Python sockets: Connection refused

I'm using the following code to forward strings from server 1 to server 2, and back, opening and closing the socket each time.

def ts1(data):
try:
    ts_sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
    print("CONNECTED TO TS1")
except socket.error as err:
    print('socket open error: {} \n'.format(err))
    exit()

ts_addr = (args.server_location, args.tsport)
ts_sock.connect(ts_addr)



with ts_sock:
    if stuff:
            ts_sock.sendall(ts_data.encode('utf-8'))
            print('sent to ts1: ' + hostname)

    while True:
        data2 = ts_sock.recv(512)
        data2 = data2.decode('utf-8')
        data2 = data2.strip()
        print('data 2: ' + data2)

        break

    ts_sock.close()
    return data2

Server 2's socket is created beforehand and is never closed manually, so it just receives data, does it's thing and sends it back:

with csockid:
while True:
    # receive and decode
    try:
        data = csockid.recv(512)
        data = data.decode('utf-8')
        data = data.strip()

    except ConnectionResetError:
        print("==> ConnectionResetError")
        pass

    if data:
        csockid.sendall(data.encode('utf-8'))       
        # print('sent')
    if not data:
        break

For some reason, the first string is sent and received back just fine, but the second time I try to connect to server 2 and send another string, I get:

ts_sock.connect(ts_addr)
ConnectionRefusedError: [Errno 111] Connection refused

Any help would be appreciated, I'm rather new to socket programming & python in general.