By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—After six years in Montpelier, State Representative Stephanie Jerome is wrapping up her third and final term representing Brandon.
She joined The Reporter for a conversation about her time in office.
A return to her Vermont roots
“I was always interested in government,” she recalled. “Every March I went to Town Meeting with my father in Mendon. I kept going even when I was at UVM.” She graduated with a degree in history and political science, eventually attending UMass Amherst for a master’s degree in public policy and public administration.
Jerome and her husband, Brian, then found themselves in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, where she worked for NASA and he for National Geographic. Yet they longed for a small town like the one Jerome had grown up in.
“We wanted a strong sense of community after suburban Virginia,” said Jerome.
So, in 1997, she and Brian brought their two young children, Louisa and Andrew, up to Vermont.
“We looked all over but Brandon checked all the boxes,” she recalled. “It had a sense of community, a downtown with amenities.”
She and Brian put down roots and started a business producing educational science videos for public television and schools. Jerome eventually became president of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce, joined the Planning Commission, and many school organizations.
An opportunity to run for office
“People asked me to run for Selectboard in Brandon. I couldn’t manage that with kids, our company, and all the other commitments,” she said.
But in 2018, Democrat Steve Carr of Brandon retired after 3 terms, giving up one of the two seats repping Brandon, Pittsford, and Sudbury (the other seat was held by Republican Butch Shaw of Pittsford). The Brandon Democrats asked Jerome to toss her hat in the ring and she won one of the seats (the other seat remained with Shaw) against Republican Seth Hopkins and Progressive Tim Guiles, both of Brandon.
“I’m a moderate Democrat,” she said by way of explaining how she approached communities as politically varied as Brandon, Pittsford, and Sudbury. While Vermont overall has a reputation for progressivism, this area of Rutland County tends to be much more centrist.
“I had to reach over 8,000 people,” she added. “I had to get to know other communities. I knew people in Sudbury but had to get to know Pittsford. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
A challenging first term in Montpelier
Though Jerome had worked for large agencies like NASA, Montpelier was a new experience for her.
“Campaigning and the actual work are two different things,” she said. “After the election, you get a week off and then have to do a deep dive into the issues. When you’re campaigning, you have a superficial understanding of policies. In office, you have to read all the reports and quickly learn how government actually works.”
“I like to fix problems,” said Jerome. “I’ve been criticized for saying things are complex, but they are. Vermont’s problems have many layers. It’s interesting and difficult at the same time. The complexity is what’s shocking.”
Part of the complexity that Jerome discovered in Montpelier was revealed by the committee process in the House. Jerome was assigned to the Commerce Committee, initially as a Clerk and then as a Ranking Member. The perception that issues are simply voted on is incorrect, she said. Months or even years of research and expert testimony must often be processed by committee members before a bill is even drafted and a vote taken.
Just as Jerome was getting the hang of the place, everything turned upside down when COVID hit in March of 2020, at the beginning of her second legislative session. Members were sent home, thinking they’d return to the Statehouse in a few weeks. But weeks turned into months and Jerome found herself in her home office in Brandon working 12 hours a day helping her constituents navigate the confusion of the early days of the pandemic.
Through her position on the Commerce Committee and its connections to the state and federal Departments of Labor, Jerome worked to get Vermonters the financial assistance they needed to make it through the days of shutdowns and quarantines.
“I helped 25,000 Vermonters get unemployment insurance during COVID,” she said. “It was a difficult time and it often felt like we could never do enough to cover the need. I was unbelievably impressed by our state employees. I was really proud of the work we did.”
A second term devoted to workforce development
Before the pandemic had even resolved, while everyone still masked and kept a social distance, Jerome had to run for re-election in November 2020. She faced Butch Shaw and Republican Dave Soulia of Pittsford for the two seats in the district.
“I had just come off COVID and felt I had done a good job,” she said of her confidence going into that election. “But it was a different campaign because we couldn’t hold events or go door to door.”
She and Shaw were both re-elected.
