Sam Douglass Credit: Courtesy

Sam Douglass, a former Orleans County state senator who resigned in October after his participation in a racist Young Republicans group chat, is now writing for the Vermont Daily Chronicle, a conservative news website.

Guy Page, the website’s editor and publisher, confirmed Douglass’ role in an email to Seven Days on Tuesday. Page said Douglass is writing for the website on a “per-story basis” and on topics to be determined.

Douglass’ first post, on Monday, is about a school redistricting map proposed by Sen. Seth Bongartz (D-Bennington) and Vermont students’ standardized test scores. A disclosure says it was sourced from the General Assembly website and goldendomevt.com, a website that provides AI-generated transcripts of legislative meetings.

Douglass made headlines in October after Politico published a story that exposed a Young Republicans’ group chat that he and his wife participated in on the messaging app Telegram. Participants used slurs and hateful comments to refer to Black, Jewish and gay people and joked about putting political adversaries in gas chambers. 

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle condemned Douglass’ participation and called on him to resign. They included Gov. Phil Scott, who had endorsed Douglass in his 2024 run.

“The vile, racist, bigoted, and antisemitic dialogue that has been reported is deeply disturbing,” Scott wrote.

Douglass resigned on October 17. 

“I know that this decision will upset many, and delight others, but in this political climate I must keep my family safe,” Douglass wrote in a statement released to the media.

A message on the Christian fundraising platform GiveSendGo attributed to Douglass said he and his family “were targeted by a coordinated media and political barrage that took my words out of context and colluded to remove me from all my positions and slander our reputations.” 

Douglass did not respond to a request for comment. ➆