BURLINGTON — Democrat Molly Gray defeated Republican Scott Milne in the lieutenant governor’s race Tuesday, becoming the fourth woman in Vermont history to hold the second-highest office in state government.
The 36-year-old Gray, who grew up on a vegetable and small dairy farm in South Newbury, Vt., was successful in her first bid for elected office. With all but one district reporting, Gray had 49.8% support to 42.8% for Milne, a Pomfret resident and travel executive who found himself on the losing side of a statewide race for the third time in eight years.
“Tonight we made history,” Gray said Tuesday night at the Great Northern restaurant in Burlington.
“For the fourth time in Vermont’s history we’re sending a woman to the lieutenant governor’s office,” she told supporters. “I’m humbled and honored to stand before you this evening.”
Milne called Gray shortly after she announced she had won to concede the race, and also congratulated Gray in a statement sent to media shortly after 11:30 p.m.
“I am honored by the tens of thousands of Vermonters who supported my candidacy,” said Milne in the statement. “I send my sincere congratulations to Molly Gray on her victory this evening. I wish her success moving forward.”
Gray, an assistant attorney general, was a competitive cross country skier at Oxbow High, Stratton Mountain School and the University of Vermont, and also emphasized her farm background and rural roots in the campaign trail.
She won Chittenden County and most of the Upper Valley and southern Vermont, while Milne took Rutland County, much of the Northeast Kingdom, and the Upper Valley towns of Chelsea, Bridgewater, Weathersfield and Springfield, Vt.
One Montpelier voter, former Vermont Arts Council director Alex Aldrich, said he didn’t vote a straight Democratic ticket.
Aldrich decided to come in-person to vote out of an “overwhelming desire to put this country back where it belongs.”
“That of course means getting rid of our current president,” he explained.
In the lieutenant governor’s race, Aldrich said Milne had a stronger social media presence and simply based on that, the Republican candidate should “kick Molly Gray’s butt.” But Aldrich said Gray’s ground game had been far more impressive than Milne’s and he expected Gray to win what he thought would be a close race.
“I think she is going to take it, but not by much,” he said. “All four for governor and lieutenant governor are fantastic candidates and that’s a good problem to have.”
“I wouldn’t vote for someone just because they are female,” said Kristin Allosso, a 50-year-old psychotherapist, at the Burlington Electric Department, a polling location in Burlington’s South End. “I was excited to have her as a candidate.”
Ten months ago, Gray entered the race for lieutenant governor as an unknown. But she quickly built up a strong fundraising apparatus — bringing in $427,000 throughout the election cycle — and a campaign ground game across the state, buoyed by support from a number of high-profile Vermont Democrats.
Gray faced strong competition in the Democratic primary, squaring off against Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, former gubernatorial candidate and activist Brenda Siegel and Sen. Debbie Ingram, D-Chittenden, who lated endorsed Milne.
Gray used her experience in Congress as an aide for U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and as an attorney at the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, coupled with her time working and living abroad to make a pitch to Vermonters that she was qualified to hold statewide office.
In 2014, Milne came within 2,434 votes of unseating two-term incumbent Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin, who stepped down two years later. Because neither candidate received more than 50% of the vote, the election went to the Vermont Legislature, which awarded the win to Shumlin. He also ran against U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., in 2016.
Throughout 2020, Gray was dogged by reports that she failed to vote in four election cycles between 2008 and 2018, which drew criticism from Vermonters across the political spectrum, as well as questions about her residency status during the last four years.
During the primary and again in the general election campaigns, Gray was forced to respond to inquiries about where she had recently lived and the constitutional requirement that candidates for governor and lieutenant governor “reside” in Vermont for four years before holding the office.
Gray’s eligibility came into question after reporting by VtDigger that for 15 months between 2017 and early 2018, she had lived in Switzerland while working for a human rights nonprofit.
Gray maintained she legally retained Vermont residency and that she would not be running for lieutenant governor if she were not eligible to do so.