Let's create a Vermont where we all thrive

Too many Vermonters are finding it hard to build a life here. Housing costs are rising. Healthcare remains unaffordable. Young families are leaving. Schools are struggling with declining enrollment. Climate change is already affecting our communities. These challenges don't exist in isolation. Housing affects our workforce. Healthcare affects entrepreneurship. School enrollment is tied to whether young families can afford to stay. Climate and energy policy affect household budgets. If we want Vermont to thrive, we need to recognize how these issues shape one another.

Housing

We need to quickly build more housing in Vermont in a way that honors our commitment to protecting our natural spaces and affordability. That means encouraging infill development in our existing downtowns and village centers — the kind of dense, walkable neighborhoods that make it possible for a teacher, a nurse, or a young family just starting out to actually afford to live in the community where they work.

We should reconsider how we tax luxury homes, second homes, and short term rentals. These markets directly compete with the housing stock that working Vermonters need, and we should understand their impact on affordability across the state.

Healthcare

We need to revisit our approach to healthcare and stop tinkering around the edges, and make good on our unfulfilled promise to ensure that all Vermonters have good, affordable healthcare. Universal healthcare isn't just a healthcare policy. It would reshape what's possible for Vermonters. It frees people from jobs they've outgrown and allows entrepreneurs, farmers, artists, tradespeople, and small business owners to take risks without betting their family's health on it. That's good for Vermont's economy.

Jobs

Vermont doesn't have a shortage of work. We have a shortage of conditions that allow people to create and hire workers. Fix housing and workers can actually afford to live near the jobs that need filling. Fix healthcare and people can start businesses, take risks, and build careers without the cloud of how to pay for healthcare hanging over their head. Keep our young people here by making Vermont affordable. Vermont is too small to go it alone. We should be working with our New England neighbors on workforce development, transportation, energy infrastructure, and economic growth.

Education

Affordable housing and good jobs will help young families stay in Vermont, bringing students back into schools that have been hollowed out by decades of demographic decline. Coupled with reform to our healthcare system, we can have vibrant community schools rather than treating the symptom of falling enrollments through consolidation.

Vermont's teachers are extraordinary, and a core part of our community. A commitment to strong public education is a core Vermont value that I intend to protect.

On the hard questions of school funding and structure, the legislature has rightly returned decision-making authority to communities.  My job as a legislator is to make sure communities have the resources, the flexibility, and the support they need to make those decisions well, and to resist the temptation to substitute Montpelier's judgment for local knowledge.

Climate Change

Climate change is here. It is caused by human activity. And there are actions we must take to both adapt to more extreme weather, and to move rapidly and fairly away from fossil fuels to cleaner and less expensive renewable energy.

Vermont sends $1.7 billion out of state every year to pay for fossil fuels. Every dollar we keep here through weatherization, heat pumps, and renewable energy is a dollar that stays in Vermont households and Vermont communities. I've spent five years doing this work at the community level in Addison County. I know where the process breaks down, where the incentives fall short, and why good programs often fail to reach the people who need them. I've also seen that investments that reduce emissions also lower energy costs and keep more energy dollars circulating in Vermont communities.

We have a state climate plan. We need to act on it. 

Conservation and Environmental Protection

Our working lands, forests, lakes, rivers, and mountains are vital to us in so many ways. As pressure grows for housing, renewable energy projects, and data centers, we must continue protecting the forests, wetlands, watersheds, and wildlife that make Vermont what it is. These places reduce flooding and support biodiversity. We need to continue to preserve the wild spaces we hold in trust for future generations.

Digital Governance

Our laws haven't kept pace with technology. We need to protect the privacy of Vermonters from the surveillance capitalists who want to monetize our attention and sell our personal data to the highest bidder.  And we need clear regulations for how AI can be used by businesses, government, and education. 

We must also find ways for the government to more effectively use these technologies to provide services to Vermonters.

Democracy

The recent and unprecedented attacks by the federal government on our civil liberties, due process, the rule of law, and our democratic norms have revealed that Vermont has urgent work to do. We must do all that is legally possible to provide protections to all Vermonters whose rights are being undermined by this federal administration.