Politically, Addison County has been solidly blue for the past 20 years. In 2022, Democrats accomplished something they’d never done before: They won every one of Addison County’s nine seats in the Vermont House and both its seats in the state Senate.

Two years later, the Democrats emerged from the 2024 election with still a solid majority, but having lost three seats to a Republican Party that also made similar gains in other parts of the state. When the dust had settled on Nov. 5, the GOP had picked up 17 seats in the House and six seats in the Senate.

Democrats will still hold solid majorities in both chambers, but they’ve lost their supermajority.

Did Vermont Republicans benefit from a strong national showing by Donald Trump?

As noted by Vermont Public, Trump received 6,645 more Green Mountain State votes in 2024 than he did in 2020, while Democrat Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival, received 7,131 fewer votes than President Joe Biden had in 2020. But Harris still outpolled Trump on Nov. 5 by a 63% to 32% margin.

Those analyzing the post-election fallout cited increasing taxes, state spending and the regulatory climate as among the top reasons for the Democrats’ 2024 losses. Republic Gov. Phil Scott has branded himself as a bulwark against Democrats’ spending initiatives and used his veto powers liberally. But the Democrats held a veto-proof majority and used their strength in numbers to override six of Scott’s eight vetoes in 2024.

Among the local casualties on Election Day: Addison County’s two most senior lawmakers, Rep. Diane Lanpher, D-Vergennes, and Sen. Chris Bray, D-Bristol.

Lanpher, an eight-term incumbent and chair of the House Appropriations Committee, finished third in a four-person race for two seats representing the Addison-3 district. In a very tight contest, Ferrisburgh Republican Rob North finished first, with 2,679 tallies, followed by incumbent Rep. Matt Birong, D-Vergennes (2,374). Lanpher finished out of the running with 2,357 votes, while Ferrisburgh Republican Joe Baker finished fourth, with 2,240.

As leader of a key money committee, Lanpher faced strong headwinds in her re-election bid.

Bray, a longtime incumbent and chair of the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee, also found rough sledding on the election trail. Among the drags on his campaign: his support of the Affordable Heat Act (S.5) — which critics said would further increase the cost of fossil fuels; and S.258, which would have transferred the authority to adopt rules for the taking of fish, wildlife, and fur-bearing animals from the Fish & Wildlife Board to the Department of Fish & Wildlife, thereby making the Fish & Wildlife Board advisory in nature.

When all the votes had been counted in the race for the two state Senate seats representing Addison County, Huntington, Rochester and Buel’s Gore, incumbent Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-Middlebury, was the top finisher with 11,713 votes, followed by first-time Republican candidate Steven Heffernan of Bristol with 11,644. Bray came away with 10,997; and Landel Cochran of Huntington got 8,210.

The third seat pickup for Addison County Republicans was in the Addison-Rutland House district, where Jim Casey ran unopposed. Incumbent Rep. Joe Andriano, D-Orwell, chose not to seek re-election, and no other Democrat chose to run in that district. Casey did not have a candidate website and didn’t seem to have a public campaign, and reported spending less than $1,000.