(Screenshot via Becca Balint for Congress)
The Green Mountain State’s state Senate president pro tempore announced Dec. 13 that she is running to succeed U.S. Rep. Peter Welch for Vermont’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Vermont Sen. Becca Balin (D) will be running in the Democratic party primary campaign race against the state’s Lt. Gov. Molly Gray (D) to replace Welch, who is also a Democrat, who is vacating his House seat to run for the U.S. Senate. Welch is running to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, (D-Vt.) No Republicans have entered the race.
The VTDigger, a statewide news website, reported “Balint, 53, is the first openly gay woman elected to the Vermont Senate and the first woman to serve as its president. The former middle school teacher and stay-at-home mother won her first political contest in a race for her southeastern Vermont Senate seat in 2014 … She rose quickly through the ranks of the Democrat-controlled chamber, becoming majority leader in 2017, at the start of her second term. Four years later, in 2021, she was elected pro tem — the top position in the Senate.”
The president pro tempore of the state Senate faces Lt. Gov. Molly Gray in the Democratic primary to succeed U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, who is running for the U.S. Senate.https://t.co/HYDESpbgUu
— VTDigger (@vtdigger) December 13, 2021
Vermont has never elected a woman to federal office the VTDigger noted.
