John Rodgers fires David Zuckerman as Vermont lieutenant governor

Updated November 6 at 10:23 a.m

John Rodgers, a Republican from Glover, was elected Vermont's lieutenant governor on Tuesday, replacing progressive/Democratic Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman. This was a rare ouster of a statewide incumbent. The dramatic conclusion came at the end of a hard-fought – and at times very personal – competition for the state's second-highest office.

The result became clear around 1:20 a.m. Wednesday, when the last of Vermont's 247 cities reported results. At that point, according to the State Department, Rodgers was leading Zuckerman 46.2% to 44.6% – just 5,959 votes separated them.

If those results were certified, the Vermont Legislature would still have to approve the result in January because no candidate received more than 50% of the vote – a requirement in the Vermont Constitution.

“We feel like we’ve done it,” Rodgers said in a phone call early Wednesday morning around 12:30 p.m. “We couldn’t be happier with the results.”

About an hour earlier, Zuckerman addressed reporters at the Vermont Democratic Party's election night party in South Burlington and said, “There's certainly a good chance that I lose,” but declined to formally concede the race.

Reached at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Zuckerman said he needed more time to review the results.

“He clearly got more votes than me and there is a process and time to figure out what the next steps are while I just try to assess what lies ahead on two hours of sleep,” he said.

Zuckerman said he had not yet spoken to Rodgers but sent him a text message early Wednesday morning saying he would call when he had “more clarity” about the situation. He said he had no reason to doubt the unofficial vote count but wanted to examine “the issue of recounts” and “other scenarios in state law.”

The result means Republican Gov. Phil Scott, running for re-election Tuesday, will have a close ally in the lieutenant governor's office for the first time in his eight years as chief executive.

In the race, both Rodgers and Zuckerman, who work as farmers and previously served together as state legislators, presented themselves as a stronger working-class voice and a better candidate to address concerns about affordability and the property tax increases needed in many communities to fund public education .

It was also a competition between two candidates who could not be clearly classified along party lines. Rodgers had long identified as a Democrat before announcing his candidacy for lieutenant governor under the GOP guise earlier this year and quickly became a vocal critic of his former party. Zuckerman is now one of the best-known candidates in the state who primarily identifies with the left-wing Progressive Party in Vermont.

Rodgers won the Republican primary for lieutenant governor in August over Gregory Thayer, a former Rutland County GOP chairman and staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump. However, Rodgers is a vocal Trump critic and describes himself as a moderate Republican who actually holds the same political views as a Democrat.

In fact, in the Glover election Tuesday morning, Rodgers told VTDigger that he campaigned for U.S. president on Scott's behalf rather than voting for Republican candidate Donald Trump or Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

The difference now, Rodgers argued during the campaign, is that the state's Democratic Party has moved too far left for his moderate, if somewhat populist, views. That message — which had its roots in criticism of the Democratic-led Legislature's recent policies, such as the recent bill setting annual property tax revenues or legislation establishing a default clean heat policy in Vermont — appears to have resonated with voters across the state to have.

“As I've said throughout the campaign, there are many issues to address in Vermont, but nothing else matters if we can't afford to live here,” Rodgers said early Wednesday morning. “And (for) the majority of people I spoke to, cost of living was the number one thing on their mind.”

Rodgers likely benefited from significant fundraising in the final stretch of the campaign, bringing in about $70,000 from mid-October through Nov. 1, according to campaign finance reports – several times what Zuckerman took in during the same period.

In the final week of the race, he also received support from Vermont's three most recent governors, including former Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin.

In interviews, Rodgers has promised to play an active role in policy debates at the Statehouse, but it remains to be seen how much influence he will have on the building. The lieutenant governor has a largely ceremonial role, whose primary day-to-day responsibility is presiding over the state Senate. The incumbent can only vote on legislation in the event of a tie.

Tuesday's election puts Rodgers in public office for the first time since 2021, when he lost his Essex-Orleans Senate seat to Republican Sen. Russ Ingalls. (In that race, he ran as an independent after missing the deadline to declare his candidacy as a Democrat.) Previously, Rodgers served in the Senate from 2013 to 2021 and in the House of Representatives from 2003 to 2011.

Zuckerman, meanwhile, was seeking his fourth term as lieutenant governor.

Speaking at the Democratic Party event, he acknowledged that Rodgers' campaign message had been effective, although the incumbent described it as “a lot of promises and really preying on people's frustrations.”

“I believe that our climate and our people will not see the results they would want if he were to become lieutenant governor,” Zuckerman added. “But you know, at the end of the day one of us is going to win – and if we win, they get to wear this.”

This story will be updated.