For the past two years, Reps. Katherine Sims, D-Craftsbury, and Vicki Strong, R-Albany, have served alongside each other in the Vermont House, jointly representing seven towns in the Northeast Kingdom.
But this year, due to redistricting, Sims and Strong are competing for a single seat. It is the only race in the state where an incumbent is guaranteed to lose.
Along stretches of Route 14 in Craftsbury, nearly every driveway sports a campaign lawn sign, alternately supporting each candidate: Sims, Strong, Sims, Strong. Past election results suggest this could be a tight race, won by just a handful of votes.
“I don't want to wake up the day after and wish that I had talked to one more voter,” Sims said. “And so I'm trying to do everything that I can.”
Sims was first elected in 2020, after campaigning almost entirely online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This year, she’s been knocking on voters’ doors for hours at a time, three to four days a week. With help from Democratic volunteers, her campaign has knocked on more than a thousand doors, she said.
Strong, who described herself as “very much a homebody,” said she’s focused much of her campaigning at community events, such as farmers markets and town parades. Her husband is a local pastor, and their last name is well-known in the local community.
“I hope they’ll look at my 12 years representing them and say, you know, Vicki’s been faithful,” Strong said. “She answers my emails, she cares. She’s not, like, a political activist. She’s really there to represent me in Montpelier. I hope they’ll look at that and vote for me.”
A plan for what’s left of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant
Edi Abeneto of Feeding Chittenden on fighting hunger and breaking down cultural barriers
How to raise emotionally intelligent kids
The star-studded history of a small island in Lake Bomoseen
Who is the University of Vermont for?
Synagogue sold — what happens when a historic house of worship becomes something else
‘It dominates anxiety’ — unpacking the process and impact of health insurance premium hikes
How flooding affects Vermont’s wildlife and ecosystems
‘I was in shock.’ — Reporters on the impact of Vermont’s catastrophic flooding
The fraught politics of Vermont’s motel housing program
A spate of deaths focuses attention on Vermont prisons and the Department of Corrections
A VTDigger reporter’s guide to the Statehouse
Deep in the forest, a patch of common ground
What’s happened at Vermont sheriffs’ departments
To go big, or go bigger, on child care
Noah Kahan on ‘existing in a place that you've just written about’
Leveling the funding field for small towns
What 97 acres means to Williston
What’s next for Montpelier’s water system?
What keeps Vermonters together across a widening income divide?
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Before Your Time