Gerald Malloy is mere months into his stint as a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate. But so far, he says, the experience “has been fantastic.”
A political newcomer, Malloy had never run for office before he threw his hat in the ring to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Come January, Leahy will close a nearly five-decade-long career in the U.S. Senate.
When Leahy stood in the Vermont Statehouse last November to announce his upcoming retirement, candidates vying to rise in the state’s notably small political ranks were ready. Just one week after Leahy’s press conference, U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., launched his campaign for the newly opened Senate seat. Three high-profile Democrats quickly lined up for Welch’s soon-to-be-vacant post in the House, and by January, former U.S. attorney Christina Nolan was publicly exploring a Republican challenge to Welch.
Not Malloy.
In an interview with VTDigger in October, the 60-year-old Army veteran said, “You know, when Sen. Leahy made his announcement, I had, the day before that, absolutely no thoughts of running to be a U.S. senator.”
In the ensuing year, Malloy said, his mindset progressed from “could run, should run, have to run” to “have to win.”
Since launching his campaign in March, Malloy has traveled the state to beat the drum of fiscal and social conservatism, leaving a trail of his simple yet arguably menacing “Deploy Malloy” lawn signs. The slogan refers to Malloy’s 22-year career in the Army. An arresting portrait of a raptor stares down passerby from the lawn signs.
In the Republican primary in August, Malloy pulled off a major upset, defeating the more moderately positioned Nolan by a roughly four-point margin, despite her institutional support, campaign fundraising edge and Vermont’s left-leaning politics. Though Nolan won over the endorsement of Vermont’s overwhelmingly popular Gov. Phil Scott, a moderate Republican, Malloy deliberately positioned himself to Nolan’s right.
Now, Malloy is up against Welch, who has 15 years of congressional service under his belt and millions in campaign funds stowed away. But even in the bluest state in the nation, Malloy doesn’t think his defeat is a foregone conclusion.
‘Conservative values’
Malloy isn’t just new to politics. He’s relatively new to Vermont.
According to property records, Malloy and his wife Stacey, who is also his de facto campaign manager, purchased their home in Perkinsville — which they call “the Lodge” — in 2020, when they moved from Massachusetts to Vermont. Since 2011, Malloy has worked in federal government and defense contracting, and according to financial disclosure forms filed with the U.S. Senate, the Malloys maintain a residence valued between $1 million and $5 million in Baltimore.
On a visit to the Lodge in early October, rows of Malloy’s black and white lawn signs were lined up on its porch, dozens of eagle eyes keeping watch over the house. A campaign volunteer was at work, fashioning more signs to be deployed to lawns and highway medians across the state.
Inside, an eight-point buck’s head hangs above the fireplace. It came with the house, Malloy said. In the living room window is a stuffed black bear cub, an animal Malloy said he found struck dead on the side of the road while he was driving in the Northeast Kingdom. He scooped up the roadkill and took it to a taxidermist. Now named Boo Boo, the cub wears a red Make America Great Again cap.
Sitting on a picnic bench outside the Lodge, Malloy rattled off the outline of his career in the military, the U.S. Department of Defense and the private sector. At 18 years old, the Boston native reported to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he studied, trained and played baseball and hockey.
It was there, in 1980, that Malloy met his friend Tyler King when the two were plebes at West Point and players on the hockey team. They went on to play as linemates their senior year and, after graduation, traveled Europe together while they were both stationed in Germany.
“You know, hockey is a violent sport in many regards, and I think really the closest that I’ve come to being sort of in a tight, strong, almost a combat environment was when I was playing hockey,” King said. “You learn a lot about yourself and about the people that you’re with. And so, you know, I learned a lot about Gerry in those times that you don’t get a chance to learn from people in most normal relationships.”
Malloy graduated in 1984 and, over the following 22 years, served in the Army in postings throughout the world, including the Middle East during the Gulf War. He retired from active duty in 2006 as an Army major, with an honorable discharge.
From there, he spent five years working with the Department of Defense’s Defense Coordinating Element, coordinating emergency management operations throughout New England. In 2011, he moved to the private sector, where he currently works in government contracting. He told VTDigger that most of his work is based in the Washington, D.C., area, and he mostly works with the military and the Department of Defense.
According to Malloy’s campaign finance disclosures filed in July, he currently works for a Reston, Virginia-based artificial intelligence company called Empower AI, previously known as NCI Information Systems. Empower AI describes itself as “a leading provider of artificial intelligence and other technologies to U.S. government agencies.” He also listed income from UIC Government Services, also known as Bowhead, based in Springfield, Virginia, whose services include avionics, weapons development and more. Malloy told VTDigger that he has also worked for Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.
Over the years, Malloy and King have remained close. During a recent visit to Vermont, the two were riding in a car and Malloy confessed to his friend that he was contemplating a career change — but “he didn’t mention anything about politics,” according to King. Later, when King was back home in Minnesota, Malloy told him his decision over the phone.
Asked to picture his friend of 42 years working on Capitol Hill, King said, “Well, I know Gerry loves his country. I know that.”
