Updated Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 4:24 a.m.
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott has once again cruised to an easy reelection, defeating his Democratic opponent, Brenda Siegel, to win a fourth term in office.
The Republican incumbent was declared the winner just after 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday. By early Wednesday morning, with all but one of the state’s 283 precincts reporting, Scott was leading Siegel 69% to 23%, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Scott, 64, remains one of the country’s most popular governors, and his win over his little-known challenger was widely expected. Siegel, 45, won the Democratic nomination by default after none of the potential candidates prodded by the party to run decided to step forward, with many saying Scott was simply too hard to beat.
A former dance instructor, Siegel is best known for her activism around housing and the opioid epidemic, and she tried to make these topics central themes of her campaign. But despite fatal overdoses setting new records and the state reeling from a housing crisis, her core message — that Scott had failed to make headway during his six years in office on the state’s biggest challenges — appeared to resonate little with the vast majority of the electorate.
“We all need to become brave enough to lose. All of us,” Siegel said in a concession speech delivered shortly before 10 p.m. at a Vermont Democratic Party gathering in Burlington. “One thing that stuck out to me throughout this race was how important it was — not only that someone ran, but that that person was someone with knowledge, experience, guts, and most importantly, the lived experience to make clear what we face.”
The governor, meanwhile, campaigned successfully on experience and the status quo. He returned to familiar themes, such as growing Vermont’s workforce. A racecar driver, Scott even re-upped his old slogan that Vermont needed a “seasoned team and a steady hand at the wheel.” He offered no new policy ideas, instead saying he wanted to finish the work his team had already started, and he frequently touted the historic (and largely federally funded) investments made in housing, climate change mitigation and broadband during his tenure.
In a short speech before a small number of supporters and staff at his campaign headquarters in Berlin, Scott said he was “very proud” of what his administration had accomplished — but that there was more work to do.
Scott traditionally goes on a one-day, 14-county tour of Vermont on the eve of an election, a trip he said Tuesday evening “always puts things into perspective.”
“In that 14 hours, we saw that far too much of Vermont has been left behind,” he said, pledging to “do the hard work to level the playing field.”
“This is something we've been focusing on over the last six years,” he said. “And with the support of Vermonters from across the state tonight, my team and I will continue to make this a priority and get back to work first thing tomorrow morning.”
The governor argued the state had sent a clear message.
“Vermonters spoke loudly, and clearly,” he said. “They want their leaders to focus on the economy, affordability and protecting the vulnerable. They want centrists, moderation and balance. They want us to be able to debate the issues with civility, seek consensus where possible, compromise when necessary, and agree to disagree when no compromise can be found.”
Scott did not campaign much over the course of the election, saying he preferred to focus on the work of governance. He did not raise much money — though he still brought in more cash than Siegel — and he hired just one campaign staffer. Scott held few campaign events, although he dutifully debated the Democratic nominee in five media-sponsored forums — and, in later debates, appeared to more forcefully push back against Siegel’s criticisms.
Siegel, on the other hand, pounded the pavement in an attempt to grow her name recognition and relentlessly went after Scott’s record in debates.
But Vermonters again reelected Scott, who has yet to lose an election over his more than 20 years in politics — and by perhaps his widest margin of victory yet in a gubernatorial race.
This is Siegel’s third unsuccessful bid for office. She failed to clear the Democratic primary for governor in 2018 and for lieutenant governor in 2020.
The Vermont Democratic Party, which embraced Siegel as its champion after no one else stepped forward to challenge Scott, also went after the governor for his relationship with the Republican party, arguing that the moderate, who backed Joe Biden in 2020, was doing too little to denounce and combat growing extremism within his party.
Scott, incidentally, held his election night party at his campaign headquarters in Berlin — separately from the state GOP’s gathering in Barre. Asked by reporters about the two events, the governor said his team just hadn’t been told the Republicans would be nearby in Barre, instead of in Chittenden County, where the party usually hosts election night events.
“We made our plans, they made their plans,” he said.
Still, he freely acknowledged the GOP’s growing rift. “I’m hoping we can attract more centrists, more moderates to the party,” he said. “Until we do, it’s gonna be challenging for the party to succeed.”
Scott will once again be the only Republican serving statewide in Vermont after state Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, a Scott-aligned moderate, lost his race against former Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, a Progressive/Democrat who was running to reclaim his old job.
Riley Robinson contributed reporting.
