[I]ncumbents Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch handily won their congressional races Tuesday and will continue to represent Vermonters in Washington.
As the polls closed at 7 p.m. and with no districts reporting, CNN called the Senate race for Sanders in his campaign for a third six-year term.
Sanders, an independent and the most popular politician in the country according to a recent poll, prevailed over his eight challengers, which included Republican Lawrence Zupan, Liberty Union candidate Reid Kane, and six other independent candidates.
“We have a president of the Unites States who is a pathological liar and is doing something no president in my lifetime has done,” Sanders told a cheering Democratic gathering in Burlington. “Instead of bringing the American people together, he is trying to divide us up based on the color of our skin and based on where we come from. …
“Our job is to tell our president we will not tolerate policies that are racist, sexist and homophobic,” he said. “The people, led by state of Vermont, are going to stand up and fight back.”
At 7:30, Zupan had said he was not prepared to concede. He said the networks called the race based on a two-week old poll.
Zupan said he thought he ran a solid race and that unlike Sanders, he would have a presence in Vermont and serve Vermonters in the next six years “and not spend my time in Iowa” and other presidential primary states.
Asked if he would run again, Zupan said: “Let’s see what happens tonight first.”
Welch, a Democrat, won his race to serve his seventh term in the House. The congressman beat out Republican Anya Tynio, Liberty Union candidate Laura Potter and independent Cris Ericson.
At the Democratic event in Burlington, Welch called for people to unite across the country.
“We are in it together and this is what this election is about,” Welch said. “We don’t have the results yet, but I’m starting to get optimistic that we will have a Democratic majority in the House after tonight.”
Tynio called her campaign a success for “standing up to incumbency” and pointed to the difficulty running as a Republican in a blue state.
“I hope I gave people hope, especially young people,” she said. It was important for voters to hear a conservative message, she said. Tynio said she would run again for political office.
Since August’s primary, Sanders faced attacks from Zupan and independent candidate Folasade Adeluola, who moved to Vermont in order to challenge Sanders, for putting his national political ambitions ahead of representing Vermonters.
Sanders, who sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, is considering another run in 2020.
Though he was unsuccessful in his 2016 primary contest with Hillary Clinton, he has maintained a national following for his progressive views on a host of economic issues, including a Medicare-for-all plan. He has long railed against a self-interested oligarchy of “millionaires and billionaires” who he says have subverted democracy.
A long-dominant force in Vermont politics, Sanders has held the junior Senate seat since 2006 and previously served in the U.S. House, starting in 1990.
Contributing: Mark Johnson, Anne Galloway
