Progressives Sweep Town Meeting Day
I’m excited to report that this Town Meeting Day was a historic night for the Vermont Progressive Party.
Emma Mulvaney-Stanak won the office of Mayor of Burlington against her Democratic opponent despite being outspent by a large margin. Emma is our current Progressive House Caucus leader, and the former Chair of the Vermont Progressive Party.
When seated, she will become the first woman mayor of Burlington, and the city’s first out LGBTQ+ Mayor. She is also the first Progressive to win the seat since Democrat Miro Weinberger took office in 2012.
Emma not only won, but received a resounding mandate from the people of Burlington who gave her a nearly 1k vote margin and 7,612 total votes – the most votes cast for any candidate for Mayor of Burlington in recent history.
This is a historic win for our movement that was only made possible by the strength of Emma as a candidate, the strength of our Progressive message, the fact that our collective movement showed up to volunteer for her in large numbers, and the 8 Progressive City Council candidates who also ran strong campaigns alongside Emma’s.
All of these factors allowed us to win over a large number of voters who normally support Democrats. At the same time we were able to turn out a massive number of students, renters, and historically marginalized community members who do not normally engage in the electoral process at all, but were inspired by our message, making 2024 one of the highest turnout local elections we have seen in Burlington.
Our wins on Tuesday did not end with the Election of Emma for Mayor. Here is a round up of some of the other big wins we saw this TMD.
Progressives ran a slate of 8 City Council candidates for all 8 seats up for election in Burlington.
Carter Neubieser won in Ward 1, replacing outgoing Progressive City Councilor Zoraya Hightower
Gene Bergman won re-election in Ward 2
Joe Kane won in Ward 3, replacing outgoing Progressive City Councilor Joe Magee
Marek Broderick unseated Democratic incumbent Hannah King in Ward 8
Progressives picked up a seat on the Burlington City Council which will now have 6 Democrats, 5 Progressives, and 1 independent.
Progressives in Windham County won 3 seats.
Longtime Progressive Richard Davis won a Select Board seat in Brattleboro
Tim Macel won re-election as a School Board member on WSESD
Tom Nolan won election to the Dummerston Select Board
In Addison County, Bill Hunsinger won his Ripton Select Board race, giving Progressives 2 out of 3 seats on the Select Board.
In Washington County, the City of Montpelier, VT passed Just Cause Evictions, a longtime priority of the Progressive Party.
We are sure there are other wins as well, so feel free to reply to this email to let us know if you or someone you know won their election to local office and is affiliated with the Vermont Progressive Party.
Finally, we want to thank the candidates who ran but did not win, especially Lee Morrigan, Lena Greenberg, Dan Castrinago, and Will Anderson. We are proud of all the campaigns we ran this cycle and recognize that our movement is built on the work of all those who came before us, including those who run strong campaigns but do not win. Their work will enable our future success,
If you would like to see more Progressive wins like this, please donate today. Our ability to grow our movement is only limited by the resources and funding we have available to do this work. Please chip in whatever you can so we can build on the momentum from this TMD and continue to deliver victories across our state.
In solidarity,
Josh Wronski,
Director, Vermont Progressive Party
