“After a slow start in May, I am excited to announce that Vermont Republicans have added 21 new House candidates to the November election ballot,” said VTGOP Chairman Paul Dame. “Despite a slow start in May, our local party committees were able to reach out to voters over the past 10 weeks regarding the issues of property taxes, payroll taxes and potential home heating fuel taxes. And thankfully through their hard work and a team effort, we were able to add a record-breaking number of candidates to the ballot to hold accountable incumbent Democrats who voted for all the new taxes and fees.”

With the addition of 21 new House candidates, this brings the total of Vermont Republicans running for House to a near high of 96 candidates.

“We usually pick up 4 or 5 new serious candidates through the primary. But to pick up more than four times what we usually see - that is a testament to the amount of hard work our volunteers and local party leaders have put in since May. But I also know that as people have recieved their property taxes over the past few weeks, it has pushed some people off the fence and encouraged them to get active and become the kind of change they want to see.”

Over the weekend at the Republican State Committee meeting Chairman Dame indicated that after the primary seven of Vermont’s fourteen counties had a Republican House candidate to ensure no Democrat in the county went uncontested.

“I haven’t seen this kind of excitement and energy from Vermont Republicans since I won my own race back in 2014,” Dame continued. “By competing in more districts, it gives us a better chance to sustain the Governor’s veto in either the House or the Senate. If we win just 52% of our House races, we can give Gov. Phil Scott the backstop he needs to stop the kinds of additional taxes Democrats are talking about already.”

The Republican surge comes after a very disappointing Primary night for moderates on the Democratic ticket. Further-Left progressives ran the table in Democratic primaries, beating everyone they challenged. This continued a trend from the 2022 election as well.

“I think a lot of voters who are looking to cut back on some of the taxes and fees realized that the approach of working through the Democratic party to just make it “less bad” was a failed strategy. Meanwhile moderates like Gov. Phil Scott and Sen. John Rogers prove that common sense candidates have a prominent place in the Vermont Republican Party for anyone who wants to help them stop the massive tax increases.”

Below is the list of the new candidates that were either elected by write-in through the primary, or expect to be nominated by committee.

ADD 3 Joe Baker
BEN 1 Bruce Busa
CAL ESX Deborah Dolgin
CHI 6 Deb Mayfield
CHI 19 Spencer Sherman
CHI 20 Joshua Cropp
FRA 3 Joe Luneau
LAM 3 PAUL SCIORTINO
LAM WAS Charles Burnham
LAM WAS Nick Lopez
RUT 6 Cindy Laskevich
RUT 7 Chris Keyser
RUT 9 Todd Neilsen
WAS 3 Michael Boutin
WDH 4 Lynne Wilkins
WDH 5 Cathy VanSickle
WDH 6 Pam Baker
WDR 3 Keith Stern
WDR 5 Steven Sadonis
WDR 6 Joe Trottier
WDR 6 Patrick Danaher