US Rep Becca Balint — the first woman and first openly LGBTQ person elected to federal office from Vermont — has officially announced her run for reelection to a third two-year term. Prior to her Congressional seat, she served as the first openly LGBT State Senate Pro Tempore.
Reports VT Digger:
At a campaign launch outside the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office in Montpelier, where she’d just submitted the paperwork to run for office again, Balint told reporters, “I’ll be honest. These are not easy times.”
“Vermonters tell me that they’re deeply worried. They tell me that the federal government has lost its way, and they’re deeply concerned about the attacks on our fundamental freedoms,” she said. “They don’t want our reproductive rights or our voting rights threatened by a government that’s abusing its power.”
Balint made a case that she has “taken the fight for our constitutional rights directly” to the Trump administration over the past year, recalling sharp exchanges with then-members of the president’s Cabinet during House committee hearings.
“I went toe-to-toe with Pam Bondi , and now, she’s gone,” Balint said. “I grilled Kristi Noem, and now, she’s gone too.”
Balint was first elected to the House in 2022 after beating out a crowded Democratic primary field. Before winning that race, she served as president pro tempore of the Vermont Senate.
She’s unlikely to face a primary challenger this year. But she is set to face the same Republican challenger in this fall’s general election whom she handily defeated in 2024: Mark Coester. Coester announced his 2026 campaign last week, according to the conservative news and commentary site Vermont Daily Chronicle.
Two years ago, Coester won 30% of the vote to Balint’s 62%.
