MIDDLEBURY — From the heart of Vienna to the hills of Vermont, Amanda Janoo has spent her career helping people answer the question — how do we build an economy that works for us?

The Burlington resident is now looking to help the Green Mountain State answer that and other important questions through a role she hopes to secure in November — being the governor of Vermont.

Janoo was the first Democrat to announce a bid for the state’s highest executive position. Former Let’s Grow Kids CEO Aly Richards, also a Democrat, joined the race for governor on Monday.

Gov. Phil Scott hasn’t said yet whether he’ll seek a sixth term, and no other Republicans have thrown their hat into the ring.

In an interview with the Independent, Janoo described how her candidacy has been prompted by the current moment, and how she’d aim to help Vermonters navigate a path forward through steps like moving toward universal primary care, supporting small businesses and preparing for federal actions that affect the state.

“I’ve spent my entire life, or career at least, focusing on government planning and economic systems change and policies. Those are skills I think we need right now, and I happen to have them,” Janoo said. “These are dark times, but they’re times that ask things of us, call us to step up in ways I think we wouldn’t have anticipated, and this is something I can do.”

FROM VT TO THE UN

Janoo, 38, was born in Norwich; her family moved to South Strafford soon after. She was homeschooled until middle school, later attending the Newton School in Strafford and Hanover High School across the river in New Hampshire.

Janoo studied political science and global political economy at Macalester College in Minnesota, where she began diving into Heterodox economics — theories and schools of thought considered outside of the mainstream, such as feminist and institutional economics. She built on those explorations at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England, as well as through a Fulbright research scholarship studying a women’s labor movement in India.

Janoo went on to work for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, initially based out of Vienna, Austria, but she also traveled around the globe to provide countries with industrial policy support. For example, she worked with the government of Myanmar on rural-urban inequality reduction.

“A lot of my strategy was, I didn’t feel like it’s appropriate to come in as an outsider and be like, ‘Here’s what you should do,’” she said of her work with the UN. “So it was a lot of ‘How do we facilitate and help governments and multi-stakeholder coalitions to really clarify what is it that you want to achieve with this economic policy in the first place, and then on that basis, what are the kinds of activities you think are important to protect or promote in order to get there, and then what are the tools you have, etc.’”

In 2020, Janoo joined the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, a global coalition “working towards an economic system that serves people and planet.” She later helped establish what’s now known as the Wellbeing Economy Alliance of Vermont (WEAV), a network that “facilitates creative conversations across Vermont about our economy and the beliefs, values and aspirations that shape and reshape it.”

She’s served in various roles for other organizations, including as a board member for the ACLU of Vermont and a steering committee member and economic advisor for the Fund Vermont’s Future coalition, which advocates for changes in the state’s budget process.

“I’ve really spent my career focused on working with governments here and around the world to build more resilient and people-centered economies that work for communities as opposed to just the wealthy few,” Janoo explained.

She boiled down the vision for the kind of economic change she and others have been working toward.

“People and the planet are not here to serve the economy, the economy is here to serve us,” she said. “How do we really design an economy that’s truly working for us, for our communities, for our young people, for our elders, for our … working lands and natural beauty, all of it?”

Janoo pointed to places where such explorations have unfolded, including in Washington state, where the Washington Economic Justice Alliance is working to implement a 10-year plan aimed at dismantling poverty and promoting wellbeing in the state.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Reforming Vermont’s economic system is part of Janoo’s platform.

“A lot of our economic development philosophy has been … always looking to the outside as the source of our prosperity — like we need more people, we need more investment, we need more companies to come set up here,” she said. “And it’s like, OK, but why don’t we start with what we have and actually build on that?”

Janoo sees Community Wealth Building, an economic development model, as one way to strengthen Vermont’s economy and keep more of its money circulating in the state. That approach would seek to help Vermont businesses buy from one another rather than selling largely to outside markets.

“There are different strategies for doing that, but particularly in Vermont where our government is the largest employer and actual sector in the state, public procurement can be a really powerful way of supporting small businesses,” she said.

She noted that 99% of Vermont’s businesses are small businesses, most of which are sole proprietors.

“Right now our small businesses are struggling massively, and there’s a lot of different aspects to that,” she said.

