Three Democrats Are Vying to Take on Republican LG John Rodgers

Vermont Democrats are still smarting from the loss of the lieutenant governorship in 2024, when longtime Democratic lawmaker John Rodgers defected to the GOP and rode a Republican wave right over incumbent David Zuckerman, a Progressive/Democrat. Rodgers’ win, coupled with Gov. Phil Scott’s reelection, handed Republicans Vermont’s top two offices for the first time since 2008.

Now Democrats think they have a good chance to reclaim the LG’s post from Rodgers, who has no primary challenger. Democratic turnout in the general election could soar thanks to a number of competitive races, rage over President Donald Trump’s policies and frustration with the state’s affordability problems.

“We have an opportunity, and, quite frankly, a responsibility, to do what we have not done in 20 years, and that is defeat a statewide Republican incumbent,” Lachlan Francis, chair of the Vermont Democratic Party, told Seven Days. “And this is the year we’re going to get it done.”

The lieutenant governor presides over the Senate, breaks tie votes, has a say in Senate committee assignments and is expected to step in should a governor be unable to fulfill the duties of the office. The position is often described as ceremonial, but it has also served as a stepping stone for two of the state’s longest-serving governors, Howard Dean and Phil Scott.

Three candidates — Molly Gray, Ryan McLaren and Esther Charlestin — are vying to be the party’s nominee.

While they hold similar policy positions, the candidates have very different political backgrounds and networks of supporters. Gray has held the post before, serving one term starting in 2021 before running unsuccessfully for Congress in 2022. Charlestin ran for governor in 2024 and lost to Scott. And McLaren is making his first political run after a decade as a staffer for Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.).

The candidates have spent much time on the campaign trail sharing their personal histories and touting their experience.

Charlestin is a former member of the Middlebury Selectboard who now lives in South Burlington. She’s a first-generation Haitian American, a member of the Vermont Commission on Women and the founder of a consulting firm called Conversation Compass.

She made history in 2024 as the first Black Democrat to run for statewide office in Vermont. Scott crushed her in the general election, winning 74 percent of the vote to Charlestin’s 22 percent.

She tells voters she would use the office of lieutenant governor to bring people together to find consensus on the state’s affordability and education challenges.

“What I’ve learned is that folks want to feel heard,” she said.

Gray, who also worked briefly for Welch in her early twenties, was an assistant attorney general and human rights attorney before she won the lieutenant governorship. She announced a run for Congress less than a year into her term and earned the backing of influential establishment Democrats such as former governor Madeleine Kunin and former U.S. senator Patrick Leahy, for whom she had interned. She faced criticism for quickly pivoting to run for higher office and lost the primary race to Becca Balint, a state senator who went on to win the general election.

Since that contest, Gray served as executive director of the Burlington-based nonprofit Vermont Afghan Alliance. The organization supports members of the state’s Afghan community, and Gray has used the post to push back on the Trump administration’s attack on migrants.

“I’ve seen the cruelty and inhumanity of the Trump administration up close,” Gray told Seven Days.

Gray, who is raising a 3-year-old son, said she wants to return to the Statehouse to speak out against the Trump administration and to help the state address its housing and health care crises.

“I come to this race with a lot of perspective and humility and a lot of deep, deep care for our state,” Gray said during a recent forum on Vermont Public.

Gray calls herself the most experienced candidate in the race by virtue of having done the job before. McLaren says that in terms of overall government service, he’s got the most experience.

He points to his five years in the administration of former Democratic governor Peter Shumlin, first in constituent services and later as principal assistant to the commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles. For the past 10 years, McLaren worked for Welch as an aide and adviser. He met with constituents, developed policy and managed Welch’s political campaigns. That, he said, has shown him what Vermonters need, and he’s learned how to connect them with programs and services.

As Vermont becomes less affordable for many people, he worries they will lose faith in state government, he recently told potential donors at an event in Shelburne.

“My opponent in this race is nihilism — the sense that politics don’t matter: We can’t change anything, so, we might as well throw our hands up and give up,” McLaren said.

He’s not someone who gives up, he said, recounting the story, as he often does on the campaign trail, of how he broke his back while skiing at Mad River Glen in 2017 but learned to walk again.

“I have not lost hope,” he said. “I walked in here because at the hardest, darkest times of my life, I worked my butt off — and I gave back to the community that supported me along the way.”

At the Shelburne event, Welch said he endorsed McLaren because of the strength he showed during his recovery as well as his “inspiring” commitment to helping Vermonters in need.

“We need him in a high position of trust here in Vermont,” Welch said.

One attendee, Huntington filmmaker Rick Moulton, said he was impressed with McLaren’s story of resilience and record of getting things done.

“Ryan has this nonpartisan practicality,” Moulton said.

