© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

Incumbent Burlington Mayor Narrowly Wins Re-election

Mayor Miro Weinberger wins a fourth term on Town Meeting Day 2021
Pat Bradley/WAMC
Mayor Miro Weinberger wins a fourth term on Town Meeting Day 2021

Burlington, Vermont Mayor Miro Weinberger won re-election Tuesday to a fourth three-year term in his closest race yet for the city’s top seat.
Democrat Miro Weinberger faced six opponents in his bid for a fourth three-year term. His key opposition was Progressive City Council President Max Tracy and Independent Ward 7 city councilor Ali Dieng.
Unofficial results from the city clerk’s officeshow Weinberger outpaced Tracy 42.99% to 42.09% — a margin of 129 votes.

Weinberger appeared at the ECHO Center for Lake Champlain late Tuesday evening. He said he received a very gracious call from Tracy congratulating him on the win.  “I’ve known Max for nine years now since the day that we were both elected for the first time back in 2012 and I’ve always had a lot of respect for Max. I congratulated him on establishing himself as a citywide leader tonight and agreed with his desire for collaboration.  I also received a gracious call from Councilor Ali Dieng and I congratulated him on an impressive campaign. It's a significant accomplishment to secure over 13% of the vote in a year of historically high voter turnout in the city while running as an Independent without the backing of any party.”

Weinberger cleared the 40 percent threshold to avoid a runoff.

He said a record number of Burlington voters set the city’s course for the next three years.  “I’m honored by the opportunity to continue to serve this great city and humbled by the closeness of the margin.  It’s a great thing and something to be celebrated that 14,000 Burlingtonians came out and participated in the local process today. It’s certainly vastly more than we’ve seen in the last couple decades. And you know I think the results indicate that we have hard work to do to forge consensus on some key issues: public safety, housing, how we move forward with racial justice.  I think in the results you see that there’s some real disagreement about that and I’m looking forward to getting back and find a way to keep making progress even if there is difference of opinion.”

Tracy participated in a Vermont Progressive Party virtual watch party.  After the results confirmed his loss Tracy expressed his disappointment and congratulated Weinberger.   “Certainly this evening didn’t go as we had hoped that it would. I’d like to offer my congratulations to Mayor Weinberger for his success in being elected for a fourth term. I know that Mayor Weinberger will continue to work closely with our city council and with neighbors across our city to help us move closer to a Burlington that works for all of us and we’ll certainly work to hold him to that vision as well. Also like to specifically thank Ali Dieng who ran a campaign focused on empowering others to participate in the political process.”

Tracy feels his team mounted one of the strongest Progressive campaigns in the city in decades.   “Our campaign has always been about and for the working people and families, the people living on fixed incomes, the people of color in this city, the LGBT folks in our city, people who are disabled in our city who deserve a brighter future. And that is exactly who showed up to help us come this far. You know electoral losses happen as they did tonight.  But we cannot let this deter us from our focus to transform our city to be a more socially just, a more racially just, a more economically just city. We have so much work to do and that work really will continue.”

Tracy, who says he will not ask for a recount,  will continue to serve as Ward Two councilor and City Council president.  Dieng will remain in his Ward 7 seat.  

Incumbent city councilors Perri Freeman and Jack Hanson, both Progressives, and Democrat Joan Shannon were re-elected to two-year terms.  Independent Mark Barlow won the open North District council seat.

The new council will be sworn in on April 5th.

 

Related Content