In Vermont, voters are electing the entire legislature and the five constitutional offices, including governor and lieutenant governor. There are also two state constitutional amendments on the ballot. WAMC Northeast Notebook Producer Molly Anderson spoke with WAMC’s North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley to help break down the ballot.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Editor's note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Anderson: So there have been two watched races, both for the state's top two seats. Pat, I understand that that campaign has an established incumbent facing a strong newcomer. Correct?
Bradley: Yes, Molly. Republican Phil Scott is the incumbent for governor. He's seeking his sixth two-year term, while Democrat Amanda Janoo is running her first-ever campaign for any office. Now the polls in that race have swung back and forth. An early one showed Janoo ahead. Then another one about a week later placed Scott ahead. And then the latest, which came out on Sunday, is a Green Mountain State poll - they're done by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center - shows that 51% of likely voters say they will or have voted for Janoo, and 43% say they will or have voted for Scott. Now, it is important to note that that poll does say that the respondents were primarily Democrats. 60% were Democrats, 11% Independent, and 29% Republican, and that reflects a similar number of people in the first poll that the New Hampshire Survey Center put out, placing Janoo ahead. But even in the middle poll, it's still a very tight race. And a key issue that's been occurring in the campaign is about affordability. Janoo and Scott sparred over that issue during an October debate on Vermont Public:
Janoo: “We need more government strategic intervention to actually reduce the fundamental cost of core necessities in our economy.”
Scott: “Affordability is the issue. Demographics in our state are working against us. That's our nemesis. When I hear Amanda talking about the root causes. That's exactly what we're saying with education. You can't just say you're going to lower property taxes without fixing the system itself.”
Bradley: Janoo is an economist with what's called The Wellbeing Economy Alliance, and she's also advocating moving to universal health care, starting with free universal primary and preventative care, but Scott reminds us that the state tried to move to universal health care back when Peter Shumlin was governor. I believe Shumlin was Scott's predecessor over 10 years ago. And back then, Shumlin admitted that after five years of trying, the state couldn't afford to do it on its own, and so that's another issue that they've been debating. And then they also diverge on how to do property taxes, education funding, and how to handle homelessness. And one of the other interesting things about the Vermont governor's race this year is that there's been an influx of out-of-state funding. Vermonters usually react negatively when a campaign, especially for higher office in the state, gets funding from outside of the state. In Vermont this year, the Republican Governors Association has provided substantial funding to Governor Scott, and that created a bit of debate between Governor Scott and his challenger Amanda Janoo.
Anderson: You mentioned that there are two key races. What is the other one?
Pat Bradley: The race for lieutenant governor. In Vermont, the governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately, and in this race, we have a former lieutenant governor running against the current incumbent. Democrat Molly Gray held the office from 2021 to 2023. She left back in 2023 to run unsuccessfully for the state's only U.S. House seat. Republican incumbent John Rogers is in his first term. He was elected as a Republican after serving in the state legislature as a Democrat. Back then, he said he switched parties because he felt Democrats had abandoned Vermonters. This race has been contentious, probably the most contentious of all the races in Vermont so far. For example, Rogers tried to link Gray to alleged mistreatment of migrant workers on her brother's farm, but that case was closed in 2025 by officials. Meanwhile, Rogers came under scrutiny for breaking the state's cannabis growing regulation, another case that also had been settled previously. Now, Gray has been leading in the polls. The latest Green Mountain State Survey shows her at 63% to 34% against Rogers, and that does seem to be the case in just about every poll that's come out in that race.
Anderson: And there are two state constitutional amendments on the statewide ballot, right?
Bradley: Yeah, Proposal 3 would guarantee the right to organize and join a labor union, and Proposal 4 protects individual rights. Now, while there seems to be solid support for these measures, opponents say they're unnecessary because both issues are already protected under state and/or federal law. But supporters say a constitutional guarantee is vital in the face of varying and changing federal policies.
