By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—Brandon voters replaced 3-term Democratic incumbent Stephanie Jerome with Republican newcomer Todd Nielsen after a bruising campaign season in which taxes and affordability remained at the fore of many Vermonters’ minds.
Out of a total of 2,376 ballots counted, 1,258 voters (approx. 53%) preferred Nielsen and 1,056 (approx. 44%) preferred Jerome.
Mr. Nielsen, a carpenter and security guard, won a write-in campaign in the August primary to earn a spot on the November ballot. His campaign platform of “no new taxes” was sometimes criticized as simplistic, and some also found fault with his unpolished performance at a candidates’ forum in October, but Nielsen’s message resonated with Brandon voters, who saw big spikes in their property taxes this year and seemed eager to find a different approach in Montpelier. Several attendees at the October candidates’ forum asked questions that demonstrated clear frustration with the status quo, sentiments that were echoed in online forums and in letters to this newspaper.
Brandon was certainly not the only district to replace a Democrat with a Republican this cycle. The Democrats have held a veto-proof supermajority in the Statehouse since 2022 and it has been a priority of Vermont Republicans to break it, a goal they seem to have achieved by flipping a number of seats. In so doing, they return veto power to Republican Governor Phil Scott, who cruised to easy re-election on Tuesday against a relatively unknown Democratic challenger, Esther Charlestin of Middlebury. Progressive incumbent Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman was also narrowly beaten by Democrat-turned-Republican John Rodgers, in another race that came to symbolize a desire for change in Vermont.
Another signal of Brandon’s discontent specifically with the Democratic majority in Montpelier is the fact that the district replaced its Democratic incumbent with a Republican yet also voted for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump, 1,229 to 1,041, a near-perfect reversal of the margin by which Nielsen beat Jerome. Brandon also voted for Democratic incumbent Becca Balint for U.S. Congress and Independent incumbent Bernie Sanders for U.S. Senate. Vermont Governor Phil Scott won Brandon with roughly 75% of the vote, providing further evidence of Brandon’s (and perhaps Vermont’s) broad refusal to categorize itself politically.
The Reporter did not receive the results of the election early enough on Tuesday evening to include them in our Wednesday, November 6 print edition. We were also unable to reach the candidates for comment before publication. We do hope to speak with them before next week’s print edition.
