The latest University of New Hampshire Green Mountain State Poll results released on Friday indicate that the majority of Vermonters approve of Gov. Phil Scott’s performance in office and want him to run for reelection next year.
The October poll outlined political positioning leading up to next year’s statewide elections, according to professor Andrew Smith, an author of the poll and director of UNH’s Survey Center. It draws on 880 survey responses collected last week, which are weighted according to demographic information from U.S. Census data and recent election results, Smith said.
The governor has remained relatively popular with Democrats and “mitigated some of the anger” from those farther to his right since the presidential election, Smith said. “He’s in a pretty good spot for reelection.”
Over 60% of Vermonters approved of Scott’s work as governor, with 57% to some extent in favor of him running for reelection. Slightly less than half believed he actually deserved to be reelected, the survey said.
Scott’s consistently high standing in polling is particularly noteworthy given the state’s strong blue leanings in other areas of politics, Smith said. The survey found 80% of Democrats and over half of all Vermonters describe Scott as far or slightly to the right of their own views. Yet in a question that allowed poll-takers to say they wanted multiple potential candidates to run, Scott registered only slightly lower support, 47%, among Democrats than the 50% garnered by liberal State Treasurer and rumored gubernatorial hopeful Mike Pieciak. An even lower 38% of Democrats said they wanted State Attorney General Charity Clark — another possible challenger for governor — to run.
But Scott’s potential Democratic opponents also registered high rates of “don’t know/no opinion” responses to this query. “The major reason for Vermonters’ ambivalence about Pieciak and Clark is they are largely unknown,” the survey authors observed.
For more than 70% of Republicans, Scott sat far or slightly to their left. Just 20% of all Vermonters thought that Scott’s politics are “close to (their) own views,” the survey estimated.
U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., continued to demonstrate strong appeal among the state’s Democrats, with just over half the state saying she deserves reelection, according to the survey.
Mark Coester, a Republican who ran against Balint in 2024, has filed to repeat his challenge next year. Just 6% of Vermonters had a favorable opinion of Coester, and more than three-quarters didn’t know enough about him to say, the survey found.
The survey also had several questions about current state policy decisions, determined by taking a “look at what issues are in the news, what people are paying attention to,” Smith said.
The poll asked respondents about the Scott administration’s much-discussed return-to-office plan for state employees, which has drawn pushback from the Vermont State Employees Association, among others. Overall, 51% of Vermonters supported the policy to some extent, with 13% remaining neutral, the survey found.
But public opinion on the governor’s policy ran heavily along party lines — 80% of Republicans and 64% of Independents strongly or somewhat supported the measure, compared with just a third of Democrats.
The governor’s refusal to send Vermont National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. at the request of President Donald Trump was met with relative popularity across the state, Friday’s poll said. The move was opposed to some degree by 70% of Republicans, but affirmed by 98% of Democrats. With all responses combined, 72% of all Vermonters approved of the decision, the survey found.
Theo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VtDigger.org. This story was republished with permission from VtDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To learn more, visit vtdigger.org/community-news-sharing-project.
