Party: Republican
Age: 60
Town of residence: Topsham
Profession/experience in elected office: Works in sales at Bargain Building Products in Fairlee. Was a Topsham Selectboard member for nine years.
Top issue: Affordability. “The cost of living in Vermont has increased because of taxation and the supermajority making mandates and not listening to the people who put them in office,” Hart said in a phone interview. To address it, Hart said he would try to create new bills that would turn mandates into options. “Right now it seems like they’re being very bossy and creating laws that hurt people in the lower and middle economic classes, especially people on fixed incomes,” Hart added.
Party: Democrat
Age: 81
Town of residence: Williamstown
Profession/experience in elected office: Served in the House from 1983 to 1994. First served in the Senate beginning in 1996, was defeated in 2000, and was reelected to the seat in 2002.
Top issue: MacDonald did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Party: Democrat
Age: 69
Town of residence: Woodstock
Profession/experience in elected office: Four previous terms in state Senate and current Senate majority leader. Former member of the state House of Representatives. Previously, Clarkson was a theater director in New York.
Top issue: Right now, our housing crisis is paramount, because it is the logjam that is affecting business, it’s affecting schools, it’s affecting all aspects of our lives. … We have invested in Vermont over $600 million for the last three years, major investments enabled by the federal money … to build more affordable, mixed income, supportive and transitional housing. … We need to continue to fund the low-hanging fruit, the Vermont Housing Incentive Program, which enables us to renovate vacant, blighted, non-code-compliant properties, and also enables us to help finance accessory dwelling units. So many of our houses are big, and we need to be able to make people both afford to stay in them and have better use of some of those houses. That being said, we need to build housing at both ends. We need to make affordable housing available for our seniors who can move out of their big houses … and at the same time, we need to be building more affordable entry housing. … Taxation is also part of the affordability issue, and that’s a key thing; more housing will help bring down that taxation because there will be more supply, and it should all bring costs down.
Party: Republican
Age: 55
Town of residence: Ludlow
Profession/experience in elected office: Seasonal employee at Vail Resorts and Okemo. No previous experience in elected office, formerly owned a painting company
Top issue: … I think the housing crisis is our biggest problem, and I think if we can solve the housing crisis not only are we going to solve our affordability crisis here in Vermont but we are going to have many other benefits … How I would go about doing that is I think we really need to start thinking outside the box and get away from traditional construction methods. I would be inclined to start to redistrict and rezone in certain areas and look into things like tiny house communities or modular communities; something where we don’t need a general contractor to build from the ground up. … I don’t want to see a forest clearcut to put in a housing development, I don’t want to see a four- or five-story apartment complex. That’s not what people come to Vermont for. …I really think affordable housing would be a key issue to address many of the problems here in Vermont and that would be the one issue I would focus on in the Legislature.
Party: Democrat
Age: 59
Town of residence: Hartford
Profession/experience in elected office: Executive director of the Upper Valley Aquatic Center, treasurer for the Town of Hartford, former vice chairman of Hartford Selectboard
Top issue: Housing, housing and more housing. Housing has affected just about every industry within not only the Upper Valley, but Vermont. Affordable housing, workforce housing, and it has been difficult in my role as an executive director of nonprofit, trying to hire people and finding a place for them to live. You could talk about schools and trying to recruit teachers and having a place for them to live. We can talk about affordable housing. For a young family trying to find and have the American dream of home ownership, it is almost untenable now that assessments have doubled most of the values of homes now. (…) We have to work with some initiatives like the State Housing initiatives that allow the state to invest cash on to low-interest loans for housing projects, as well as work with entities like Twin Pines to develop affordable housing for mixed-income individuals.
Party: Republican
Age: 51
Town of residence: Weathersfield
Profession/experience in elected office: Farmer. No previous experience in elected office
Top issue: My top priority is making Vermont more affordable. Every day, I hear from people who are struggling to make ends meet—whether it’s paying their property taxes, keeping up with rising costs, or just trying to put food on the table. … I am committed to lowering taxes and restoring fiscal responsibility in our state. We must have balance in our government. Gov. Scott was elected by the vast majority of Vermonters, yet the supermajority is overturning his vetoes against the will of the voters who elected him. While some candidates are pushing for extreme policies that divide us, I am committed to bring us back to the middle, focusing on commonsense solutions that work for all Vermonters, not just the wealthy elite.