McLaren ended the event with a plea. The campaign urgently needed $60,000 in cash, he said, to help get his name out to voters in the final weeks before the primary.

The Gray and McLaren campaigns have raised far more money than Charlestin. McLaren has pulled down $305,345 so far compared to $282,862 for Gray, according to July 1 campaign finance filings. Charlestin, meanwhile, had raised just $35,495, nearly a third of which is a loan to herself.

Her lagging fundraising so far this cycle and poor showing in 2024 have led some voters to view the race as effectively a two-way contest between Gray and McLaren.

That’s what Jimmy Senterfitt, a retired health care executive from Waitsfield, quickly concluded after attending a Mad River Valley Democrats event and watching debates. Senterfitt said Charlestin’s pitch sounded mostly like “talking points.” He thinks Gray carries “the burden of early ambition,” while McLaren leans too heavily on his story of recovery from his accident.

“Everybody’s personal story is important, but he is going to be judged by his ability to do something,” said Senterfitt, who is undecided but leaning toward McLaren.

The University of New Hampshire’s Green Mountain State Poll of likely voters conducted in mid-July found that Gray had the support of 39 percent of those surveyed; McLaren, 11 percent; and Charlestin, 9 percent.

McLaren’s campaign downplayed the results by pointing to the small poll size — just 548 people responded — and the fact that 41 percent of those who participated remained undecided.

“This race is far from settled,” said Molly Moore, McLaren’s campaign manager.

With few major policy differences among the candidates, endorsements could prove influential. A kerfuffle over Gray’s endorsement by the national progressive organization Our Revolution underscores that. “Molly offers the kind of people-first leadership Vermont deserves!” the group declared in a statement that Gray’s campaign blasted out on July 10.

Her campaign’s press release, however, called the organization “Bernie Sanders’ Our Revolution.” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a popular national figure who has boosted progressive candidates around the country, founded the political action group but has no direct role in it. Sanders noted that Our Revolution does not speak for him, and Gray’s campaign issued a clarifying statement.

Gray has, nevertheless, racked up endorsements from current and former public officials, including Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth (D/P-Chittenden-Central) and former governors Kunin and Dean.

Isaac Evans-Franz, a Brattleboro Selectboard member, said Gray earned his support by consistently speaking out against Trump’s anti-immigrant policies.

“We need a voice for working Vermonters and for our constitutional rights, and Molly is the person that I see showing up,” Evans-Franz said.

McLaren has also garnered endorsements from prominent Democrats, including Welch, Zuckerman, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), former Vermont secretary of state Jim Condos and environmental activist Bill McKibben.

At the event in Shelburne, McKibben praised McLaren’s commitment to renewable energy. He argued that the state has fallen behind in climate leadership areas such as wind and solar development and that people like McLaren can rally support for bold climate policies.

Charlestin has been endorsed by Rights and Democracy Vermont, the liberal advocacy organization, as well as Moms Demand Action, a gun-violence group.

The three candidates do have some noteworthy differences on policy.

Each supports a wealth tax on Vermonters who make more than $500,000 a year. But McLaren said he’d first seek to increase taxes on second homes in Vermont.

“Right now, in Woodstock, if you own a $5 million luxury home or an Airbnb that you rent out frequently, you are paying a lower property tax rate than someone who lives in that community year-round. That is criminal,” he said.

He also wants to boost housing production with what he calls a “Yes in My Backyard Tax Credit” that would provide towns with $25,000 in education property tax relief for every new home they permit as an incentive for homebuilding.

Gray also supports a higher tax on second homes and higher income taxes on the wealthy. She’s proposing a Vermont income tax surcharge that would be equal to the amount people saved from last year’s federal tax cuts and would use that revenue to fund universal primary care. She argues that such a program, when combined with other initiatives such as reference-based pricing for hospitals, would provide needed health care services while reducing costs. This would not only save Vermonters money on health insurance but would also drive down school health insurance costs, thereby lowering property taxes, she argues.

“If we want to meaningfully lower costs in the state, we have to address health insurance premiums, and there is no amount of school consolidation that is going to do that,” she told Seven Days.

Charlestin has spoken of the need to increase the supply of affordable housing, noting that she left Middlebury in part because of the high cost of renting. She has also proposed using the revenue from a tax on second homes to increase state support for free clinics that help people who can no longer afford health insurance or the high costs of co-pays.

Lachlan, the Democratic chair, is confident that whoever emerges as the party’s choice in the primary will enjoy momentum going into a general election thanks to what he calls a “very positive national political environment” for Democrats.

“Here in Vermont,” he added, “we feel that our candidates will have some wind at their back.” ➆

The original print version of this article was headlined “Second Story | A Democratic primary will decide who competes this fall to be Vermont’s lieutenant governor”

This article appears in July 29 • 2026.

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