She pointed to the need to address cost burdens in areas like health care and suggested Vermont could create “clusters” that allow small businesses to pool resources like legal, accounting and insurance services to reduce costs.

Janoo said she also believes the economy of the future will have to be a green economy, one with an eye for sustainability and environmental considerations.

“We already have so many businesses that are doing this and have that consciousness,” Janoo said. “If the government strategically supports them, so they are prepared to not only compete nationally but globally, that can be a huge driver of larger, good-quality and meaningful work.”

HEALTH CARE, SCHOOLS

Another focus of Janoo’s platform is health care.

“That’s, I think, the most urgent issue because it’s not only creating a huge pressure on our state budget but on all of our businesses,” she said.

Janoo described her vision for a state-funded universal primary care system, an initiative she said could be supported through an income surcharge on the state’s top earners.

“If we pass that … we’d have more than enough money for the state to just pay primary care physicians directly an annual salary, bring primary care providers back to our communities, provide admin, physician assistants, mental health support, so it’s embedded in our communities and everybody can go and see a doctor for free and every doctor can actually provide patient care without having to deal with insurance and middlemen,” she said.

Plans for health care reform also tie into how Janoo would look to address rising education costs in Vermont — an issue lawmakers have been trying to tackle, largely through the landmark education reform law Act 73.

Janoo has been critical of the argument that consolidating schools is the path toward achieving savings, stating she hasn’t seen evidence that would reduce property taxes and that doing so doesn’t address the key cost drivers of health care and mental health support for students.

“If you don’t deal with the cost drivers, you’re never going to actually reduce the pressure, you’re just ostensibly cutting public education funding,” she said. “We need to get to actually the root drivers of these costs, which is our broken, profit-oriented health care system.”

HOUSING, FEDERAL ACTION

Janoo outlined a separate approach for reducing property taxes, specifically having properties like second homes taxed at a higher rate, with that money used to lower property taxes for primary residents and for programs supporting Vermonters in building their own homes.

“There’s no building incentives for individuals at all right now, it’s all for big contractors,” she said. “But if you support individuals to build their own houses, they’re going to live in them, as opposed to contractors who will sell them back to you at market rate.”

Janoo’s other ideas for addressing the state’s housing crisis include helping Vermonters more easily build housing through cooperatives, making more building materials in Vermont and developing more apprenticeship programs and vocational training with carpenters.

Looking to the national level, Janoo outlined how she’d look to help the state respond to federal actions impacting Vermont. She pointed to the March 11 Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at a South Burlington home that led to the detainment of three people, none of whom were named on the criminal warrant officers used to enter the house.

“There’s no situation where … our state police should be helping ICE,” she said. “We don’t have to and we shouldn’t, but even that I don’t think is sufficient.”

Janoo said she believes states need to be taking a more proactive approach to contending with federal action.

“30% of our budget comes from the federal government, and most of that is for health care,” she said. “That’s partially why my proposal for a state-funded primary, preventative health care policy feels so important, so that we are not just going along with the federal government because of budgetary considerations.”

COMING TOGETHER

If she goes on to face Scott in the general election, Janoo would be the latest Democrat trying to unseat the popular Republican governor. Scott has previously beaten Democratic challengers by large margins, most recently winning 73.4% of the vote in the 2024 Vermont governor’s race against Esther Charlestin.

Janoo acknowledged where Scott has succeeded with Vermonters, but argues the state feels worse off than it was 10 years ago and that its future requires a change.

“We are in a moment where we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them,” she said.

Janoo said she’s found a level of excitement in her visits with Vermonters around the state.

“I think people are really yearning for something that feels more systemic and more transformative,” she said. “I think we might be surprised by what people are ready for.”

Janoo’s campaign had raised $80,281 as of Tuesday, and she noted almost 300 people have signed up to volunteer.

Janoo said bringing people together is a goal of her campaign. This past Friday, she was gearing up for a meet and greet followed by a dance party in White River Junction.

“How do we invite people into a movement for justice because it feels good to be a part of it? That is part of what I’m really hoping to also do with this campaign … to be able to support some of that culture-building work,” she said.

“So we can hopefully break down some of the divisions, because we’re so fractured right now, politically, ideologically, class, identity, etc., but I think there’s a lot more that unites us right now than divides us in terms of our aims and the challenges we face.”