The Centrist Independent Voter endorses Aly Richards in Vermont’s August 11 Democratic primary for governor.
Richards faces economist Amanda Janoo for the nomination. The winner will challenge Republican Governor Phil Scott, who is seeking a sixth two-year term. This endorsement applies only to the Democratic primary. CIVPAC will evaluate the general election separately.
Richards has not previously held elected office, but she has substantial experience turning public-policy goals into enacted legislation. She served as deputy chief of staff to former Governor Peter Shumlin and later led Let’s Grow Kids, the organization that built a statewide coalition for Vermont’s 2023 childcare law. Her campaign emphasizes economic growth, housing construction, health-care reform, measurable goals and effective administration.
Richards is not a market-oriented candidate in the CIVPAC sense. She supports government-guaranteed universal primary care, additional public investment, stronger labor protections and higher taxes in some circumstances. We will disagree with her on important questions concerning taxation, spending and the appropriate role of state government.
We nevertheless believe Richards is the more practical and responsible candidate in the Democratic field.
Vermont faces serious problems involving housing costs, health-care expenses, workforce shortages and a stagnant population. Richards generally approaches those problems by asking what can realistically be enacted and implemented. Her housing proposals include regional construction targets, technical assistance for municipalities, zoning templates that permit greater density and a sales-tax holiday for building materials. Those policies recognize that Vermont cannot make housing more affordable without making it easier and less expensive to build more of it.
Her approach to health care is more interventionist than CIVPAC would prefer. Richards supports universal primary care financed through public funding, insurance payments and available federal funds and proposes developing an actionable roadmap during her first year in office. But she has resisted pretending that Vermont can simply replace private financing with a fully state-funded system without confronting the enormous cost and tax consequences. She has emphasized preserving available federal and insurance funding rather than shifting the entire burden onto Vermont taxpayers.
That distinguishes her from Janoo.
Janoo proposes that the state directly pay primary-care practitioners and provide universal primary and preventive care without copayments, deductibles or insurance involvement. She presents the program as the first step toward a broader single-payer system. Independent reporting estimates its annual cost at more than $300 million.
To finance that program, Janoo has supported substantial income-tax surcharges on upper-income residents. The version she has promoted includes a 2 percent surcharge on income above $250,000 and an 8 percent surcharge on income above $500,000—nearly doubling Vermont’s current top marginal income-tax rate.
Richards also supports universal primary care and believes higher-income residents should pay more. But she rejected Janoo’s proposal because it would more than double the top marginal rate and, in her judgment, had no realistic prospect of passing the legislature. As Richards put it during the Democratic debate, she could not responsibly propose a plan she knew would not succeed.
Janoo’s broader platform also places excessive faith in public provision and government direction of economic activity. She calls for a “wellbeing economy,” reduced reliance on federal funding, stronger community control over investment and a transfer of power away from corporate institutions. Her campaign says government should guarantee the foundations of a life of dignity, including free health care and affordable housing.
Janoo too often treats expanded taxation, public financing and the redistribution of economic power as the primary answers to Vermont’s problems.
Richards is hardly an advocate of limited government. She led the campaign for an expansive childcare law and proposes additional state action on housing, health care, education and workforce development. Her record nevertheless demonstrates an ability to assemble broad coalitions, work across party lines and convert aspirations into policies that can actually operate.
That competence matters. Vermont does not suffer from a shortage of ambitious promises. It needs leaders who understand that public programs have costs, that taxes affect behavior and economic growth, and that implementation is as important as intention.
Richards also appears better prepared for the general election. Phil Scott remains an unusually popular Republican in an overwhelmingly Democratic state. A Democratic nominee who hopes to defeat him must appeal beyond the party’s left wing and persuade voters that she can govern responsibly rather than merely offer a more ambitious ideological program.
This endorsement should not be interpreted as a judgment against Scott. CIVPAC has long regarded his combination of fiscal restraint, social moderation, institutional responsibility and independence from Donald Trump favorably. We will review the general-election choice after the primary.
For now, Democratic voters must choose their nominee. Aly Richards offers the stronger combination of experience, realism, coalition building and attention to whether government can deliver what politicians promise.
The Centrist Independent Voter endorses Aly Richards in the Democratic primary for governor of Vermont.