The No. 2 Republican in the Vermont House, Rep. Casey Toof of St. Albans Town, will resign his seat next week. Toof has served as assistant minority leader since 2023 and has represented his Franklin County town in the chamber since 2019.
The 40-year-old said he’s leaving the House after starting a new job in November as town manager of St. Albans Town. He and his wife also had a third child last July, he said; the combination of the job’s workload, and a larger family, has meant he’s had less time to devote to legislating.
“Working five minutes from home is a lot easier for me to justify than driving to Montpelier every day,” he said Thursday.
Toof has spent his entire tenure assigned to the House Education Committee. Last year, he was one of the voices pushing Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s priorities during the fierce debate over lawmakers’ sweeping education reform plan, Act 73. Toof said the fact that many of the law’s key provisions are still to be hashed out made his decision to leave the Statehouse this year more difficult.
Toof’s resignation does not take effect until Jan. 16, but House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, has already moved him off the education committee. She replaced him with another representative, Milton GOP Rep. Leland Morgan, on Tuesday. Toof was moved, somewhat ceremonially, to the House Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry Committee.
Toof said the shuffling, which he supported, would allow Morgan to participate in some of the education panel’s introductory hearings this week focused on Act 73 and its next steps.
Scott has not yet named Toof’s replacement. Toof’s House leadership role has already been filled, however, by Rep. Mark Higley, R-Lowell, who previously served as second assistant minority leader, Higley said Thursday.
Rep. Tom Burditt, R-Rutland, now has Higley’s old job, Higley said.
In addition to serving in the House, Toof managed Republican Lt. Gov. John Rodgers’ winning campaign for that office in 2024.
Toof is set to be the fourth House member to resign since the end of the 2025 session in June. Jim Harrison, a Chittenden Republican, stepped down Tuesday; Heather Surprenant, a Barnard Democrat, resigned in September; and Mari Cordes, a Bristol Democrat, resigned in June.
