Biography
I have served as a State Senator representing the Washington District for one term, during which I was the Chair of the Natural Resources and Energy Committee and I sat on the Government Operations Committee. Prior to my time as a State Senator, I was the Mayor of Montpelier for four years, and I was a City Councilor prior to that. Altogether I have more than a decade of experience as an elected official. I have been a high school science and math teacher at Montpelier High School for the past 19 years and I am a proud member of the teacher’s union there. I coached the boys ultimate frisbee team at MHS for nearly a decade. I have a BS in Physics and an M.Ed. in Secondary Education. I’m a relatively new mom and a Vermonter. As a State Senator, I was a co-lead sponsor of the Climate Superfund Act, and through the last biennium, I was proud to vote in favor of many bills including the Child Care bill, the Flood Safety Act, for gun safety legislation, and to protect reproductive rights. I’m passionate about climate action and protecting the environment. For this work in the Senate, I received Renewable Energy Vermont’s 2023 Legislative Champion award as well as Vermont Conservation Voters’ Environmental 2024 Rising Star award.
Candidate occupation
Teacher
Why are you running for office?
I’m running for office because everyday I work with high school students that are worried about their futures. We are building their futures right now with every bill that we pass. I’m running because working and middle class families in Vermont need help. We need paid family and medical leave. We need universal health care. We need an economy that doesn’t trash the environment, and we need an education funding system that both provides a high quality education for our kids without bankrupting Vermont’s working and middle class families. These are all things that I hear from constituents, and it would be an honor to represent the ideas and concerns of folks in the Washington District for another term. I am a problem solver, and I have the energy and skills needed to bring about healthy and necessary change to our systems.
Issues in brief
Do you believe Vermonters are better off now than they were 10 years ago?
No
Do you believe Vermont needs a new education funding formula?
Yes
Do you support imposing new taxes on the wealthiest Vermonters?
Yes
Do you support the establishment of overdose prevention centers?
Yes
Do you support a ban on flavored tobacco products?
Yes
Do you support increasing penalties for property crimes such as shoplifting?
No
Do you believe Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election?
Yes
Issues in depth
What would you do to help grow Vermont’s economy?
1. Tourism is a huge industry for Vermont, and I’d love to support more agri-tourism experiences to simultaneously boost Vermont farms.
2. I think our economy would be growing a lot more, except that we have a bottleneck with housing, so ensuring that we’re building more housing is key.
3. Vermont has a very highly educated population, and I think we could encourage more high-tech business development through research grants and entrepreneurial incentives.
4. I think through all of this we need to consider how we are stabilizing and preserving our downtown businesses, especially those that were impacted by last year’s flooding.
What changes, if any, would you make to the way Vermont funds its schools?
1. Break up the non-homestead tax into its component parts, so that we can tax 2nd homes at a higher rate. I believe that if people can afford a 2nd home (hunting camps wouldn’t count), then they probably can pay more, thus lowering the needed taxes from everyone else.
2. Shift to an income-based education tax. There’s already been a lot of work on this idea. The conclusions in the executive summary are one potential road map to a simpler, fairer, more progressive funding stream. Right now most Vermonters are “income sensitized” meaning that their property taxes are reduced because of their income, but the amount that they are reduced is capped and that creates “bumps” and “cliffs” in the benefits depending on your income. So an income based education tax would be a more sensitive tool for creating equitable contribution.
3. I’d close the funding formula loophole that rewards districts for closing schools, or put another way, forces districts that operate schools to subsidize districts that don’t operate schools.
Is Vermont doing enough, too much or not enough to address climate change? Please explain.
I hear this question as, “Are we on track to meet our science-based greenhouse gas reduction requirements?” According to EAN’s 2023 Annual Energy Report, it looks like we may be close to hitting our 2025 target, but in order for us to hit our 2030 requirements, we will need to make substantially more progress in lowering our GHG emissions. The difficulty with continuing to reduce GHG emissions is balancing this scientific imperative with what society can handle financially. The good news is that if we can help people get over the financial hump of transitioning to renewable energy sources, then operating those systems on into the future is generally much cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives. So our job in government is to lower that financial barrier to make it more accessible for Vermonters to use cheaper, renewable energy sources.
Is Vermont doing enough, too much or not enough to regulate gun ownership? Please explain.
I would like to see us ban semi-automatic weapons, and in general I think owning a gun should come with at least the same level of responsibility as owning a vehicle. I think gun ownership should only be allowed if someone has taken a training course. I’ve taken hunter safety and found it to be very helpful, and I think a similar course could be developed for gun ownership.
What would you do to help ease Vermont’s housing crisis?
While there are many factors affecting the rate of housing development, the cost of materials and labor are major drivers. We need to continue to fully fund VHCB and successful programs like VHIP. I think we are at such a crisis point that all creative solutions need to be on the table, including normalizing homeshares or continuing to streamline the regulatory process.
How would you address rising homelessness in Vermont?
First, I think we need to do away with the cap on the number of hotel vouchers available to Vermonters experiencing homelessness. It is expensive to our society as a whole to have people living out on the streets, not to mention it is also simply inhumane. We need more facilities meant to serve women and families. Beyond that we need to look at the drivers of homelessness and help prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place.
What would you do to increase access to health care services for Vermonters?
I would love to see us move toward universal primary care and reference based pricing. I think we should continue to increase the age of Dr. Dynosaur eligibility. If at all possible, I’d love to prohibit reimbursement systems in health care because they are inherently classist and create hardships for Vermonters living paycheck to paycheck. Ultimately, I’d like to see us move toward a universal single payer health care system.
Financial disclosure
Candidates for state and legislative offices are required to submit a financial disclosure when filing to run. These disclosures include each source, but not the amount, of personal income of each candidate, and of their spouse or domestic partner, that singly or jointly totals more than $5,000 for the previous 12 months. The information provided is an opportunity for voters to learn about candidates’ potential conflicts of interest.
You can find Watson’s financial disclosure here.
Disclaimer
We emailed a questionnaire to every candidate with a valid email address. The responses provided by candidates are in their own words. VTDigger has not edited or fact-checked information provided.
If this is your candidacy and you’d like to fill out the questionnaire or report an error, please contact us at voterguide@vtdigger.org.
