In a competitive race for Vermont governor, incumbent Phil Scott narrowly surpassed Amanda Janoo, the Democratic candidate and a newcomer to electoral politics.
But she put up a good fight.
AP called the race at 12:35 a.m. Wednesday, with 99% of votes counted. Scott won with 52.4% statewide support, and Janoo fell not far behind with 45.8%, with about 307,000 ballots cast.
Scott, a Republican of Berlin, is in the midst of his fifth term as governor.
In all five prior races, he’s defeated his opponents by a margin that only grew with his tenure. He first earned the position in 2016 upon defeating Democrat Sue Minter by about nine percentage points.
In 2024, Scott won reelection with 73% of the vote, compared with nearly 22% for his opponent, Democrat Esther Charlestin, a margin of nearly 52 percentage points.
Amanda Janoo, who resides in Burlington, launched a campaign for governor in her hometown of Strafford, as the first candidate to enter the 2026 race.
A UNH poll and Nov. 1 announcement found that Janoo had a small lead over Scott, which has been unheard off across the five prior general election seasons. The poll was conducted in late October, with 1,231 responses.
Still, the outcome didn’t quite reflect that preliminary survey.
Upper Valley towns were divided in their backing for Janoo or Scott, with mixed results reflecting the larger statewide race.
The regional towns that favored Janoo included Barnard, with 64% of the town’s votes; Hartford, with 57%; Hartland, with 49%; Norwich, with 69%; Pomfret, with just over 50%; Sharon, with 50%; her hometown of Strafford, with 74%; Thetford, with 59%; Vershire, with 50%; and Woodstock, with 55%.
In the Upper Valley towns Scott secured, it was still a close race across the board, with Janoo trailing only a few points behind in most cases.
Janoo fell in Bethel, with 47% of the town’s votes; Bradford, with 38%; Bridgewater, with 44%; Chelsea, with 40%; Corinth, with 48%; Fairlee and West Fairlee, with 44%; Newbury, with 41%; Randolph, with 47%; Royalton, with 48%; Tunbridge, with 48%; Weathersfield, with 36%; and Windsor and West Windsor, with 47%.
At her campaign launch in March, Janoo told the Valley News she opposed Act 73, which seeks to regionalize school districts.
Scott backed Act 73 when he signed it into law in 2025.
Janoo had also served on the steering committee of the Fair Share Vermont coalition, which is advocating for the imposition of a 3% surcharge on individual Vermonters’ earnings above $500,000, which Scott opposed.
“We have a pretty progressive tax policy here in the state already,” Scott said in a 2023 press conference. “I’m not sure how many more of the wealthy there are, and how much more we’re going to reap from them without them moving.”
In his budget address on Jan. 20, Scott pointed to nuclear power as a proven renewable and clean source of energy.
“I am not a proponent of nuclear power but I do believe we need to improve our energy self-sufficiency,” Janoo told the Valley News in March.
Though Democrats largely control the state legislature, Scott had the highest approval rating, at 74% earlier this year, of any governor in the U.S. based on polling by the Morning Consult.
Vermonters made their voices heard, and the majority decided they’re not ready for change, with several voters at the polls across the Upper Valley pointing to Scott’s steady track record across his near decade as governor.
