This story was updated with additional information at 10:23 p.m.
Gov. Phil Scott cruised to a fifth term in office on Tuesday. The race was called for him by the Associated Press at 7:33 p.m.
Scott’s landslide victory was widely considered a foregone conclusion. The moderate Republican frequently polls as one of the country’s most popular governors, and he faced a relatively unknown challenger in Esther Charlestin, a former Middlebury select board member and equity and diversity consultant.
With 79% of the votes counted, he appeared on track to beat Charlestin by his widest margin yet. As of 10:18 p.m., he had 73% of the vote; Charleston had 22%.
More established Democrats sat out the race, as they have every cycle since 2020. Former Gov. Howard Dean publicly flirted with a run earlier this year but ultimately backed out, and later endorsed Charlestin.
In a short concession speech at the Democrats’ election night party at Higher Ground in South Burlington, Charlestin thanked her supporters for their work on her campaign, which she called “a journey of self-reflection.”
“You’ve got to know who you are, if you're putting yourself out there. Know what you believe in, who you believe in, and what you believe in. And at the end of the day, I do believe in our great state, Vermont — and I do believe in democracy,” she said.
Scott spent barely any time or money campaigning for himself — although he did spend more time on the trail than he has in years. His energy and cash, though, went to down-ballot Republican candidates, particularly for the Vermont Senate, where he saw his best hope to put a dent in Democratic supermajorities in the state legislature.
School property taxes on average rose by double digits this year, and Scott sought to harness anger about the cost of living in Vermont to reinvigorate the state’s Republican party and bring him backup in Montpelier.
Scott has issued more vetoes than any other governor in Vermont history, and his relationship with Democrats has grown only more frayed over the years. His message to voters this year was simple: because Democrats and Progressives had the votes to override him in the Legislature, they did, and this was the reason for Vermont’s pocketbook woes.
Scott’s message to the electorate appeared to resonate deeply. Although the final results are not yet in, it was clear early in the night that Republicans had flipped a series of seats across the map in both the Vermont House and Senate.
“This election was about one basic question,” Scott told a crowd of supporters on Tuesday night. “Can you, your aging parents, your grandparents, your kids, your grand kids, your neighbors, afford to live and thrive in Vermont if we don't make a course correction on the path set by legislative leaders over the last few years? It appears, based on some of the results we're seeing — it’s no.”
An anti-Trump Republican, Scott has, in recent years, grown increasingly estranged from the Vermont GOP, which has become simultaneously more extreme and less influential. In 2020, Scott even voted for Joe Biden for president, and this year, he announced on Election Day that he had voted for Vice President Kamala Harris.
In 2022, when the Republican Party sent fewer House lawmakers to Montpelier than ever before, the party and Scott — its standard bearer — even held separate election night events. But this cycle brought a rapprochement as Scott took a more active role in candidate recruitment and campaigning.
And this year, the party held no election night event of its own. Instead, state GOP chair Paul Dame attended the event organized by the Scott campaign at the Association of General Contractors headquarters in Montpelier, which was attended by a few other Scott-endorsed candidates.
Scott, a former contractor, first entered politics in 2000, when he won a seat in the state Senate in Washington county. Ten years later, he ran and won a race for lieutenant governor, a largely ceremonial but high-profile post. He has been governor since 2017.
Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message.
