On Saturday afternoon, devoted Republicans from across the state will gather in Burlington. And while the purpose of the meeting is to select Vermont’s delegates to the Republican National Convention later this summer, party officials will also look to do some bridge building between the Republican voters who support Donald Trump, and the GOP candidates who do not.
Before Donald Trump hit the scene, Carol Boutin wasn’t much for politics.
“It bored me,” Boutin says. “I, embarrassingly enough to say, I have never actually voted.”
In Trump, however, Boutin says she’s finally found reason to pay attention.
“And I just strongly believe that he’s going to make a difference,” she says.
And not only does this 59-year-old Burlington resident plan to vote this year, she’s volunteering for the Trump campaign at the state convention this weekend.
Support for Trump runs deep in Vermont, where nearly 20,000 voters gave the controversial candidate a victory in this state’s presidential primary back in March. His popularity perseveres in spite of admonitions from some of the state’s leading Republicans to shun the man who’s now assured of his party’s presidential nomination.
Support for Trump runs deep in Vermont, where nearly 20,000 voters gave the controversial candidate a victory in this state's presidential primary back in March.
Lt. Gov. Phil Scott in particular has led the charge against Trump, condemning his rhetoric as “racist,” “sexist” and “hateful.”
Boutin says those sentiments have turned her off to a man that many believe is Republicans’ best hope to reclaim the governor’s seat in 2016.
“The negative things that come out from certain people, yes it bothers me, and certainly doesn’t make me favor that person,” Boutin says.
Boutin isn’t alone.
Glenn Giles, a 66-year-old Rutland resident who also strongly supports Trump, says he’s “very concerned” by the anti-Trump rhetoric he’s hearing from some Vermont Republicans.
"If Trump is going to be the standard bearer, I feel that those of who think we are going in the wrong way need to get behind him." - Glenn Giles, Rutland resident
“I feel we’re headed in the wrong direction, and if Trump is going to be the standard bearer, I feel that those of us who think we are going in the wrong way need to get behind him,” Giles says.
Scott says he appreciates that his stance on Trump is going to put off many of the people whose votes he’ll need to win in November. He says there’s still no way he’ll vote for Trump in the general election, no matter who is the Democratic nominee. But Scott says his days of criticizing Trump are over.
“I’m finished speaking in a negative way about him,” he says. “There might be those who are disappointed in my position, but I think they’ll come around to support me, because they know the type of person I am.”
"There might be those who are disappointed in my position, but I think they'll come around to support me." - Lt. Gov. Phil Scott
Boutin isn’t so sure. Given Scott’s unwillingness to embrace the man his party has rallied around, she says she “probably would not vote for him.”
Giles say his disagreement with Phil Scott over the merits of Trump’s candidacy is less problematic.
“So if Scott is the standard bearer for the Republican Party, he will get my vote, without question,” Giles says.
David Sunderland, chairman of the Vermont GOP, says Republicans have a big-tent party that won’t let internecine strife over Trump derail its broader goals.
"There is a place in our party for people with different viewpoints." - Vermont GOP Chairman David Sunderland
“There is a place in our party for people with different viewpoints,” Sunderland says. “There always has been, I trust that there always will be.”
Scott isn’t alone among top Republicans in his denunciation of Trump. The Republican caucus leader of the state senate intimated in a recent column that he’d sooner vote for a dog than the New York real estate mogul.
Sunderland says he thinks the friendly Republican fire will abate at the campaign wears on.
“I think our party will eventually rally around our nominee,” Sunderland says.
