Becca Balint, center, celebrates her apparent victory over Molly Gray for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House in Brattleboro on Primary Day, Tuesday, Aug. 9. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
Updated at 9:04 p.m
Becca Balint, the leader of the Vermont Senate, has won the Democratic primary for the only seat in the United States House. Now she’s about to become the first woman—and an openly LGBTQ+ person—the state sends to Washington.
What was initially believed to be a tight race was instead a landslide victory for Balint, who led Lt. Gov. Molly Gray, his primary challenger, by more than 20 points less than two hours after the close of the ballot boxes
Gray conceded in a speech in Burlington at 8:43 p.m
“I can say that while my disappointment is deep, so is my gratitude for this opportunity,” Gray said in a statement. “This was a tough race with deeply qualified candidates who made their case to Vermonters. If someone had told me years ago that running for Congress was something a farm boy from Newbury could do, I wouldn’t have I would have believed it.”
Lt. Gov. Molly Gray awards Vermont’s lone U.S. House seat to Becca Balint in the Democratic primary on August 9, 2022. Photo by Riley Robinson/VTDigger
Sianay Chase Clifford, the Vermont Progressive Party-endorsed candidate, withdrew weeks before primary day, but still appeared on the ballot and had less than 1% of the vote when the primary was called. career Louis Meyers, a South Burlington physician who ran a largely self-funded campaign, got 1.4 percent.
The three-way Republican primary has not yet been called, but Balint is the overwhelming favorite to win the November general election. The GOP candidates were accountant and right-wing YouTuber Ericka Redic, Orleans County Republican Committee Vice Chair Anya Tynio and Liam Madden, an anti-war Navy veteran who identifies as an independent .
Five candidates initially ran for the Democratic nomination, but by primary day, the field had narrowed to three. State Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden, another top contender, had been battling Balint for progressive votes, but dropped out in late May. He immediately backed Balint on his way out, a move that effectively united a left divided around Ram’s old rival Hinsdale, and against Gray.
Balint, who has built a reputation as a liberal but pragmatic legislative leader, has skeptics on the left. Chase Clifford, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Massachusetts, did not endorse anyone as she walked off the stage. But within a month of the election, Vermont’s progressive standard-bearers had closed ranks around Balint.
Some of Ram Hinsdale’s most prominent backers, including environmentalist Bill McKibben and the chairwoman of the US House Progressive Caucus, US Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, later migrated to Balint’s team . And Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., perhaps the nation’s most iconic progressive politician, jumped into the fray in early July, declaring his support for Balint.
Her nod was no passive endorsement: Sanders took her by storm across the state in the final days of the campaign and fired up his formidable fundraising apparatus on her behalf.
The race has since been seen by many as a proxy war between Sanders and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., whose retirement at the end of this term set in motion the historic election cycle of the year. U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., the state’s lone congressman, is vacating his seat for Leahy’s.
Although Leahy never formally endorsed Gray, he has enjoyed the institutional support of many in his inner circle. And in the final days of the race, Leahy’s political action committee donated $5,000 to Gray’s campaign, and the senator announced in a statement that he had voted for her.
Balint and Gray are closely aligned on most issues, although Balint tends to take more liberal positions, particularly on criminal justice reform and climate change.
The two front-runners raised roughly equal funds, around $1 million each, but Balint benefited from a flood of outside support from national LGBTQ+ and progressive groups, which poured nearly $1.6 million into advertising in favor of Balint in the last weeks of the race.
Gray tried vigorously to make foreign spending by national groups a liability for Balint, denouncing the influence of big money in politics. But the Gray camp’s changes on campaign finance issues didn’t seem to do much to turn the race’s momentum back in his favor, and may even have backfired.
The strategy drew news in 2020 that Gray herself had benefited from a dark money group in her run for lieutenant governor, and inadvertently highlighted her own support from corporate lobbyists in DC. It also angered some in the gay community, who criticized Gray for targeting. at the expense of LGBTQ+ groups, especially given the worsening national climate for LGBTQ+ rights.
Without large areas of disagreement on policy, the primaries have been less a contest of ideas than a referendum on each candidate’s character and experience. Both leaned heavily on their personal stories in their pitch to voters.
Balint’s campaign slogan was “courage and kindness,” and she often spoke about growing up gay, the granddaughter of a Jewish man killed in the Holocaust. Gray pledged to bring “Vermont values” to Washington, often citing his upbringing on his family’s Upper Valley farm in speeches and television ads.
In six years of legislative leadership, Balint also touted his accomplishments in Montpelier, having helped pass major housing investments, codifying reproductive rights and gun reform. Gray, on the other hand, has highlighted the nearly five years she spent working in Washington, first as a planner in Welch’s office and later as a congressional affairs associate for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Balint has risen quickly through the ranks of Vermont politics. The 54-year-old former teacher and stay-at-home mom first burst onto the scene in 2014, when she won her Windham County state Senate seat. She became majority leader in the Democratic-controlled chamber in 2017, at the start of her second term, and just four years later was unanimously elected by her Senate colleagues to serve pro tem, the top position of the chamber
It could go even higher, and soon. Sanders will be 82 when his current term ends in 2024, and many are wondering if he will retire. Asked at a recent campaign debate if he would consider running for the U.S. Senate in two years, Balint refused to rule it out.
“I always say, you never know what’s around the corner,” he replied.
This story will be updated.
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