Sen. Carolyn Branagan, a Republican lawmaker from Georgia, is retiring after 16 years. She says it’s time to hand off the role to someone new. And there is already a contender for her seat — fellow GOP member Corey Parent.
“We’re supposed to be a citizen Legislature,” Branagan said. “We’re not supposed to be here for a lifetime.”
Branagan has worked largely out of the limelight, and she is most proud of the tax and fee bills she killed behind the scenes in her role as vice chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. Branagan said that position gave her the authority to get rid of provisions that would have collected millions of dollars in additional revenues.
For example, Branagan says she spearheaded the effort to deep six a fee on dentists proposed by the Shumlin administration that would have cost patients $6 million a year.
“I know I’ve made our state more affordable,” Branagan said.
But killing tax and fee bills wasn’t her only accomplishment. Branagan wrote the state statute recognizing the Abenaki, giving members of the tribe the ability to market their artwork as native made. The effort took three years to achieve.
Branagan ran for the Senate in 2016 and has served on the agriculture and education committees. “I love my work here and I will miss it,” she said. “It’s important work and I’m glad to have had the chance.”
Branagan is part of a cohort of lawmakers who have already announced their departure this year, including Rep. Dave Sharpe, D-Bristol, Sen. Peg Flory, D-Rutland County, and Rep. Mike Hebert, R-Vernon.
Parent jumps into the race
Rep. Corey Parent, R-St. Albans, was a teenager when he marched in Branagan’s 2003 victory parade after she won her first election to the Vermont House of Representatives.
Now Parent, 28, is set to run for her Senate seat. If he wins, he will be the youngest member of the Senate.
“Why the Senate? I think it’s a place where a voice like mine is sorely missed,” he said. There are no senators under 40, Parent said, and many do not have jobs outside of the Legislature. He is hoping to represent young working Vermonters.
Dustin Degree, 33, also from Franklin County, had been elected to the Senate in 2016, but Gov. Phil Scott tapped him last year to lead workforce development initiatives.
When Degree stepped down, Parent was flagged as a possible replacement for Degree’s seat. Ultimately, Scott appointed Randy Brock to the Senate.
Parent is an ambitious leader in the Republican party. Deborah Billado, chair of the party, describes him as a “rising star” in the party. House minority leader, Rep. Donald Turner, R-Milton, said Parent set his sights on the higher office.
“I will see Corey be governor of Vermont one day,” Turner said.
Parent, who was born and raised in St. Albans, is in his second term in the House of Representatives. He went college at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, and worked on Wall Street in Manhattan.
He didn’t like the bustle of city life and after only a year returned to St. Albans. After coming home, he won a seat for the House in 2014. Four years since his first victory, he has served as legislative liaison to the governor’s office and holds ranking status on the Committee on Energy and Technology.
He is in constant contact with his constituents, Turner said, using technology to speak with them in a way he has seen no one else do before. During each of his two campaigns Parent said he knocked on each of his 2,500 constituents’ doors.
“I try to look at all sides and try to understand where everyone is coming from and do my best to represent [the people of Franklin County’s] voices in my decisions,” Parent said.
Turner said that commitment to constituent representation has meant Parent sometimes votes out of line with the majority of his party. “It’s not always the way I want it,” Turner said, “but he has a sense of what he’s doing and how what he does here will resonate back at home.”
Parent is a fiscal conservative and opposed gun control restrictions just passed by the House. He has a 93 percent rating from the National Rifle Association.
“A lot of the way I stand on things is my upbringing — I was brought up in Saint Albans and in Franklin County,” Parent said, “I view the world very similar to a lot of the way the folks up there do.”
Parent works with insurance client adviser at Hickok and Boardman in St. Albans. In September, he married his high school sweetheart, Samantha, and they are expecting their first child in July.