King said his friend’s military experience would make him an effective voice on foreign affairs. But Malloy’s biggest asset, he said, is his ideology.
“He has strong conservative values, and I think that he’ll work to help this country get turned around and back on a different path that maybe is more welcoming to conservative values than it currently is. I think he’ll be a good representative of Vermonters who have some conservative values,” King said.
Waffling on abortion
One of Malloy’s conservative values has become a political minefield for him, as well as dozens of other Republican candidates in competitive races across the country: the issue of abortion.
In an interview with NBC5 in June, reporter Stewart Ledbetter pressed Malloy on the question: How would he vote on a nationwide abortion ban, with no exceptions, including in cases in which the mother’s life is in danger?
Malloy, who identifies himself as pro-life, dodged until he could no longer. Eventually, he said “I would, I would” vote yes on such a ban if it came up for a vote, but he added that he believed such a bill would be unlikely to reach the Senate floor.
Less than two weeks after that interview, the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade case precedent, which had protected the right to an abortion nationwide for nearly 50 years prior. The question of abortion was punted to the states, many of which immediately outlawed the procedure.
It was a decision that Malloy himself heralded. It also brought the country one step closer to a hypothetical nationwide abortion ban bill that Malloy previously deemed improbable.
At a VTDigger debate in early September, Malloy was asked once again how he would vote on a nationwide ban, and he walked back his stance from June, saying, “I’d have to look at it.”
Less than one week later, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., proposed a nationwide 15-week ban. The Malloy campaign at that time declined to make its candidate available by phone but said in an emailed statement attributed to Malloy, “Per the US Constitution as a US Senator, I will vote to keep abortion issues decided at the state level.” For six days, the Malloy campaign did not answer a followup email asking him to clarify his stance.
Then, on Sept. 19, Malloy wrote, “I would vote ‘no’ on a nation wide abortion ban. The Roe v. Wade decision was not decided when I spoke to NBC5 in June.” (A leaked draft of the majority opinion overturning Roe was reported by Politico in May.)
Malloy is not the only Republican congressional candidate to have a change of heart on the question of a nationwide ban. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in May that a national abortion ban would be “possible” should Republicans take back Congress, but when Graham introduced his bill in September, McConnell distanced himself from his South Carolina colleague. Graham’s bill left the caucus divided, and on the campaign trail, Republican candidates had scrubbed their websites of anti-abortion pledges.
Malloy himself removed a video from his campaign website in which he proclaimed himself to be “proudly pro-life.” The video is still live on the candidate’s Youtube page.
“I have always made it very clear that the decision should be left up to states, per the 10th Amendment, and that was what I believed would happen. That is what happened; Roe v. Wade was overturned,” Malloy wrote on Sept. 19. “I am pro life, but I will abide by the US Constitution.”
‘Massive overspending’
Malloy is also echoing Republican candidates around the country and in New England when it comes to his campaign focus on the state of the economy. The cost of living has skyrocketed in recent months, and Malloy is pointing his finger at the Democratic majority’s spending as the culprit.
“What’s happened is, frankly, I think that the progressive left has hijacked the Democratic Party — president, control of the House, control of the Senate — and is not representing all Vermonters or all Americans, and have us going in a very bad direction in terms of inflation,” Malloy told VTDigger in October.
Malloy went on to allege that Biden’s recent executive actions are unconstitutional, including the White House’s plan to forgive student loan debt for millions of Americans. And he said “massive overspending” by the government in the American Rescue Plan Act, Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPs Act are to blame for out-of-control inflation.
As for what he would do about it, Malloy said he would be a voice of opposition to the Democratic’ agenda and a voice for Vermonters who “are ready for change.”
An avid critic of Biden, Malloy still maintains fondness for former President Donald Trump, having told Vermont Public that he voted for the Republican nominee in both 2016 and 2020. In that same interview, he told Vermont Public that he “wished” he had attended the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, during which a mob of Trump’s supporters infiltrated the halls of Congress in an attempt to halt the peaceful transfer of power.
But unlike other Republican congressional candidates throughout the country, Malloy’s allegiance to Trump has some limits. He has not parroted Trump’s baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen. At VTDigger’s September debate, when asked if Biden legitimately won the last presidential election, Malloy did not hesitate. “Yes,” he answered.
In a year in which Vermont is seeing a historic number of open positions in state and federal office, Malloy said he opted to run for the U.S. Senate seat after looking at its political history. Leahy was the first and only Democrat to win one of Vermont’s two seats in the upper chamber (though junior U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent, caucuses with the Democrats).
Malloy concluded that Vermont has a strong Republican base, and traveling the state shaking hands with voters, he said, his belief has been confirmed. “This is the right position for me,” he said.
“I looked at my career, 42 years of service and experience. It is very (relevant), being in military and government and business,” Malloy said. “I think I can have the most impact (in the Senate). I think I’m the most qualified candidate at that level. I realize it’s obviously a high level, but I wanted to make the impact because I love our brave little state. I love our country. And I think we’re in trouble.”
