Typically, the political party labels on a ballot can give voters a sense of where each candidate stands on the biggest issues. But in at least one case in this fall’s election in Vermont, it won’t be that simple.
Zachary Hampl, an author and financial account manager from Rutland Town, won the Vermont Progressive Party primary for state treasurer earlier this month. He was the only candidate on the party’s ballot for that office and got 289 votes. In all, just 474 voters pulled a Progressive ballot this year.
He will appear on the general election ballot alongside the incumbent state treasurer, Democrat Mike Pieciak, and Lynn LaFleur, the Republican Party’s nominee. GOP leaders put LaFleur on the ballot after a different Republican — perennial candidate H. Brooke Paige — won the Republican primary but withdrew afterward to run for one of three other offices he sought this year.
Hampl’s situation is even more unusual: The party whose primary he won has so far refused to support him.
At a meeting in May, Progressive Party leaders voted against formally endorsing Hampl’s campaign, according to Bill Hunsinger, the party chair. Hampl was one of just two statewide candidates on the party’s primary ballot. The other, Rachel Shaw, got the party’s endorsement in her bid for secretary of state at the same leadership meeting, Hunsinger said.
It’s common for the Progressive Party to have its own candidates for only some statewide offices. The Progs often pick some of the Democratic Party’s nominees to endorse as well, as party leaders did in May for governor and state auditor, according to Hunsinger.
Hunsinger said in an interview that many details about Hampl’s views were unclear to him but that “he certainly does not appear to have the progressive credentials” party leaders are looking for.
By Hampl’s own admission, it isn’t hard to see why.
“Most of my dearest friends were astounded to discover my choice of party when I decided to run for office,” Hampl wrote in a post on his campaign Facebook page in June, in which he also described the Progressives as a party he would not normally identify with.
In an interview last week, the 32-year-old described his politics as a mixed bag of left- and right-wing ideas that have evolved and do not fully align with the Progressive Party’s platform, or those of Vermont’s other two major parties.
After securing enough signatures — at least 500 — to get on the ballot, Hampl said he settled on running as a Progressive because he sees too many faults in the traditional two-party system of Democrats and Republicans. The only way to seriously enter the statewide political conversation otherwise is to run as a third-party candidate — and the Progressives have by far the biggest platform of that kind, he said.
Hampl long called himself a libertarian and conservative, he said. As a student at Castleton University, he founded a chapter of Young Americans for Liberty, a prominent nationwide organization supporting libertarian causes on college campuses, including free speech and gun rights. His views led him to support the 2016 presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a staunch libertarian, he said.
He said his views started changing when he worked as an emergency medical technician during the Covid-19 pandemic. He said he got a firsthand view of how difficult it is for many people to find affordable housing and get healthcare. That led him to the conclusion that housing and healthcare should be treated as human rights, he said.
In that sense, he sees eye-to-eye with many in the Progressive Party, he said. But he suggested he also remains skeptical of major government intervention in society, citing a quote from former Republican President Ronald Reagan that “when government expands, liberty contracts.”
He acknowledged it will probably confuse voters to learn there is a Progressive candidate who does not have the party’s support. But he made the case that there could be benefits to having a treasurer who is not backed by any political party, since the duties of the job — managing state coffers and public employees’ pensions — are nonpartisan.
“That’s good news for both Republicans and Democrats,” he said. “We have a candidate who’s actually more independent than anything else — but just so happens to be running as a Progressive.”
Hunsinger, the Progressive chair, said he would not rule out his party endorsing Hampl. He pointed to a message from Hampl stating that he would promote “equal access to economic opportunities for all Vermonter’s (sic) based on championing the power of teamwork.” That embodies the spirit of the Progressive Party, Hunsinger said.
At the same time, the party has not discussed throwing its weight behind a different candidate, including Pieciak. Asked whom people should vote for this fall if they want the most progressive treasurer possible, Hunsinger declined to say.
“I don’t really quite have the answer for you — and I think that might be indicative enough,” he said.
A key proposal of Hampl’s campaign is to increase collaboration between the government and financial institutions around the state. He suggested Vermont set up an institution that is similar to the Bank of North Dakota, which is the only government-run bank in the U.S. and provides banking services to government agencies along with supporting loans for farms, businesses and students.
He has also argued that his experience as an account manager, along with a brief stint selling insurance, gives him the know-how to oversee the state’s investments.
In addition to that financial work, Hampl has written two novels. Both focus on relatively dark themes, titled “The Mortician’s Curse” and “Slaughter Scheme.”
According to a description online, the latter, published in 2024, tells the story of “a killing spree in the trenches of morbidly corrupt academia.”
Hampl said he is working on a third book, though his political ambitions have taken center stage over writing lately.
“I’ve been campaigning all over the state,” he said.