Party: Independent
Age: 56
Town of residence: Royalton
Profession/experience in elected office: Attorney, former Royalton constable
Top issue: The issue that is nearest and dearest to my heart is housing. …I’m an attorney, and I work with landlords and tenants, and I see firsthand how difficult it is for both landlords and tenants. … If we figure out a way to get low-cost loans to people who really are credit worthy but for the fact that they have some kind of issue going on, we can make it more accessible.
The second problem is, to those people who can’t buy in, they need to rent. Well, it’s almost impossible; the market is so tight for renters.
…I’m going to address (the housing shortage) by cleaning up the rules and reviewing the rules … What we need to look at is finding programs to help people buy homes and get them loans, and then finally, figure out a way to keep the (rental) inventory in Vermont with folks who are sensitive to locals and who aren’t driven by the market.
Party: Democrat
Age: 30
Town of residence: White River Junction
Profession/experience in elected office: Incumbent senator, cashier and retail employee; former state representative and member of the Hartford Selectboard
Top issue: My number one issue is building infrastructure that meets the needs of Vermonters, and housing is a major one of those priorities. We have a lack of affordable housing and a lack of housing that meets the needs of our senior citizens and our families and anyone who isn’t in a single-family home, middle class existence who works very close to their home. … There’s a few ways that I have worked on that exact issue in the past, with bills like S213, which was the Flood Safety Act, which helps design a plan to move homes and businesses over time away from areas that are prone to flooding… And then also with the Homes Act, which is S100, and that invested millions of dollars into affordable housing and also redeveloped how we put forward planning and zoning regulations of the state in light of changes that needed to happen with Act 250.
…There’s no one single piece of legislation that will resolve our housing crisis, but one bill that I have thought a lot about is a way to tax second homeowners. …I’d like to see us incentivize full-time residency as it gives back to the community in ways that we’re not seeing right now with the mix of how folks are residing here in the state.
Party: Republican
Age: 75
Town of residence: Weathersfield
Profession/experience in elected office: Retired Civil Engineering Technician for the VT Agency of Transportation, Veteran, No previous experience in elected office
Top issue: Vermont is currently faced with an overwhelming political crisis, and this is due to policies that have been enacted by the super majority in the Vermont State Legislature … But right now, the one issue that I would pick would be the clean heat standard. And the reason for that is first off, if it’s passed it’s going to raise Vermonters’ fuel prices as much as $4 a gallon on top of what we’re paying now, and we have a chance in January, to veto that bill. So that would be my immediate thing I’d work on, because that’s one thing that we can do immediately to help Vermonters is to veto that bill in January…
Party: Democrat
Age: 59
Town of residence: Corinth
Profession/experience in elected office: Demrow is a carpenter and construction worker. He is running for reelection. He first was elected in 2018. He ran again in 2020 and lost. In 2022 and was re-elected.
Top issue: Demrow’s three main issues are education funding, the Vermont housing crunch and support for working families. In order to address education funding, he would support bills such as Act 127, which changes the pupil weighting for rural communities.
Demrow wants to both reform how the education system is funded and the outcomes for the students within the system.
“We have a 20-year-old formula that no one understands, it’s not affordable anymore, and up until recently it was pretty unfair to rural communities that have a lot of poverty. Our current funding system needs some overhaul. I have an open mind into what that system would look like, as long as it’s affordable, understandable, and fair to rural communities, and that we get better outcomes for our students for our investments.”
Party: Republican
Age: 61
Town of residence: Corinth
Profession/experience in elected office: Tagliavia has been self-employed for most of his life. He is currently working for Corinth’s road crew.
