Petit considered running for Congress in the 5th district against then freshman Democrat Elizabeth Esty, but decided against it. He also declined to run for the seat in 2018. In the 2016 election, he won election to the Connecticut House of Representatives from the 22nd district, defeating 11-term incumbent Democrat Elizabeth "Betty" Boukus. He defeated Democrat Richard Ireland Jr. for his second term in 2018 and ran unopposed for reelection in 2020. Petit declined to run for reelection in 2022. Personal life Petit's daughters, Hayley and Michaela, were 17 and 11 when they and his wife Jennifer Hawke-Petit were murdered. In 2012, he remarried to Christine Paluf, a photographer whom he met when she volunteered for the Petit Foundation. They have a son, William Petit III. References Living people 1956 births Republican Party members of the Connecticut House of Representatives 21st-century American politicians American philanthropists American physicians People from Plainville, Connecticut Dartmouth College alumni University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine alumni Yale School of Medicine alumni