A new petition calling for Gov. Phil Scott to leave the Republican Party drew more than 300 signatures in less than a day.
The initiative came in reaction to comments Scott made at a press conference on Jan. 15, during which he criticized the trajectory of the Republican Party following the Jan. 6 incursion on the U.S. Capitol.
The Change.org petition was started by Ron Lawrence, chair of the Essex Republicans, who attracted significant media attention earlier this month when he helped organize a bus ride that took 50 Vermonters to the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C.
Lawrence declined to comment on the petition.
It takes particular issue with Scott’s questioning of whether his party would “continue with what I perceive as white supremacy, dominating, racial inequity, and so forth.”
Asked at the Jan. 15 press conference whether the Capitol riots had made him question his allegiance to the Republican Party, Scott said the party had to do some soul-searching to determine whether it was just the party of Trump, or if it was a party of small government, economic opportunity and capitalism.
In a written statement Tuesday, Scott spokesperson Jason Maulucci noted that Scott had won the Republican primary election last August with more than 72% of the vote. “These petitioners do not speak for all Vermont Republicans,” Maulucci said.
He added, “In Vermont, if the Republican Party is going have any chance of being competitive in the future, it should be looking to Governor Scott as the example.”
The petition questions the links Scott drew between the GOP and white supremacy. It notes that the Vermont Republican Party, in fact, has specific language in its platform denouncing racism and white supremacy: “We promote and support … respect for the inherent value of all human life regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, religion, socioeconomic status, or national origin.”
Additionally, the petition points to a resolution the Republican Party passed in September “addressing racism and highlighting the party’s long history of opposition to acts of racism.”
Those declarations, the petition states, “hardly seem like a party bent on racism or white supremacy.”
Instead, the petition suggests that Scott’s “outrageous” comments are his first step toward leaving the party. “We’re guessing that the governor has his sights set on bigger things, and Vermont doesn’t seem like it is in the mood to send a Republican to Washington,” the petition states. “So, we’d like to make that transition easier” by calling on Scott to leave the party.
Deb Billado, chair of the Vermont Republican Party, declined comment on the petition, saying she hadn’t read it and wasn’t involved with it. Billado — a Trump supporter herself — has clashed with Scott in the past over his opposition to the former president.
