Updated Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 12:32 p.m.
Charity Clark became the first woman elected to Vermont’s highest law enforcement office Tuesday, defeating Republican Mike Tagliavia to become the state’s next attorney general.
Clark bested Tagliavia by a vote of 61% to 33%, according to complete but uncertified results released Wednesday by the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office. The night before, she declared victory at the Vermont Democratic Party’s election night gathering party at Hula in Burlington.
“It was 1790 when the first Vermont attorney general was sworn in. And it was 1902 when the first woman was admitted to the Vermont bar. And it was 2022 when Vermont elected a woman attorney general,” Clark told party attendees. “To be that woman fills me with humility, commitment and love of our state, Vermont, the greatest place on earth.”
In an interview late Tuesday, Clark said her first order of business would be the “in-the-weeds” process of reacquainting herself with the office’s current staff and casework.
The roughly 150-employee Attorney General’s Office performs a range of legal duties, including representing state government agencies, prosecuting criminal cases and filing civil suits.
Susanne Young, the state’s current attorney general, was appointed to the post in June by Gov. Phil Scott after TJ Donovan stepped down to work for online gaming platform Roblox.
The election pitted Clark, who has spent nearly two decades practicing law, against Mike Tagliavia, a retired Corinth business owner and non-attorney who was recruited by the GOP in August.
Clark, a former assistant attorney general and chief of staff in the Attorney General’s Office, argued during her campaign for criminal justice reform, including more data collection on racial disparities and making it easier to expunge convictions or seal criminal records.
She also announced plans to make Vermont a “safe harbor” for people seeking abortions after the June U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Tagliavia, meanwhile, based his campaign on public safety, arguing that Vermonters felt increasingly unsafe in the state.
He supported increasing police funding and maintaining qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that protects law enforcement officials from civil lawsuits. On his campaign website, Tagliavia described himself as a “right-to-life supporter.”
Tagliavia did not respond to a phone call after Clark’s victory speech. Earlier in the evening, before results began to arrive, he noted that he had stood up his first-time campaign “kind of last minute.”
“I tried to do the best I could,” he said. “And I've never been a candidate before. So I think I did pretty well considering.”
