Updated at 2:48 p.m.
The Democratic field for Vermont’s 2022 U.S. House election now has a third candidate. Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden, formally launched her widely anticipated campaign Thursday.
In an interview with VTDigger on Thursday morning, Ram Hinsdale said she’s stepping into the ring hoping to be “Vermont’s fighter for our working families, our democracy and our climate.”
“You know, being someone who has a decade of experience in the Legislature while also being known for fighting corporate interests, standing on the steps of the Statehouse with teachers — I think is the right combination for what Vermonters need out of their lone congresswoman,” she said.
Ram Hinsdale joins a Democratic primary field that already includes two of her Statehouse colleagues: Lt. Gov. Molly Gray and Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham. All three are vying for the seat soon to be vacated by U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who is seeking higher office in the U.S. Senate.
The shake-up of Vermont’s top political leaders began with the announced retirement of U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who will be capping off his nearly five-decade career in 2023. Vermont has not had an open congressional race since 2006, and with Welch seeking higher office, the House race is open season.
As a result, it looks increasingly likely that 2022 will be a historic election year for Vermont, the only state in the nation to have never sent a woman to Congress. In addition to the three Democratic House candidates, Republican Christina Nolan, a former U.S. attorney for Vermont, is strongly considering a run for Leahy’s seat in the U.S. Senate seat. Ram Hinsdale, should she prevail in the primary and general elections, would also be the first person of color to serve in Vermont’s delegation.
State Rep. Taylor Small, P/D-Winooski, has stepped up as an early endorser of Ram Hinsdale, saying at a press conference Thursday in Winooski that the senator “is not new to making history in this state and in this country.”
“Yet, what I find most powerful about her leadership is that when she becomes the first, she asks to not be the last and makes sure that she is moving others into leadership positions,” said Small, the first openly transgender Vermont state legislator.
In addition to Small, state Reps. Hal Colston, D-Winooski; Mari Cordes, D/P-Lincoln; and Jim McCullough, D-Williston, joined Ram Hinsdale at her Thursday campaign launch. Ram Hinsdale has also received endorsements from environmentalist and writer Bill McKibben, founding President of the Rutland Area NAACP Tabitha Moore, and Jen Ellis, the Essex teacher who crafted U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ famous Inauguration Day mittens.
Asked what differentiates her from her two opponents, Ram Hinsdale told VTDigger she has a “fighting spirit” and pointed to institutional and political knowledge garnered from a decade of service in the Statehouse.
In 2008, a 22-year-old Ram Hinsdale became the youngest person ever elected to the Vermont House at the time. She served in the body until 2016 when she left her seat to run in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor. She lost out to David Zuckerman, a Progressive and Democrat who ultimately won the election. In 2020, Ram Hinsdale became the first woman of color elected to the Vermont Senate.
Gray and Balint launched their campaigns in December. As for why she waited until this week to do so, Ram Hinsdale said she “just really, truly wanted to keep (her) ear to the ground and make sure (she) was listening to Vermonters about what they need before getting into this race.”
On the hot-button issues facing Congress right now, Ram Hinsdale said she is in support of Medicare for all, the Green New Deal, codifying Roe v. Wade, passing the Equal Rights Amendment, expanding the U.S. Supreme Court, statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico, and gun control measures.
