Vermont Governor Phil Scott has to be happy. He can actually veto crappy bills with some hope they will be sustained. It is an opportunity given to him by Vermonters, as they helped Republicans flip six State Senate Seats, breaking the Democrat’s supermajority legislature.
Republicans toppled Democratic incumbents in the Addison, Orange, Chittenden-North and Grand Isle districts, according to unofficial results provided by the Secretary of State’s Office, and they picked up another two open seats that are being vacated by long-serving Democrats in Orleans and Caledonia counties.
Vermonters also broke the two-thirds majority in the State House.
Republicans picked up 18 seats in the 150-member chamber on Tuesday, dramatically reshaping power dynamics in the House. They’re set to hold 55 seats in the next biennium — enough to prevent Democrats and Progressives, who will hold 92 seats together, from overriding Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s vetoes. Three independents won races Tuesday, according to unofficial results from the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office
Vermont Republicans are still in the minority, and Phill Scott, no matter how nice a guy he is, is still awfully moderate for my taste, but if he’s the best they can do, they’ve done well.
It’s a step (literally) in the right direction.
“During the last two years, we kind of had this stalemate, with the governor saying, ‘I’ve got a mandate with 70% of the vote,’ and (House Speaker Jill) Krowinski and (Senate President Pro Tempore Phil) Baruth saying, ‘We’ve got a mandate with a supermajority.’ And there’s sort of been this impasse,” Dame said. “Tonight, voters have weighed in on how to solve that stalemate. They said, ‘You should have been listening to the governor in (the) last two years.'”
Doing well, as in, we can put a bandage on it, but can we stop the bleeding? These Republicans won’t be able to advance meaningful improvement—the Democrats won’t let them. All they can do is stop more bad bills from becoming law. Come 2026, they will need more than that to run on if they hope to expand on the gains in 2024.