Top issue: Tagliavia’s main issues are related to the Vermont Republican Party’s G.E.T.R.E.A.L. campaign, an acronym that stands for Global Warming Solutions Reform Act, Education, Transportation, Regulatory Reform. Environment, Affordability, and Law & Order.
“It is a set of policy prescriptions that a number of us as Republicans prescribe to as the good start toward riding the ship with respect to what’s going on in Montpelier.”
Tagliavia said that if elected, he would sponsor bills that aligned with these policy prescriptions, such as H.R. 405 — a bill related to school choice — which was presented in 2023 and “never saw the light of day,” according to Tagliavia.
Party: Republican
Town of residence: Bradford
Profession/experience in elected office: did not respond to requests for comment
Top issue: did not respond to requests for comment
Party: Democrat
Age: 38
Town of residence: Bradford
Profession/experience in elected office: Priestley is a former employee of CampusCE Corporation in Seattle and is the executive director for The Space on Main, a nonprofit community workspace she founded. Priestley has served on the boards of Green Mountain Economic Development Corporation, the Cohase Chamber of Commerce, Community Capital of Vermont and Little Rivers Health Care. Priestley was first elected in 2022.
Top issue: Her top issues are economic development in the workforce and housing, consumer protection and data privacy, and rural issues including infrastructure, administration capacity and schools. During her time as state representative, Priestley has sponsored bills such as the Vermont Data Privacy Act and the Vermont Kids Code, both of which center on data protection.
Party: Republican
Town of residence: Williamstown
Profession/experience in elected office: did not respond to requests for comment
Top issue: did not respond to requests for comment
Party: Democrat
Age: 35
Town of residence: Newbury
Profession/experience in elected office: Local church pastor for 10 years. Previously a city councilor, justice of the peace and school board member in other communities.
Top issue: The plight of small family farms. Incentivize development in village centers while keeping expanding land used for agriculture and forestry.
Party: Republican
Age: 40
Town of residence: West Newbury
Profession/experience in elected office: I’ve been a flooring installer for 20 years. I’ve served on the Newbury Selectboard for six years and have served two terms as the current state representative for this district.
Top issue: Affordability. It’s the one that I think sticks its tentacles into so many of the other issues.
This past session, it seemed to be the solution to every problem was to raise a tax or a fee. The 20% DMV hike was absolutely unnecessary. (…) The fees collected by the DMV, are intended to cover operating expenses of the department, not to create a slush fund to pull from for other projects.
After spending all this time and millions of dollars, trying to create, and (…) implement the clean heat credit system as passed by the affordable heat act, the public utility commission just recently announced that it’s unworkable. (…)
It’s this type of legislating that is leading to the affordability crisis our state is dealing with currently. The exact people we need here to be building the housing we so desperately need are the same people leaving this state for better opportunities and lower taxes. (…)
Party: Democrat
Age: 30
Town of residence: Randolph Center
Profession/experience in elected office:Works constrtuction with Barre general contractor E.W. Wall & Associates and as a server at restaurant The Quarry Kitchen & Spirits in Barre. First elected in 2016 and seeking a fifth term.
Top issue: The No. 1 concern of all lawmakers should be saving public education before it bankrupts itself. We are not on a path to a plan to rightsizing a really expensive bad math formula that doesn’t really create equity. … The funding formula should transition away from property taxation … We need to figure out a way to derive public dollars from different places and at a more reasonable threshold that is equitable to the middle-class taxpayer. Unfortunately, I don’t anticipate the current iteration of leaders are going to deliver on that. … And despite a recent reorganization that sought to better allocate financial resources with enrollment, the final shoe hasn’t dropped on the state of the state college system and higher education.
Party: Democrat
Age: 58
Town of residence: Randolph
Profession/experience in elected office: Former math teacher at both The Sharon Academy and Williamstown Middle/High School and first elected as state representative in 2020, seeking third term. Currently also vice chair and serving fourth term on Randolph Selectboard, to which first elected in 2017.
