Joseph M. Suggs Jr. (born August 1, 1940)^[1] is an American politician who served as Connecticut State Treasurer from 1993 to 1995.^[2]

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]

Suggs is a widower (his wife Mary died in 1989) with three children: Ronald, Rosemary, and Felicia.^[4]