Another Democrat has entered the race for lieutenant governor.
Ryan McLaren, a former staffer for U.S. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), announced his candidacy on Thursday morning.
Vermonters are concerned about the future of their state, McLaren told Seven Days. He thinks new leadership is the only way to prompt change.
“I’ve never seen communities and constituents more uncertain, more fearful about what the future holds,” McLaren said.
McLaren is the second Democrat to announce a run for the state’s second-highest office. Molly Gray, who served as LG from 2021 to 2023 but didn’t run for reelection after an unsuccessful bid for Congress, wants her old job back.
McLaren’s entry into the race suggests this year’s Democratic primary will be a spirited one. It also means the general election could be highly competitive. The current LG, Republican John Rodgers, has said he is interested in seeking another term.
McLaren is a 39-year-old Essex native and married father of two who suffered a spinal injury in a skiing accident in 2017.
He said he has watched with frustration as the opportunities that he had growing up in a working-class family have become increasingly out of reach for many Vermonters.
“There is a real sense of cynicism and uncertainty that has bled into communities all over Vermont,” McLaren said. “They don’t know how to keep their hospitals open. They don’t know how to keep their schools open. They don’t know how their families can find an affordable place to live or a job nearby.”
He declined to lay blame for that state of affairs on Gov. Phil Scott, as Democratic Party leaders did last week.
“There is a lot of blame to go around,” McLaren said.
He has served on school boards in Burlington and Essex, but this is his first statewide campaign. The lack of “political baggage,” he said, will allow him to focus on solutions and remind people that they do have the power to change things.
“I’m here to build a consensus around what we want to achieve, and I think that’s really possible,” he said.
McLaren has some heavy-hitters in his camp. They include senior adviser Jake Perkinson, a veteran Vermont political strategist and former chair of the Democratic Party, and Jane Watson Stetson, a philanthropist and former National Finance Chair for the Democratic National Committee.
Anne Lezak, former chair of the Vermont Democratic Party, is also on his team. And McLaren poached Molly Moore, a staffer for House Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington), to be his campaign manager.
McLaren has planned a campaign kickoff event in Essex for February 5.
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