Biography
I grew up on the “Space Coast” of Florida and in California’s Silicon Valley, in an engineering family. I went to Philadelphia for college, earning a B.A. in Urban and Environmental Economics at Bryn Mawr College and a Master of Government Administration at the University of Pennsylvania. At Penn, I met my husband, Peter Elwell, and first came to Vermont in 1986 for a “town meeting” field trip. We raised two children while working in municipal government and living mostly in Jupiter, Florida. We enjoyed many visits in Brattleboro visiting Peter’s family and, in 2015, we moved to Brattleboro.
While in Florida, I served as an Assistant Village Manager and a County Solid Waste Director before moving to part-time work while our children were young. I was an elected Town Councilor for eight years, working to channel development into sustainable forms, preservingenvironmental and historic resources, and increasing auto-alternative transportation. In Vermont, I have served as the Municipal Manager for Bellows Falls and Rockingham, the Interim Town Manager for Vernon, and the Interim City Manager for Winooski. I also have experience working in the non-profit sector (housing, land conservation, and circus training) in Vermont and New Jersey.
During my first term in the Senate, I served on the Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs Committee and on the Institutions Committee. Outside of my work as Senator, I currently chair the Southeast Vermont Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS) board and serve on the Vermont Economic Progress Council, the Vermont State Transportation Board, and the Windham County Sheriff’s Advisory. I previously served on the Windham Regional Commission and on the boards of Southeast Vermont Transit and the Friends of the West River Trail.
I live in Brattleboro with Peter and our two dogs. We are happy to have our adult children and their partners living nearby in Brattleboro and Keene, New Hampshire.
Candidate occupation
I devote my full-time attention to my work as a State Senator. If I were not serving in the Senate, I would be working as an Interim Town Manager.
Why are you running for office?
When I first ran for the Senate, I believed that I could utilize my prior experience in and out of government to positively impact the State’s actions on urgent issues such as housing, economic development, transportation, and government accountability. During my first term, I found that this was true. I am proud of how I was able to help shape major legislation on housing, Act 250 reform, consumer protection, and corrections, and of the support I was able to provide for data privacy, refugee housing, environmental protection, and transportation.
I am running for re-election because there is so much more to be done, especially related to public education, tax relief for middle-income Vermonters, accessible and affordable healthcare, and transportation. I care deeply about addressing Vermont’s challenges and helping the Vermont economy to grow for everyone’s benefit, while also protecting our historic town centers, incredible open areas and collaborative culture. I know that I am adding value in the Senate. I hope the voters will allow me the privilege of continuing this work on our collective behalf.
Issues in brief
Do you believe Vermonters are better off now than they were 10 years ago?
No answer
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?
No answer
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?
As a member of the Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs Committee, I worked on legislation to address to the two major reasons for the workforce shortage, housing and childcare. The housing market is starting to respond to our housing regulatory changes and financial incentives, and there are 1000 new childcare spots because of the childcare bill.
As a member of the Vermont Economic Progress Council (VEPC), I am working to continue and improve the only state incentive program for new jobs, the Vermont Employment Growth Incentive (VEGI), while addressing the State Auditor’s concerns with this program. I plan to propose a new bonus category for VEGI for cooperatively owned businesses. VEPC also governs Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts and I support updated TIF legislation so that they are less cumbersome and more effective as a funding source of economic development projects.
At a regional level, as Chair of the Southeast Vermont Economic Strategies (SeVEDS) board, I work with the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC) to plan for future economic development. I am proud of BDCC’s and SeVEDS’ focus on the community as a whole and defining economic development as a long-term effort that improves conditions for all. This approach includes the effort begun more than a decade ago to bring affordable broadband to outlying areas that resulted in DVFiber and the more recent support of the refugee resettlement program, which included workforce training and transit improvements. Our region is one of the few in Vermont that is increasing in population.
What changes, if any, would you make to the way Vermont funds its schools?
Our current structure of financing schools is not sustainable. At the same time, we need resources and a strategy to support our public schools. Public schools are fundamental to our democratic system and they are also a consideration when families look to move to Vermont. I hope that the Commission on the Future of Public Education will be unvarnished, creative, and thorough in its recommendations.
