Vermont voters handed Republican Gov. Phil Scott an unprecedented sixth consecutive term in office Tuesday, and they severely limited his executive authority by restoring Democratic supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature.
Scott fended off Democrat/Progressive Amanda Janoo, a first-time statewide candidate who made extensive inroads with liberal voters across the state.
While Scott has survived the “blue wave” he correctly predicted would crash over Vermont, he will not enjoy the electoral mandate that earned him so much influence in Montpelier during his past two years in office.
With 93% of the votes tallied Tuesday night, he held a 6 percentage point lead over Janoo.
And Scott will face the same legislative dynamic next year that sapped his power in 2023 and 2024 – a veto-proof supermajority in the House and Senate.
Scott opened his victory speech Tuesday by lamenting his party’s losses in the Legislature.
“Which means Democrats have regained the supermajority that they once enjoyed,” he said to a crowd of about 75 supporters at the Associated General Contractors headquarters in Montpelier.
But Scott said his win was a rebuke to the “pundits” that were writing his political obituary. And he said he will proceed undaunted by Democrats’ increased numbers in Montpelier.
“We will enter the next two years with some significant differences in our political views and the approaches to our government,” Scott said. “But I want Vermonters to know this: My commitment to you has not changed. I will continue supporting… a more affordable Vermont. I will continue working to grow our economy, strengthen our communities and create more opportunities for our kids.”
Scott’s victory marks the latest chapter in a remarkable political career that has seen a Republican hold sway in one of the bluest states in the country. His vocal opposition to President Donald Trump, and his leadership during the pandemic, previously earned Scott widespread approval among Democrats.
His emphasis on “affordability,” and pledge to limit government spending, continue to resonate with centrist voters such as Christopher Lammly. The Milton resident told Vermont Public Tuesday that he’s concerned about the rising cost of living and said he appreciated Scott’s moderate influence in Montpelier.
“Things have to get more affordable here in Vermont, more equitable,” Lammly said. “I'm retired, cannot afford to live here anymore. And aside from relocating, which we will do next year, we just need to help out people and realize that the money's not growing — our money — but they're spending more.”
Tuesday’s results suggest Scott’s coalition is winnowing, however, and raises questions about his ability to influence a Democrat-controlled Legislature that, over the past two years, had begun to embrace portions of his controversial education reform agenda.
Scott wants Montpelier to take control of school budgets from local communities, but he’ll need Democrats to back the plan in order to see it through. The Vermont Public 2026 Poll found that the proposal is unpopular with voters of all political leanings. And it was a motivating driver for many Janoo supporters Tuesday.
“I’ve been very, very concerned about the funding for public education and what Phil Scott is trying to ram down everybody’s throat,” said Hartford resident Sonja Hakala.
Scott, who won each of his last three reelection bids by at least 40 percentage points, has lost pull with many of the voters who once supported him. Annie Sklar, of Barre, said she usually supports Democrats but has voted for Scott in the past, including in 2024. She said she didn’t appreciate his lax approach to this year’s campaign, which she said seemed to take for granted his support among centrist Democrats.
“Especially if you are a more centrist leader still rocking the Republican label, you really have to think hard about who your constituents are and not make those kinds of assumptions,” Sklar said. “It’s so out of touch with the modern landscape that we’re living in.”
Lou Kamiski, a 30-year-old Fayston resident who’s hoping to purchase her first home soon, said she and her friends are “ready for a change” in the governor’s office.
“We’re looking at ourselves and our friends and we’re saying, ‘Are things better than they were when we were younger?’ And for a lot of us, we’re not seeing changes that we need to push ourselves into these next stages of becoming adults,” Kamiski said.
Janoo, 39, seems more attentive to the needs of Vermonters, she said.
“It also kind of is about youth and showing up, and we need a governor who’s going to be there with us,” Kamiski said.
Scott said Monday that his waning support among voters is less a referendum on his leadership than a protest against the economic challenges facing working-class Vermonters.
“They are frustrated. They’re concerned. They’re suffering. And they want relief,” Scott said.
He’ll be relying on many of the Democrats he attempted to unseat this election cycle if he wants to advance his agenda, which includes tax cuts. Paul Dame, chair of the Vermont GOP, said Tuesday night that Republicans will see their numbers dip below 19 seats in the Senate and 51 seats in the House — the numbers they need to override Scott’s vetoes.
Janoo, a Strafford native, entered the race in early March with virtually no name recognition. She quickly amassed a devoted following among Vermonters who support her proposals for publicly funded universal primary healthcare and tax hikes on the rich.
Janoo’s campaign raised more than $1 million from nearly 9,000 individual donors and outspent Scott by close to $100,000, according to disclosures filed over the weekend. But her most valuable currency came in the form of the 1,500 volunteers who in some cases spent hundreds of hours campaigning on her behalf.
Nancy Braus is part of a group that formed in Brattleboro in the early days of the campaign.
“We printed our own yard signs. We printed our own pins,” Braus said Monday. “We pretty much did our own shoestring organizing.”
Braus said Janoo elicited a feeling she hasn’t experienced since she hosted a house party for Bernie Sanders during his 1990 campaign for U.S. House. For Vermonters “tired of working against the things” happening under President Donald Trump, Braus said, Janoo has given them “something we can actually work for.”
Janoo’s supporters say she’s sprouted a movement that will outlive her 2026 campaign.
And Janoo said during her concession speech on Tuesday night that this was why she ran in the first place.
“My real opponent throughout this whole campaign, has never been another candidate or even another party. The opponent has been cynicism,” she told a crowd of supporters at her election night party in Burlington. “This fundamental belief that this is as good as it gets, yeah. And I wanted to run a campaign that could remind people of their own power to change things.”
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Janoo’s most prominent supporter, called her campaign “historic.”
“I think it is fair to say that a year ago, virtually nobody — certainly me and Jane — did not know who Amanda Janoo was,” he said. “But in the course of a year, she not only put together an extraordinary, an unprecedented grassroots movement here in the state of Vermont, but she also brought forth a vision of where our state should go in the future.”
Not all Vermont Democrats have been so enamored of Janoo. Tom Chamberlain and his wife Maureen live in Rutland and say the economy was on their mind this election. Both say they lean Democratic but voted for Scott.
“I feel good about Phil Scott,” said Tom Chamberlain. “For me it comes down not are you Democrat or Republican, but are you honest, are you open, are you really working for people?”
Janoo’s strong showing against an embedded incumbent could position her as the standard bearer for a Vermont Democratic Party still searching for its next leader. Her brand is especially powerful among the progressive base that will play an outsize role in the 2028 primary election.
Her resonance with Vermonters could also influence the policy trajectory in a Vermont Legislature that will be wholly controlled by Democrats. Windsor County Sen. Becca White said Janoo’s campaign has validated the agenda that Democrats have long fought to advance in Montpelier.
She said universal primary care will be at the top of her agenda in January.
“Suddenly I’m having constituents and folks who are on the Amanda Janoo train demand of me the policies I’ve been supporting,” White said Monday. “It’s like finally people communicating back the things that I felt have been important.”
Democrats may also feel emboldened to pursue other planks of Janoo’s platform, including a surcharge on income in excess of $500,000 annually.
Scott says he’ll continue to serve as a firewall against tax-and-spend policies favored by the progressive left in Montpelier. He’ll find out next year whether he can advance his own agenda as well, or be relegated once again to playing defense.
Lola Duffort contributed reporting.
