Leadership in the Vermont Legislature is going to look a lot different next year.
The top lawmakers in both the House and Senate, as well as chairs of six policymaking committees across both chambers, are not running for reelection this year. Four committee vice chairs are also leaving the House.
That means come January, when the Legislature gavels in for its 2027 session, new faces are set to fill many of the roles dictating which bills receive attention and who gets to testify on them.
Overall, more than 30 House members and three senators are slated to leave their seats at the end of the year, according to campaign filings, party leaders and campaign statements. A number of other lawmakers had already resigned their seats partway through the 2025-26 legislative biennium.
Democratic, Republican and Progressive party candidates had until May 28 to file paperwork declaring their intent to seek office this year.
Those leaving amount to 10% of the Senate and more than 20% of the House. Taken together, that’s a relatively high turnover compared to historic norms, according to Chris Graff, a former longtime Vermont journalist for The Associated Press.
“That’s above the average. That’s high,” Graff said Thursday. Typically, between 10% and 15% of the Legislature has turned over every two years, he said.
House will see bulk of the turnover
Top of the list of those departing the House is Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington. She said last week, in an unexpected announcement, that she was leaving the chamber after 14 years, half a dozen as speaker. Other House leaders not running include:
Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall, chair of the Education Committee. In that job, Conlon has played a central role in crafting this year’s and last year’s contentious education governance and funding reform bills, known as H.955 and Act 73, respectively.
Rep. Amy Sheldon, D-Middlebury, chair of the Environment Committee. She faced vitriol online this year over her past support of key conservation measures in Act 181, the 2024 land use law that drew a swell of opposition during this year’s session.
Rep. Michael Marcotte, R-Coventry, chair of the Commerce and Economic Development Committee. He is one of just two Republican committee chairs in the House, and is one of the chamber’s longest-serving current members, having held his seat since 2005.
Rep. Matt Birong, D-Vergennes, chair of the Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee, as well as Rep. Kathleen James, D-Manchester, chair of the Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee.
Several House committee vice chairs are also leaving the Legislature. They include Rep. Marty Feltus, R-Lyndon, the No. 2 on the Appropriations Committee; Rep. Larry Labor, R-Morgan, vice chair of the Environment Committee; and Rep. Scott Campbell, D-St. Johnsbury, vice chair of the Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee.
Another House vice chair — Rep. Ashley Bartley, R-Fairfax, the No. 2 on the General and Housing Committee — is leaving her seat to run for the Senate. She is vying for the Chittenden North seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Chris Mattos.
At least two other House members are vying for Senate seats. Rep. Monique Priestley, D-Bradford, is running in the single-seat Orange County district currently held by GOP Sen. John Benson, who is seeking reelection. And Rep. Elizabeth Burrows, D-West Windsor, joined a crowded Democratic primary field for one of Windsor County’s three Senate seats.
In the Senate, the most notable departure this year is that of President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, the chamber’s leader. Baruth announced his plans to retire after 16 years in the Senate earlier this year.
One other longtime senator is also stepping down: Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor, chair of the Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs Committee. Clarkson has served in the Legislature since 2005.
At least one other Senate panel could see new leadership, too. That’s because Sen. Andrew Perchlik, D/P-Washington — who chairs the Appropriations Committee — has said he is considering vying to succeed Baruth as president pro tempore.
One other senator — Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden Southeast — has so far publicly said that if she’s reelected to her seat, she will run for pro tem, a role senators elect among themselves.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Vermont Progressive Party’s House caucus, Rep. Kate Logan, P/D-Burlington, also is not seeking reelection.
What does this turnover mean?
Lawmakers have given varying reasons for leaving in public remarks over the past several months.
Conlon, the education chair, told Seven Days last month that the contentious nature of the debate over education reform had him ready for a break. Mattos, the Chittenden North senator, needs to “head home and tend to a growing business and a growing family,” Senate Minority Leader Scott Beck, R-Caledonia, said in remarks on the floor last week. Clarkson told her colleagues last week that she was “ready for some new challenges” after more than two decades in the Statehouse.
Service in the Vermont Legislature is not a full-time job. Lawmakers get a modest salary that critics have long said does not pay enough to make the positions attainable for many working-class people. Many legislators have full-time jobs, separate from the Legislature, that they typically put on pause during the January-May session.
In 2023, lawmakers passed a bill that would have increased their own pay, but Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the proposal.
Graff, the longtime Vermont reporter, said it’s impossible to point to a single reason why so many lawmakers are stepping down in any year, largely because Vermont’s “citizen Legislature” model means people come from different backgrounds.
“It really takes a beating on your personal life — or your professional life, depending on what your business is,” he said. “There’s a churn to the Legislature because of the fact that it’s part-time.”
The turnover will have a clear impact on the operations of the Legislature that gavels in next year, he said, because so many people in leadership positions are stepping down. This year’s turnover comes on the heels of significant turnover in 2024 and, especially, 2022, Graff noted. Four years ago, about a third of the members of the House and Senate were newly-elected to their roles.
“You can expect that it will take longer than normal for the Legislature to get moving, for committees to form, for leaders to feel comfortable in their roles,” he said.