Jerome devoted most of her second term to one of the most pressing challenges facing Vermont: the state’s labor shortage. A small and aging population makes Vermont a tricky choice for out-of-state employers and limits the opportunities for young Vermonters.
“I really worked hard on workforce development and training,” she said. The Commerce Committee opened opportunities for people to get training in highly needed careers, such as healthcare and the trades. The committee worked to get more money to community colleges to open that path to more young people and encourage them to stay in Vermont.
“Whatever training or education people wanted, we wanted to make it more accessible,” she said. “We did really great work. The foundations have been set.”
Third term brings change and challenge
After the 2020 U.S. Census, Vermont reorganized its House districts. Brandon, Pittsford, and Sudbury were subsequently split up in 2022. Brandon became its own one-seat district, Pittsford was joined with Proctor, and Sudbury was joined with its neighbors Hubbardton and Orwell. For the first time, Jerome would be competing for just one seat.
She ended up running unopposed, cruising to a third term. And her party ended up with a supermajority in both chambers, allowing the Democrats to bypass Governor Scott’s veto.
“Scott often governed by veto,” said Jerome. “He didn’t often come to the table with solutions of his own.”
Much of Jerome’s third biennium was devoted to legislation on consumer protection, especially in the digital sphere. One bill that got through the Commerce Committee protected Vermonters from the collection and use of digital identity markers, like voice or face recognition.
Another bill guaranteed Vermonters the “right to repair” their own farm equipment rather than have to rely exclusively on the manufacturer, who may be exorbitantly expensive or unavailable when needed.
Neither bill has made it into law. According to Jerome, both bills were the targets of lobbyists working for large corporations like Amazon and Facebook.
But the bills that garnered the most attention during Jerome’s third term were the Affordable Heat Act and the Clean Energy Standard, both of which were heavily criticized by Republicans who claimed they would raise fuel costs for Vermonters. Jerome asserts that those bills, and her support for them, have been mispresented by Republicans.
Democrats also faced a backlash when the state released a statutorily mandated letter predicting a double-digit increase in property tax. Though the causes of the increase can be debated—soaring health-insurance costs for public employees are often blamed—the Democrats took a big hit in public opinion.
“That tax letter was a shock,” said Jerome. “We have a health-insurance system that’s out of control. Our educational system is funded through property tax, and we absolutely need to reexamine that. The Governor and state Republicans messaged it brilliantly and blamed Democrats.”
And back in Brandon, both the town and school budgets were shot down twice by voters who were angered by the increases they saw.
In Brandon’s August primary, a write-in candidate, political newcomer Republican Todd Nielsen, rode that wave of discontent to a place on the November ballot, ultimately unseating incumbent Democrat Jerome in a district that also voted for Harris over Trump. Nielsen ran on a single-track platform of “no tax increases” that Jerome found difficult to counter with explanations of complex legislation. While Jerome had visible and loyal support around Brandon, the frustration over taxes this election cycle dominated everything.
Brandon’s was one of roughly two dozen House and Senate seats to flip from blue to red across Vermont, bringing the Democrats’ supermajority to an end and returning the veto to Gov. Scott, who was re-elected by a wide margin. Clearly, voters were sending a message to Montpelier.
“All I could do was run a positive campaign about my experience and work,” said Jerome. “I’m very proud of my work. My goal was to get my message out and I did it every way I could. My record was misrepresented by Republicans. They misconstrued my record to make it look like I was working against everyday Vermonters. I helped Brandon secure several million in grants over the years. Any time a grant opportunity came across my desk that I thought could help Brandon, I did what I could to help make it happen. I helped the Fire District, the Rescue Squad, the high school. I really helped people as much as I could.”
An undecided future
Jerome says she will continue to work just as hard on behalf of her constituents for the remainder of her term, which ends in January. She hasn’t made any concrete plans beyond that. She had expected to return to Montpelier.
“It was an honor to represent Brandon and I would like to continue to use my experience in government somehow,” she said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done in Vermont. And I think I have a lot to offer.”