Top issue: We need to continue to work on the housing crisis. …While in the Legislature I’ve supported many initiatives to make progress on this issue, from funding new affordable housing to updating Act 250, making it easier to build in places that are already developed. But we can do more and if I’m reelected, I will introduce legislation that would make it easier for towns to control short-term rentals in their communities. In some places these rentals, such as Airbnb, are taking away significant quantities of housing that a few years ago were occupied by year-round residents. In an already tight marketplace, this alternative use of housing is having an outsize effect on prices and availability. I will also introduce legislation to increase the property taxes on most second homes. At the very least we need to make sure that year-round residents are not paying at a higher tax rate than second home owners. …I would use the revenue generated from these taxes to lower the education tax rate for properties that their owners live in.
Party: Republican
Age: 68
Town of residence: Brookfield
Profession/experience in elected office: Grew up near Montpelier and is a retired highway engineer. First time candidate for public office. Home schooled all eight children, youngest now 22 years old.
Top issue: The most concerning issue is affordability. We’ve had four years of inflation… On top of that we’ve had a property tax increase … You’ve got the clean heat standard, which is a fee that’s added per gallon of propane or gas. … The payroll tax increase: even though it’s your employer that’s paying it, it is coming out of what might have been a raise. There’s the carbon tax. The school property taxes, the DMV fees that were increased 20% even without DMV requesting it … If you’re rich you are not as affected and if you’re poor you are exempted from some of it. But the middle class, which is the central part of our population, is getting squeezed out. I look at Tennessee, I look at Texas, I look at South Dakota, Idaho and I see other states seem to be able to do these things better.
Party: Republican
Age: 51
Town of residence: Randolph
Profession: Former dairy farmer, woodsman, self-employed, has run previously in House and Senate races since 2018.
Top issue: I have seen friends have to sell their homes because they can’t afford the taxes … The school mergers that have taken place have left us with many mixed feelings. After talking to so many people throughout Vermont, I’m not the only person saddened by Act 46. I feel that policy should be looked at and thought-through more passionately seeing how it affects so many of us … The carbon tax would drive up fuel costs and gas prices which would cost all of us more to get to work. And, with higher fuel costs means it costs more to get and ship things. I don’t believe it would make a bit of difference on our carbon footprint: we are still going to drive to work and heat our homes. My vote on the carbon tax will be ‘No.’
Party: Democrat
Age: 69
Town of residence: Hartland
Profession/experience in public office: Retired veterinarian and U.S. Public Health Service officer. He served as a branch chief at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (part of the National Institutes of Health). He also worked as a veterinarian for the National Cancer Institute and served in both the Air Force and Army. He has served in the House since 2010, and is currently on the House Transportation Committee. He’s been a justice of the peace since 2008.
Top issue: If pressed on identifying my top issue, I would have to say addressing climate change. This is a problem that already is having a serious impact on our state and its residents, and the problems associated with climate change will only get worse. The issue affects Vermonters on many levels, including economics, extreme weather, health and infrastructure. As with many problems, the issue disproportionately affects lower income families. We need solutions that are effective, affordable, and timely. We must continue making progress on developing renewable sources of energy, efficient transportation, electric vehicle infrastructure, weatherization and affordable heating of homes, storm mitigation, etc.
Party: Democrat
Town of residence: West Windsor
Profession/experience in public office:did not respond to requests for comment
Top issue: did not respond to requests for comment
District: Windsor-2 Baltimore, Cavendish and Weathersfield
Party: Republican
Age: 57
Town of residence: Cavendish
Profession/experience in elected office: Currently employed as a maintainer at Magris Talc in Ludlow, Vt. He is retired from the U.S. Army, after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and was awarded a bronze star. He has never held elected office
Top issue: If I only had one choice it would be affordability. Vermonters are being taxed out of their homes. Not to mention the rising costs of day-to-day living. Firstly I would vote no to the clean heat standard that is upcoming. That in itself will help all of us to be able to afford to heat their homes.
Party: Democrat
Age: 50
Town of residence: Perkinsville/ Weathersfield
Profession/experience in elected office: Custom fine furniture craftsman, designer and salesman. He has held five one-year terms on the Weathersfield School Board.
