June Heston, a nonprofit leader who nearly grabbed the Democratic nomination for one of Chittenden County’s six Senate seats on Tuesday, has filed for a recount.
Only 45 votes separate Heston from incumbent Chris Pearson, a Progressive and two term state senator, in the Democratic primary.
“It was tight,” Heston said Friday afternoon. “I did a lot of talking to people, as you could imagine, a lot of people had advice to share with me, and I wanted to wait to see the official numbers because it could have become a wider spread, so when it didn’t I made the decision to file the petition for the recount.”
Heston was also a driving force behind a legislative push last year promoting awareness of carcinogenic military burn pits, and spoke at the ceremonial bill signing. Her husband, Brig. Gen. Mike Heston, died of pancreatic cancer in November 2018. She attributes his death to toxic chemical exposure from the pits.
Her near-win was largely unexpected in a crowded field that included an outgoing House rep, a former Burlington city councilor, an assistant attorney general, a prominent housing rights advocate, a medical doctor, and four incumbents. All six of the Democratic candidates are favored to win in the general election.
Heston, whose most prominent endorsement came from former Gov. Howard Dean, indicated earlier this week that she was considering a recount.
Pearson said he understood Heston’s decision, adding that she had the right to be confident in the results.
“It was a close race, and for her supporters it looked good when she was in the lead, and that can be hard to let go of,” Pearson said.
At about 11 p.m. on Tuesday, with 26 out of 29 precincts reporting, Heston pulled ahead of Pearson by a mere 14 votes. A half hour later, with 27 precincts reporting, Heston was down by a single vote. Pearson eventually ended the night ahead — he received 11,759 votes while Heston claimed 11,717.
“At one point in the night,” Pearson said, “I remember thinking, oh yeah, I’ve been through this before, you just have to have some confidence in your record.”
Pearson was also the sixth-place vote getter in 2018, when an all-incumbent ticket kept their seats.
Pearson and Heston are quite far apart on the political spectrum. Pearson is a Progressive leader in the state and the Statehouse, while Heston said she’s “definitely a moderate Democrat.”
“I think coming with this nonprofit background it’s kind of in my blood to be fiscally conservative,” Heston said. “So that may be one of the major differences. I don’t think there are many differences in terms of what we see as the top issues, and I think everybody knows that the goal is to rebuild the economy.”
Pearson, who was a state rep for Burlington before he was elected to the Senate, said it was hard to compare his resume with Heston’s, in terms of what they would bring to the Senate.
“That is a hard question to answer,” he said, “because I have a decade of votes and she is a fairly unknown candidate.”
