Updated 4:01 p.m.
The chair of Vermont’s Progressive Party, Bill Hunsinger, has resigned from his post.
Hunsinger stepped down Tuesday after less than a year in the job as the leader of the state’s third largest political party, according to Heather Thomas, the party’s executive director. The chair is the party’s public-facing leader, while the executive director manages its day-to-day operations and is the organization’s only full-time staffer.
According to Thomas, Hunsinger’s decision was a result of the challenges of balancing the job’s significant workload with his full-time job, raising a young daughter and serving on the selectboard in his hometown of Ripton.
“It takes an incredible amount of time and energy to work within structures that are designed by and for the wealthy,” Thomas said in an interview Wednesday. “We’re very grateful for his time and all the ways that he’s helped advance our mission.”
Hunsinger did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
His resignation leaves one of the state’s major political parties without a figurehead in the middle of an election cycle with about a month until voters start receiving their ballots in the mail.
Hunsinger was elected to the post in November and succeeded Anthony Pollina, a former state senator who had chaired the party for a decade. Shortly before Hunsinger’s election, the party hired Thomas to replace its previous executive director, Josh Wronski, who resigned after nine years on the job.
In addition to Hunsinger, the party is set to lose another key leader: Rep. Kate Logan, P/D-Burlington, who chairs its caucus in the Vermont House. Logan is not running for reelection.
Thomas said that despite the turnover, she is confident in the party’s organizational capacity around the state. She said it has a “strong group of members who are deeply committed to the movement,” whether they’re involved in top leadership or not.
The Progressive Party is the state’s third largest by a wide margin. Including Logan, there are three current House members and one state senator who identify primarily as Progressives. All of them caucus with Democrats on many issues.
The party sees far fewer people participate in its statewide primary elections than either the Democratic or Republican parties — and that number of participants has been somewhat lower in recent years, data from the Vermont secretary of state’s office shows.
In the primary earlier this month, 474 people pulled a Progressive ballot. That’s up from 414 people in 2024, according to the data, but lower than the 610 and 941 people who took part in the Progressive primaries in 2022 and 2020, respectively.
By comparison, 88,906 people voted in this year’s Democratic primary and 23,067 voted in the GOP primary.
Thomas said she does not think the number of ballots cast in Progressive primaries gives the full picture of the party’s support. That’s because many of the candidates it backs run in the Democratic contests, she said, leading many Progressive Party members to vote in Democratic primaries instead.
This year, Progressives had just two statewide candidates of their own: Rachel Shaw for secretary of state and Zachary Hampl for treasurer. Notably, only Shaw has the party’s endorsement; its leadership has so far rejected Hampl, who by his own telling does not fully support the party’s agenda.
In all, the party has endorsed more than two dozen candidates for state and county-level office ahead of this year’s general election. Most of them identify primarily as Democrats. The party is particularly excited to support Democrat Amanda Janoo, whom it sees as the most progressive candidate for governor the state has had in years, Thomas has said.
Progressive Party leaders will meet soon to choose an interim chair to replace Hunsinger, Thomas said. The party will formally elect a new one at its state convention the week after the Nov. 3 election.
Hunsinger will stay involved with the party, including as chair of its Addison County committee, Thomas said.
