said. "And the people in Connecticut are sending us back to make some very significant changes, and that's what I expect to do."