Suggs was appointed to the office of state treasurer by the Connecticut General Assembly to complete the term of Francisco L. Borges, who had resigned to accept a finance job in the private sector. Suggs lost the 1994 general election for treasurer to Republican state representative Christopher Burnham. A Democrat, Suggs had served as mayor of Bloomfield, Connecticut, from 1989 to 1993.[3] He was the town's first African American mayor and the only Black mayor of a suburban Connecticut town at the time.[4] In 1998, Suggs sought the Democratic nomination for Connecticut's 1st congressional district, losing the primary to John B. Larson.[5] In 2018, he narrowly lost a special election for the Connecticut House of Representatives.[6]
Suggs worked 27 years as a laboratory supervisor for Monsanto, retiring in 1993. He supported the development of PET plastic bottles now widely used in the beverage industry.[3] Born in Hartford and raised in Coventry, he served in the US Air Force and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Hartford in 1978.[1] He has served on the boards of the University of Hartford and Saint Francis Hospital and as co-chair of the Council of Institutional Investors. He was recognized twice by the NAACP as one of the 100 Most Influential Blacks of Connecticut. He is currently a business consultant.[7][3]
