[B]URLINGTON — Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman kept a firm grip on his seat Tuesday, handily winning re-election in his race against Republican challenger, Don Turner.
As of around 12:15 a.m. Wednesday, Zuckerman had just over 59 percent of the vote with 267 out of 275 towns reporting. Turner had just over 39 percent.
Though Turner, the outgoing House minority leader, is a popular Republican, Zuckerman, a progressive Democrat, had been widely viewed as the favorite in the race.
On Tuesday evening, Zuckerman said he had thought that the margins in the election would be closer, because Turner’s campaign had raised significantly more money than his.
“Between my opponent’s fundraising as well as out of state money that was coming in, my campaign was outspent three to one,” Zuckerman said.
Since 2016, Zuckerman has used the lieutenant governor’s office as a bully pulpit to champion Democratic priorities including a $15 minimum wage, and a statewide paid family leave program — proposals which Scott vetoed during the last legislative session.
As of midnight, Democrats had picked up 10 additional seats in the House, enough to secure a veto-proof majority, assuming the seven progressives in the chamber vote alongside them. Zuckerman said he looked forward to increased Democratic influence in the House, which he says will make it easier to advance these priorities.
“I look forward to frankly more discussion between the Legislature and the governor to move those proposals forward,” he said.
Turner spoke after Gov. Phil Scott at the Republican election night party at the Doubletree Inn in South Burlington and, surrounded by his family and a dozen friends and supporters on the podium, said that “Vermonters have spoken and I accept that.”
Subdued but upbeat, Turner said he was surprised by the margin — the size of the difference between the results and poll numbers he had was “overwhelming.”
Turner said the turnout was much larger than his campaign expected and said he didn’t understand why his hope of holding onto the governor’s coattails didn’t happen.
“We thought that might be enough to pull us over,” Turner said.
Zuckerman served in the Vermont Legislature for 18 years before he was elected to the lieutenant governor’s office in 2016. He made a name for himself as a lawmaker by championing progressive proposals in the House and Senate including cannabis reform, and regulations requiring food manufacturers to use GMO labels.
In the last legislative session, he attempted to orchestrate an effort to revive legislation that would have paved the way for Vermont to tax and regulate the sale of marijuana.
The move, which was ultimately unsuccessful, came in April, just a few months after lawmakers, and Scott legalized recreational marijuana in Vermont.
Turner, the former minority leader who has been a legislator since 2006, said he looked forward to returning to his job as Milton town manager but remained open to serving again.
“I’m not going away. I love Vermont. I feel that I can contribute in the future,” he said.
