House Majority Leader Sarah Copeland Hanzas, D-Bradford, abandoned her effort after she said it was clear Johnson, D-South Hero, the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, had more support among Democrats.
Copeland Hanzas served as the right-hand person to current House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, who did not run for re-election in 2016. Just two weeks ago, she was running against both Johnson and Rep. Chip Conquest, D-Wells River. Conquest dropped out last week.
Copeland Hanzas said in an interview Monday that she realized over the weekend that Johnson had more support. She said she has encouraged her supporters to back Johnson and would not seek to retain her leadership post.
“It’s hard to go through six months or a year of thinking and planning for taking the reins and then let go of that, but in every political contest there comes a time when one person prevails, and when that happens it’s time to figure out how we move forward together,” Copeland Hanzas said.
In an interview Monday, Johnson declined to claim victory. She said she still needs to be elected by the 84-member Democratic caucus on Saturday, and then there is a House-wide vote in January.
“We don’t know who any other potential candidates will be,” she said. “I don’t take anything for granted. There are Republicans and independents who have said they will support me, and certainly having the support of my caucus is very important.”
Johnson, who is friends with Copeland Hanzas, said the caucus had a “hard decision,” but Johnson said she was successful because she has a strategic plan for making the government better serve Vermonters.
“I’m really excited about the possibilities,” she said. “When I drove around the state and talked with fellow caucus members there was a lot of energy and excitement about continuing the process that we’ve been starting for a couple of years on evaluating what exists in state government.”
“People get into this work because they want to help make government better and they want to help their constituents, and I provided a plan to make that happen in a very strategic way,” she said.
Johnson said she does not plan to leave her job as executive director of the Adaptive Leadership Network, an initiative of Harvard alumni. She said her employer was already flexible for the time she needed to be chair of the Appropriations Committee.
Johnson would be Vermont’s third female speaker of the House, after Consuelo Bailey and Gaye Symington.