Is Vermont doing enough, too much or not enough to address climate change? Please explain.
Vermont is doing a lot to address climate change, which includes both efforts to reduce our own emissions as well as actions to reduce to the harms and cost to Vermonters of the impacts of climate change. We should continue to prioritize and incentivize weatherization of buildings, especially for low and middle income Vermonters. We also should continue to encourage and incentivize electric vehicle (EV) ownership. A new program that allowed Vermonters this last year to buy late-model used EVs for very low prices was very popular and effective. We should continue supporting home-charging and work with landlords on ways they can provide chargers to renters.
We need to continue hardening the electric grid and better communicate to Vermonters that the grid is capable of handling the increased load created by EVs, heat pumps, and other electric alternatives to fossil fuels.
We need to get serious about reducing the impacts of flooding to Vermonters. We passed a bill last year requiring the state to manage river corridors and the implementation needs to be expedited. We need to build more restored floodplains like the two in Brattleboro that are reducing severe storm impacts in and around downtown. Our communication systems need to be better prepared to coordinate between towns and the state when disasters hit. We also need the state and towns to be financially sustainable to handle these events. We can’t rely only on FEMA and we don’t know where the private insurance industry will end up after it adjusts to the national natural disaster pattern.
The Clean Heat Standard has become quite controversial. The original intent of the standard was to encourage a market solution that would reduce the cost impact to Vermonters of heating their homes. Oil and gas prices are not regulated like electricity rates. We experienced prices of more than $5/gallon in the past few years, and too many Vermonters are dependent on oil as their only source of heat. Vermonters who can afford heat pumps pay less in electricity for heat than if they used oil or wood. The legislature will consider multiple studies next year and I will support actions that will most benefit middle and lower-income Vermonters.
Is Vermont doing enough, too much or not enough to regulate gun ownership? Please explain.
I am proud of the work we did in the past two years to put reasonable rules on gun use and ownership. We passed Act 45 which establishes the crime of negligent firearms storage, requiring owners of firearms to keep them out of the hands of children and others who should not have access to them. We did this not by specifying types of gun cases or locks but by simply making the owner of the weapon legally responsible for harm done by a child (or other person) with that weapon. The act also includes a short waiting period (72 hours) for most firearms transfers. Doctors testified that this would be long enough to significantly reduce suicides. I do support limits on assault weapons—children have become the trophies of mass shooters and we must address this unacceptable situation.
What would you do to help ease Vermont’s housing crisis?
In 2023, we passed legislation that allows duplexes by right anywhere that single-family homes are allowed, reduced parking rules that discouraged re-development, and established other town-focused regulations. At the same time, we created immediate temporary Act 250 exemptions in downtowns for housing. In 2024, we adopted major changes to Act 250 that were supported by the environmental community, developers, and towns. Those changes will take a couple of years to be fully implemented and so we extended and increased the temporary exemptions.
In Brattleboro, these changes along with earlier Town actions have resulted in more housing permits this year that at any time since 1989.
How would you address rising homelessness in Vermont?
We need more housing generally, which is starting to happen, and we need to better support people who are transitioning out of homelessness. In the meantime, while additional housing and better support systems are being created, we need to ensure that people – especially children, the elderly, and people with disabilities – are able to be housed temporarily in shelters and motels.
What would you do to increase access to health care services for Vermonters?
Health care is too expensive and not as accessible as it should be. Insurance rate increases are not sustainable and are a cause of increases to school budgets and our property taxes.
Both to help address a shortage of doctors and as a matter of equity, I will continue to work with our local NAACP to find a path for graduates of international medical schools who are already living in Vermont to be able to use their medical skills here. I will also continue to support providing full information to Vermonters and establishing reasonable requirements to providers of Medicare Advantage.
I believe that other actions will need to be taken by government and within the health care and health insurance systems for health care to be accessible and affordable. I look forward to receiving additional information from legislators and others who have expertise in these systems to help guide our future actions.
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 Harrison’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.
