Amanda Janoo is the first candidate to enter the race to take on one of the country’s most durable political figures: Vermont Republican Governor Phil Scott, who has held the office since 2017 and continues to rank among the nation’s most popular governors.
While Vermont is most often thought of as a liberal bastion, its roster of elected leaders shows a more complicated, nuanced story. The state is represented by Senators Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, Peter Welch, a Democrat, and Scott, the top-state leader is a Republican—a mix that shows many Vermonters are less rigid about party label and more focused on policy and impact.
A February Morning Consult poll reported that Scott has nearly three-fourths of Vermonters approval, 74 percent, cementing his status as the nation’s most popular governor for the 14th consecutive quarter. The last Democrat to serve as Vermont governor was Peter Shumlin, who held the office from 2011 to 2017, and before that Governor Howard Dean who led office in 2003.
But, despite Scott’s popularity, Janoo told Newsweek that the political and economic landscape is a “very different situation than we were even two years ago,” noting there’s a push for real engagement and desire to be a “part of something proactive and not just reactive,” which she believes will help her win at the ballot box.
Janoo, who grew up in Vermont and later earned a Master of Philosophy in development economics from the University of Cambridge, said her economics background uniquely qualifies her for the state’s top role. She said voters are looking for a “hopeful alternative vision” and argued the current governor’s economic approach amounts to “managed decline.”
Janoo considered not running as a Democrat, comparing major political parties “a little bit like health insurance companies, like unnecessary middlemen between people and democracy.”
However, she ultimately did, telling Newsweek, “I think if I was rich or famous, I would have done that [not run affiliated]. But because I don’t have a ton of name recognition, I think that running on the Democratic Party ticket makes sense.”
Several weeks after she announced her campaign, another Democrat has entered the race, Aly Richards, former head of Let’s Grow Kids. “I think it could be a good thing,” Janoo said, noting that “a competitive primary can help to bring more attention to the race. It can help to maybe galvanize a lot of the democratic base that has just been voting for Phil Scott.”
Scott has not yet announced whether he will seek reelection in 2026. Additional candidates may file to run ahead of the August primary, with the filing deadline of May 28.
“What becomes clear to me is the importance of the left and center coming together,” Janoo explained, noting she hopes to get the progressive party endorsement too. She noted that “I’m taking a different sort of philosophy to endorsements, where my aim is to get an endorsement from every town in Vermont and to really show support from a wide range of different types of Vermonters,” she said, adding, “not just political kingmakers, but farmers, small business owners, and teachers, as well as select board members and representatives to illustrate that this is really a people’s movement.”
Economic Policy
Janoo has spent her career working with governments on long term planning and transformative economic strategies, governance skills she seeks to put to use in office, if elected. She self-identifies as an “optimist” who has “believed in humanity’s capacity to solve inequality,” and large societal problems like climate change.
Affordable health care is a central focus of Janoo’s campaign, alongside Vermont’s housing crisis and high energy costs. She has pointed to the state’s health insurance premiums, which are among the highest in the country, as a key issue for voters, pledging to work towards free primary and preventative healthcare.
“We should not have a profit oriented health care system,” she said.
She also wants to strengthen Vermont’s green industrial policies, arguing they could help grow new businesses and position the state as a “leader in the economy of the future,” and stop Scott’s school consolidation efforts.
Other economic priorities include ensuring that Vermonters are able to afford housing in their state and not only outside investors, as well as rural economic development.
Bringing the Fun
A central part of Janoo’s campaign is fostering a hopeful policy agenda, community, participation and enthusiasm among voters, with an emphasis on making politics feel engaging and fun.
“How do you make it irresistible to want to be together?” she asked about encouraging volunteers to join her campaign. “So, we’re prioritizing getting breweries, farmers, and musicians on board. We can just do a bunch of really fun events across the state and bring people together, win or lose, every Vermonter is like a friend or a neighbor looking out for them.”
Her campaign says they have had over 400 people sign up to volunteer, 100 of whom are organizing various house parties and events.
She added, “Cause MAGA has got a culture. And like, let’s be honest, like the left is kind of a buzzkill right now.” Janoo says she is working to make her campaign “more call in rather than call out and for people to want to be part of a movement for justice in this moment.”
Democrats across the country are working to rebrand and refine their campaigns as they seek to defeat Republicans in a slate of midterm and statewide elections, the first since President Donald Trump returned to office last January. There are 36 governorships up for election this November.
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