Top issue: Entangling school finance with important yet fundamentally unrelated issues is seriously endangering our ability to function as a democracy. Servicing our students and future while generating sustainable revenue streams that do not unduly burden those they are meant to serve; is our biggest stumbling block. Asking voters to vote for or against a school budget that is only 5% under local control is ludicrous. We need to be voting only on what we are in control of.
Party: Democrat
Age: 33
Town of Residence: Barnard
Profession/Experience in office: Farmer. Running for her third term in the House, vice chair of the House Agriculture Committee
Top Issue: Rural resilience and local economies- I am a deep believer in establishing vibrant rural communities, through investing in downtown centers, making it easier and more sustainable for small businesses to open and succeed to bolster our economy, while also attracting and retaining young folks in rural spaces. Our small communities are the life of our state, and we need to prioritize the affordable housing market so folks can really invest in the communities they want to live in.
Party: Democrat
Age: 60
Town of residence: Woodstock
Profession/experience in elected office: Sales and marketing executive in software publishing; He was elected state representative for Woodstock, Reading and Plymouth in 2016, and served three terms before running for lieutenant governor in 2022, when he lost in the primary. He also has served two terms as a village trustee in Woodstock.
Top issue: Education Funding. The 25-35% increase in education property taxes is unsustainable and pricing people out of their homes. I will work to change how we pay for education, to make it simpler to understand and administer and more predictable for residents and taxpayers.
Party: Republican
Age: 69
Town of residence: Plymouth
Profession/experience in elected office: Former ski school director, kitchen and bath designer and builder, justice of the peace, firefighter, coached little league
Top issue: Getting school budgets under control; energy issues; fiscally conservative.
Party: Democrat
Age: 74
Town of residence: Hartford
Profession/experience in elected office: retired educator, has been a state rep. since 2010, and has served on the Hartford School Board since 2007
Top issue: One of the things that I’ve been working on over the past several terms is trying to make sure that our legislation is balanced so that it is equitable. If you look at a bill, you have to say who is affected by it and is it affecting all Vermonters equitably. Housing, for example, what can we do to ensure that we keep Vermont the way we’d like to see Vermont so that’s looking at, for example, Act 250: How do we look at the needs of the state for housing and how we balance that in every region of the state? Something that might work for us here in White River might not work for a fellow Vermonter in the Northeast Kingdom. That’s part of the work.
Party: Democrat/Progressive
Age: 27
Town of residence: Hartford
Profession/experience in elected office: Dental assistant, server. Serves on the Hartford Energy Commission and the board of Positive Tracks.
Top issue: Affordability is at the top of my priority list this legislative session. This must be tackled from a combination of angles — from housing, to health care, education, child care, energy, and food — so that hardworking Vermonters can make dignified choices in each of these areas to design a fulfilling life. Last session I led initiatives to: expand opportunities for professional licensure in response to the workforce shortage, add geothermal as a regulated utility to help towns diversify their energy sources, and strengthen the local food economy through my work on the Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry. This year, I am determined to address price gouging by pharmaceutical benefit managers to make a dent in the untenable cost of health care. I will also do everything in my power to make the education funding formula more equitable for taxpayers and leverage policy that supports public schools and best outcomes for all students.
Party: Republican
Age: declined to provide
Town of residence: Hartford
Profession/experience in elected office: businessman, past president of Northeast Pools of White River Junction; justice of the peace, zoning board, delegate for the Upper Valley Development Council, volunteer on the swimming pool committee, U.S. Air Force veteran
Top issue: Trottier said he is “standing for election” because of “all of the extremely high taxes” implemented by “progressive Democrats.” He seeks to help “poor people” who cannot afford the taxes. He is not accepting donations for his campaign. “I’m out to save people money,” he said.
