Vermont’s federal delegation reflects on new reality in Washington

While Vermont’s congressional delegation won’t face much of a challenge on Election Day, their role in Congress will look different as Republicans take control of the White House and Senate.

U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. easily defeated his opponents on Tuesday. But they, along with U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who is not running for re-election, will return to a drastically changed political landscape.

While Balint and Welch struck a thoughtful but challenging tone in interviews, Sanders seized the moment to blast the Democratic Party’s presidential bid and what he called its “disaster campaign.”

“It shouldn’t be a big surprise that a Democratic Party that has abandoned working-class people sees the working class abandoning them, too,” he said in a statement. “While the democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they are right.”

With the presidency, Republicans also changed the balance of power in the Senate. However, Sanders will also lose his powerful chairmanship of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. a position he used undoing the country’s long-standing goal of reforming its healthcare system. Welch will also find himself in the minority. The House, now controlled by the GOP, was too close to call Wednesday afternoon.

In interviews Wednesday, Balint and Welch weighed in on the Democratic Party’s massive national losses and argued that by working with their GOP colleagues, they could achieve success for Vermonters. Sanders’ office did not allow the senator to be interviewed on Wednesday.

Balint said he revealed a range of emotions, from gratitude for still being re-elected after a sleepless night to “sadness, shock, disappointment and anger.”

Balint called it “the most racist, sexist, divisive presidential campaign involving someone in modern history.”

He warned that a second Donald Trump presidency may lack “guardrails” because of the Supreme Court’s decision. immunity decision in favor of the former president and said Trump could be “incredibly vindictive” toward his political rivals in a second term.

But Balint also suggested he could achieve success by partnering with colleagues in Congress who share Vermont’s rural interests, specifically congressmen who “can’t stand” Trump.

“These are the people we would invite to write legislation that truly reflects not just quote-unquote ‘red rural America,’ but all of rural America, which includes states like Vermont,” Balint said. , added that he would continue to work to solve “the affordability crisis for working people across the country.”

Welch, for his part, said he drew two key takeaways from Election Day: the need to push back against Trump’s violent rhetoric and “assault on institutions and the rule of law” and the echo of the president-elect’s message on economic inequality.

“I think Trump has the capacity to connect with the economic concerns that Americans have, and it really reflects how institutionalized income inequality has become over the last 40 years,” Welch said. “The cuts will not help anything.”

While being in the minority caucus means Senate Democrats won’t set the legislative agenda, Welch said he can still use his position to support the “constitutional rights” of Vermonters.

“Before this election, I texted all or almost all of my Republican colleagues and said, ‘We have an independent responsibility to try to do what we can to help the people we represent. “Regardless of the outcome of this election, I look forward to working together,” he said. “I’ve had a very positive response. We’ll see. But the thing is, being in the minority in no way diminishes my energy and determination to do everything I can to help Vermont.”