Republican John Rodgers was elected lieutenant governor in a secret ballot by a joint assembly of the Vermont Legislature on Thursday. He defeated incumbent Progressive/Democrat David Zuckerman by a vote of 158 to 18.
In a brief speech after taking the oath of office in the Senate chamber, Rodgers pledged to govern in a bipartisan fashion.
“I was a Democrat for many years, and now I'm a Republican. That said, I'm always a Vermonter first,” he said.
He also paid his respects to former President Jimmy Carter, whose state funeral was taking place Thursday in Washington, D.C., and recalled a famous pledge the Democratic leader once made to the nation.
“Like President Carter, I value honesty. I give Vermonters my word that I will always be honest. I will not lie, and I will never avoid the controversial issues,” he said.
Thursday’s election was an unusual but not unprecedented event. Rodgers beat Zuckerman in the November elections, but because neither won more than 50% of the vote, the state constitution required lawmakers to name a winner. The last time lawmakers held such an election was ten years ago, when then-Gov. Peter Shumlin narrowly won his third term in office.
The outcome of Thursday’s vote was no big surprise. Zuckerman announced in November that he would not seek a recount, and called Rodgers to concede the race. But Zuckerman also publicly flirted with the idea that lawmakers could return him to his post, arguing that a majority of Vermonters had voted for more liberal candidates in the race. Democrats quickly put out a statement denouncing the idea, saying members of their party were expected to affirm the choice made by a plurality of voters. In a press conference Monday, Zuckerman said he expected to lose Thursday’s vote, and teased a return to public life as a radio host.
Rodgers, a stonemason and farmer from Glover, is a well-known figure in Montpelier. He served in the House and Senate for a combined 16 years as a Democrat, but lost his seat in the upper chamber in 2020 after missing a filing deadline during the primaries. He returned to politics last year by staging a series of packed rallies at the Statehouse, where attendees, clad in orange hunters’ vests, decried the rising cost of living in Vermont as well as Democratic proposals on hunting, housing, and climate change.
“The Legislature has decided that it’s OK to discriminate against the culture of the people whose families built this state,” Rodgers said in a speech at one rally, according to a WCAX report at the time.
Rodgers returned to these themes when he announced his candidacy for the lieutenant governor’s office as a Republican, arguing that the party he had belonged to his entire life — the Democratic party — had abandoned rural Vermont and the working class. Gov. Phil Scott, who campaigned aggressively for down ballot Republicans this year, embraced Rodgers and appeared alongside him in campaign ads.
Scott and Rodgers were not always close allies. Rodgers, a fervent gun-rights supporter, even launched a write-in campaign for governor to protest a gun reform package signed into law by Scott in 2018.
A self-styled moderate, Rodgers is perhaps best understood as a libertarian willing to take uncompromising stances on both right and left-leaning issues. He backed marriage equality in 2009, for example, and even lost his House seat over his vote.
The race between Zuckerman and Rodgers was expensive and acrimonious. Rodgers leaned heavily on his multi-generational Northeast Kingdom roots and painted Zuckerman as an out-of-touch gentleman farmer, who, as Rodgers wrote in one op-ed, “grew up in privilege in one of the wealthiest zip codes in Massachusetts.”
Zuckerman, meanwhile, sought unsuccessfully to tie his opponent to former President Trump (who Rodgers said he did not vote for) and the national Republican party, and he repeatedly pointed to Rodgers’ heavy backing from the conservative business elite in Chittenden County.
In an election when fears over rural gentrification and rising property taxes persuaded voters to hand Republicans sweeping gains in the Senate and House, Rodgers’ message won out. Zuckerman’s narrow loss will make him the first incumbent lieutenant governor to lose a reelection bid since 1978.
While the lieutenant governor’s office is largely ceremonial, the post could take on renewed relevance in a legislative biennium with strengthened Republican minorities. The lieutenant governor can vote on legislation in the event of a tie in the state Senate, which might take place more often with the GOP now holding 13 of 30 seats.
Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message.
