The woman who spearheaded passage of Vermont’s historic child care legislation is now attempting to unseat the Republican governor who vetoed the bill.
Aly Richards, the former CEO of Let’s Grow Kids, will announce her Democratic candidacy at a campaign launch in her hometown of Newbury on Monday. In an interview with Vermont Public last week, Richards, 40, said the strategies she used to alleviate the state’s child care shortage can also deliver progress on housing, health care and education.
“I really have a deep understanding about the machinery of how the state of Vermont works, and have a history of moving things through to actually get a result that’s going to work for Vermonters,” Richards said. “I don’t care about labels. I don’t care about playing politics. I just care about results.”
Richards’ entry is stirring excitement in a Democratic Party that now has two millennial-generation women with deep roots in rural Vermont vying for the chance to challenge 67-year-old Phil Scott, the five-term Republican incumbent who regularly polls as the most popular governor in the country.
Amanda Janoo, 38, announced her candidacy last month.
“Voters are going to have real choices this November."May Hanlon, executive director, Vermont Democratic Party
Neither State Treasurer Mike Pieciak nor Attorney General Charity Clark, two of the most prominent names in statewide Democratic politics, has announced their electoral plans for 2026.
Scott has yet to confirm he plans to run for reelection.
“Voters are going to have real choices this November," said May Hanlon, executive director of the Vermont Democratic Party. “They’re serious, qualified people with real vision for where our state needs to go.”
Those visions are distinct. Janoo, an economist, wants to redistribute wealth and provide “free” health care in part by increasing taxes on Vermont’s highest earners.
Richards will occupy a more centrist lane in the Democratic primary and, sounding much like Scott, says Vermont is better off “growing our economy” than “squeezing any more pennies” from taxpayers.
‘Calling the plays’
In February, the New York Times ran a national story that examined Vermont’s 2023 child care law and concluded it had “ushered in affordable child care for the first time in the state’s history.”
The law relied on a 0.44% payroll tax to generate about $125 million annually, which is used to subsidize costs for parents and increase pay for providers and their employees.
Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth said last week that Richards deserves the “majority” of the credit for getting the bill through the Legislature, and for summoning the tri-partisan coalition of lawmakers that overrode Scott’s veto.
“She was calling the plays. She was getting the voters behind it. And once we had things moving in the Legislature, she was there every step of the way, pushing with just the right amount of pressure. And she gets results in a way I’ve never seen before,” he said.
Richards said Let’s Grow Kids’ decade-long child care campaign relied on grassroots organizing, engagement with the business community and an “entrepreneurial spirit” to lobbying. She said she’d use that approach to address the shortage of affordable housing, the rising cost of health care, and education and property tax reform.
“Imagine the potential when you have people working toward a shared goal,” Richards said. “That’s not happening right now.”
Richards, who lives with her husband and twin 7-year-old sons in Montpelier, said she’ll roll out detailed policy proposals as her campaign evolves. But she said she won’t offer specific plans until she hears more from the electorate, and she has so far declined to weigh in on Vermont’s controversial education reform law, Act 73, which Gov. Scott has championed.
Richards did say that the defining feature of the child care law — new taxes — will not be her “default” approach to addressing issues related to housing and health care.
“At this moment, I’m not ready to push all my own policy platforms out there,” Richards said. “I want to leave some real space for listening and learning and talking.”
A global perspective
Janoo, who was born in Strafford and now lives in Burlington, is the co-founder of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance of Vermont — a coalition that’s working to redefine economic development goals in the state — and formerly worked at the United Nations. She told Vermont Public last week that her work in countries such as Mozambique has informed her approach to economic development in Vermont.
“It was a lot about, how do you build more diversified and locally embedded companies so you’re not as dependent on big multi-nationals,” said Janoo, who lives with her dog, Kofi, named after former U.S. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Janoo has already outlined a series of specific policy proposals, including a publicly funded primary health care program in Vermont that would be paid for with increased taxes on income over $500,000, as well as new surcharges on investment income. She said she eventually wants to create a regional single-payer system for all health care services.
“This isn’t just about taxation, it’s about how we get to the root drivers of our affordability crisis right now,” Janoo said.
She’s also come out strongly against the mandatory school district mergers called for in Vermont’s education reform law and opposes the forced closure of small schools, like the one she went to as a child in Strafford.
“If you get rid of the school, it’s like you’re giving up on the town entirely,” Janoo said. “The reality is we’re a state of small things.”
Christine Hallquist, the executive director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board who ran unsuccessfully against Scott in 2018, said she met with Janoo when she was considering her run for governor.
“By the end of the conversation, I said, ‘Amanda, I insist you run, and I will do everything I can to support you,’” Hallquist said. “She really took me by surprise as a warm person who can communicate well, and incredibly intelligent.”
‘Ammunition’
Scott defeated his last three general election opponents by at least 39 percentage points. The Vermont Democratic Party is readying a messaging campaign that it hopes will erode his support — much of which comes from Democrats — in 2026.
“After a decade of Phil Scott’s leadership, Vermont’s workforce is shrinking, participation is declining and opportunity is further out of reach for too many people,” Hanlon, the executive director of the VDP, said last week.
“We’re faced with a bunch of problems that nothing is being done about … and we need new blood.”Former Gov. Howard Dean
The cost of health care, housing and property taxes have all risen sharply under Scott’s tenure. If Democrats are going to attempt to blame that on him, Scott said last week, he’ll have more than enough “ammunition” to win the battle.
“Happy to have that conversation,” said Scott, who says Democratic majorities in the House and Senate have thwarted his attempts to address key affordability issues. “If you want to go through all the things that we’ve offered that have been turned down over these 10 years, I think it’ll tell a very, very different story.”
Former Gov. Howard Dean flirted with a challenge to Scott in 2024. He decided against a run after a poll he commissioned found that, even with his strong name recognition, he would only get within 10 points of defeating the incumbent.
Dean told Vermont Public last week that the political environment has shifted in 2026.
“That was then, this is now,” said Dean, who has endorsed Richards. “We’re faced with a bunch of problems that nothing is being done about … and we need new blood.”
Dean said Scott’s proposed education reforms, and their implications on beloved small schools, will likely alienate many of the voters who’ve supported him in the past.
“And I think age is a big problem,” Dean said. “It’s time for people my age and Phil’s age to step aside.”
Both Richards and Janoo say their decisions to run have been inspired by what’s happening under President Donald Trump’s second term. And they hope widespread disaffection with the federal administration will influence voters’ decisions in the governor’s race in November.
