After launching her congressional campaign earlier this month, Lt. Gov. Molly Gray has announced four key campaign hires who hope to help her win Vermont’s lone seat in the U.S. House in 2022.
Gray’s campaign launch was prompted by Vermont’s sitting U.S. Rep. Peter Welch vacating his seat to seek higher office in the U.S. Senate, a seat currently occupied by soon-to-retire U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy. All three are Democrats.
Gray, 37, faces Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, in a Democratic primary for the race in 2022. Balint announced her candidacy for the seat after Gray. No other candidates have yet announced their intentions to run for the seat. Should Gray or Balint prevail in the primary and midterm elections, they would be the first woman to represent Vermont in Congress.
Among Gray’s newly announced campaign staff hires is Campaign Manager Samantha Sheehan, of Hancock, who also served on Gray’s successful 2020 campaign for lieutenant governor. Since then, Sheehan also managed Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger’s most recent campaign, securing the Democrat a fourth term in the post. Sheehan currently serves on the Vermont Democratic Party’s Executive Committee.
Newly announced Deputy Campaign Manager Liz Brown, of Burlington, previously served as a political adviser to Gray. Before returning home to Vermont, she worked on campaigns for other Democratic congressional candidates: former U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer of Iowa, who in 2020 lost reelection after one term, and former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who was unseated by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley in 2018. Brown also has worked in the Senate offices of Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY. She, too, serves on the Vermont Democratic Party’s Executive Committee.
Owen Milne, also of Burlington, will serve as finance chair of Gray’s campaign. Since 2017, he has worked as the Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center’s executive director. He’s served for a slew of Vermont-based community organizations and nonprofits over the years, including the Northeast Disabled Athletic Association, Vermont Green Building Network, Leadership Champlain, Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce, United Way of Northwest Vermont, Generator Burlington, Spectrum Youth and Family Services, the Vermont State Employees Credit Union, the Governors’ Committee for Employment of People with Disabilities, SerVermont, and Burlington and Winooski school districts’ Partnership for Change.
Sefakor G.M.A. Komabu-Pomeyie will serve as a special campaign adviser on diversity, equity and inclusion for Gray’s campaign. Komabu-Pomeyie of Colchester earned her Ph.D. from the University of Vermont in 2020, and is an international disability rights advocate and policy analyst. She founded and serves as managing director for Enlightening and Empowering People With Disabilities, which works with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
Gray was inaugurated as lieutenant governor of Vermont in January 2021. Previously, she worked as a congressional aide to Welch, served as an assistant attorney general for Vermont and was a law clerk for then-Judge Peter Hall on the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She attended the University of Vermont and Vermont Law School and has served in humanitarian work throughout the world.
