Vermont has handed Vice President Kamala Harris her first three electoral votes of the 2024 election. The Associated Press called the race at 7 p.m. immediately after the polls closed.
Neither campaign expended much energy courting Vermont voters, not bothering to dispatch even high-level surrogates.
Vermont has not chosen a Republican for president since 1988, when it gave then-Vice President George Bush a 51% to 48% victory over Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.
President Joe Biden carried Vermont in 2020, besting former President Donald Trump 66% to 31%.
In 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defeated Trump 57% to 30% in Vermont.
At polls today, Pittsford resident Connor Eaton said he voted for Harris to protect reproductive rights.
“Voting for my girlfriend, voting for my mom, my sister, any woman in my life, and I just feel like it’s a really important time to be there for other women in your life and support them, and it means a lot to them, and means a lot to me,” Eaton said.
Fellow Pittsford residents Debbie Popovitch said she voted for Trump in 2016, but supported Harris today.
“I grew up as part of the women’s lib era, and I worked at GE where there was all men who didn’t want women there,” she said. “So being a product of that and going through all that and see how much forward we have come is important to me, and women’s rights are extremely important to me.”
Late in the day, Harris garnered a vote from a higher profile Vermonter. Republican Gov. Phil Scott said he was voting for the vice president as part of his longstanding opposition to Trump.
“I did some soul searching and thought about a lot of different things — what would benefit Vermont, what I needed to do myself — and came to the conclusion that I had to put country over party, and do the same thing that I did four years ago when I voted for Joe Biden, and vote for Kamala Harris,” Scott said. He added that his vote was not an endorsement of Harris.
This article will be updated.
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