Vermont’s first openly LGBT State Senate Pro Tempore, Becca Balint, announced this morning she’s running for Congress. If elected, she would also become Vermont’s first woman elected to federal office.
“I’m running because I believe that, even with the challenges of today, we cannot back away from fighting for each other,” Balint said in a written statement. “We have to deliver on some big promises for Vermont working families, and that is going to take courage and kindness.”
Reports VT Digger:
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.
Balint’s decision to join the race is the latest in a series of moves touched off by Sen. Patrick Leahy’s, D-Vt., announcement last month that he would retire when his eighth term expires in January 2023. That has led to a great reshuffling of Vermont’s political landscape — opening up at least four top positions: seats in the U.S. Senate and House, the lieutenant governorship and, now, the pro tem post.
Read the complete VT Digger story here.
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