Party: Democrat
Age: 62
Town of residence: Bethel
Profession/experience in public office: Licensed acupuncturist. served almost four years in the state Legislature
Top issue: While I know that high property taxes/school costs, housing and child care are important issues that need to be addressed, and will be in other committees, my own area where I can have the most impact is on economic development for our small towns. We need to create and encourage more better paying jobs, thriving local businesses, and town officials with the capacity and support to apply for the funding opportunities that small towns are often overlooked for. I will continue to work on legislation to create good paying jobs, help folks afford to acquire the skills to get those jobs, promote more middle-income housing, and support child care so that people can live, work, grow and play in our small rural communities.
Party: Democratic
Age: 61
Town of residence: Tunbridge
Profession/experience in elected office: Tunbridge Selectboard for over a decade. State Rep. since 2019. Filmmaker, sheep farmer, small business owner
Top issue: Property taxes. “I think the Legislature’s done not a great job explaining what happened.” Voters vote on school budgets around the state and the House Ways and Means Committee figures out how to pay for it. “It just seemed like they fell back too heavily on property taxes to make up the difference.”
Party: Republican
Age: 67
Town of residence: Royalton
Profession/experience in elected office: Owner and operator of the Post Farm, and motorcoach operator for Lamoille Valley Transportation
Top issue: The property tax increase and the clean heat standard. “I would like people to be able to have good conversations with people on both sides.”
Party: Republican
Age: 70
Town of residence: Sharon
Profession/experience in elected office: Realtor and property manager/landlord, Sharon Selectboard
Top issue: I am running for a seat in the House of Representatives because I support baseball, apple pie and motherhood. What I do not support is a super majority that has not seen a tax increase, a regulation or fee increase that they don’t support.
School funding takes control of away from towns and resulted in a 14% statewide property tax increase … Most I spoke with were not impressed but surprisingly some seemed to it is just money so they were OK with paying a few thousand dollars extra. My guess is they are not wondering where that money is coming from.
Act 18, the Affordable Heat Bill, is anything but affordable It is intended to penalize those who heat with fossil fuel buy increasing the price with a $2-4 per gallon tax. We still have the ability to kill that bill in January but only if we put an end to this super majority and their crazy ideas.
Party: Republican
Age: 65
Town of residence: Sharon
Profession/experience in elected office: Silversmith and metal artist, has never run or held office before
Top issue: Affordability and out of control property and payroll taxes. To address those concerns she would: Reform education funding formula that is causing skyrocketing property taxes. (Act 127); Stop (Un)Affordable Heat Act (Act 18). No carbon taxes on heating and motor fuels; reform Global Warming Solutions Act; streamline Act 250 permitting to lower the cost of building new housing; pass a Taxpayer Bill of Rights to limit state spending and taxation.
Party: Democrat
Age: 58
Town of residence: Norwich
Profession/experience in elected office: Currently the state representative for Windsor Orange 2 (2023-present), cofounder of Greenway Institute
Top issue: My priority will be housing — climate friendly housing that people can afford. We need to increase our supply of housing to address our major challenges, from high health care costs to high property taxes. And we need to do it in ways that are climate friendly, so the housing remains affordable and accessible into the future. The state is struggling to meet needs across so many sectors, and the through line is lack of housing. One of many solutions to this issue that I have been working on is the expansion of state investment in municipal wastewater, targeted near census tracks with high job density, to make private development of higher density, climate friendly housing near where people work possible. This needs to build on recent efforts to ease zoning restrictions in the places where it makes sense to build.
Party: Democrat
Age: 75
Town of residence: Thetford
Profession/experience in elected office: general contractor specializing in repair and remodeling, state representative 1999-present
Top issue: support and improve public education and the state college system within the context of improving affordability for all Vermonters.
CORRECTIONS: Vermont state Rep. Monique Priestley, D-Bradford, is a former employee of CampusCE Corporation in Seattle and one of her areas of focus is consumer protection. A previous version of this story included an incorrect status of Priestley’s employment with CampusCE and misstated that area of her policy interest.
Joe Trottier, a Hartford Republican running to represent Hartford in the Vermont House, is a past president of Northeast Pools of White River Junction. A previous version of this story was incorrect about his current relationship wi th the company.