So many of Vermont’s challenges stem from our sluggish population growth and lack of younger Vermonters living and building their lives here. Windsor County residents are being priced out of their communities — housing is scarce and too expensive, property taxes continue to rise, and we don’t have enough economic opportunity or well-paying jobs for young people and families.

We have to build more housing in downtowns and village centers, where our water, sewer and roads infrastructure already exists. Southern Windsor County has aging housing stock that needs reinvestment, but we also need to invest in new projects.

Small businesses are the backbone of Windsor County's and Vermont’s economy. In fact, 97% of Vermonters work for businesses with less than 20 employees. We must create conditions where small businesses can survive and grow: affordable housing for workers, making sure childcare stays accessible, doing what we can to slow the growth of healthcare costs, and making sure small business owners have resources and incentives to grow their business.

We have to cut unnecessary regulatory burden, streamline permitting, and make Vermont a place entrepreneurs want to plant roots.

Vermont’s health care plans are some of the most expensive in the country.  Simply put, Vermont is in a healthcare cost crisis. We need to think creatively to stabilize our system, assuring that all Vermonters can afford health insurance and receive the care they need.

I’ve been a nurse since I was 16 years old, and I've seen what happens when people lose access to their healthcare. Folks wait too long to seek care and end up in emergency rooms when their health deteriorates, and out of pocket costs explode. 

We have to invest more heavily in primary care and preventative care models so Vermonters save money on services and so emergency services aren’t overburdened. I will fight for universal access to quality primary care and cost reductions throughout our system.

We also need to focus on workforce retention by expanding loan repayment for nurses, doctors, and other healthcare providers who commit to practicing in rural communities like Windsor County — and pairing that with bolstered housing support so they can actually afford to live where they work.

My 30+ years of experience as a nurse in schools, AIDS clinics, and the OBGYN field, coupled with 20+ years of corporate health advocacy and leadership, make me uniquely qualified to work to address these issues and improve healthcare outcomes for Vermonters.

As a mother to four successful children of Vermont’s education system, I’m committed to ensuring that all young Vermonters have access to excellent educational opportunities, regardless of their zipcode.

H.955 — Vermont’s 2026 education bill — is a framework, not a fix. Property taxes have increased 40% over the past five years and Vermonters can’t keep up. We know that the real cost driver inside school budgets is healthcare costs — and until we address that directly, we won’t be addressing the root cause of rising costs.

The Legislature made the right call on H.955 to not force mergers. Our schools deserve the chance to make these decisions themselves, and there was no evidence that mandated consolidation would actually lower costs for rural towns like those in Windsor County.

The foundation formula — due to be revisited next session — is the real long game here. The next Legislature's job is to implement H.955 thoughtfully, get the foundation formula right especially for rural communities, and finally tackle healthcare costs inside school budgets.

When I voted for Act 181 in 2024, I believed in what the Legislature was trying to do: modernize Vermont's land use system, direct more housing into our downtowns, and protect the natural areas that make Vermont so special. Act 181 got some things right, and it's worth saying so clearly. Act 181 makes it quicker and less expensive to build housing in and near our downtowns and village centers, where roads, water and sewer already exist. 

For rural Vermont, Act 181 raises the threshold for state level review, meaning significantly more housing can move forward without getting tied up in permitting. Act 181 also creates a pathway for smaller towns to access state investment and housing tax credits they couldn't tap into before; this is an opportunity for rural communities that have historically been left out of those funding streams. And Act 181 maintains baseline protections for our forests, headwater streams and working lands that our communities depend on. 

What I didn't anticipate (and what our rural neighbors made impossible to ignore) was how the “road rule” and Tier 3 provisions would actually impact communities like southern Windsor County. Older homes, working farms and longer driveways are a fact of life here, so when hundreds of Vermonters came forward to say these provisions would make it harder and more expensive to build on their own land, their voices deeply mattered. The Legislature took this to heart and so did I. 

There are lots of positive provisions to Act 181, but I do believe the repeal of Tier 3 and the road rule is the right call to make overall. Vermont is experiencing a severe housing crisis and we can't afford to add new costs and new barriers for rural landowners and working families trying to stay rooted here. 

We aren’t abandoning the broader work of Act 250 reform, we are simply acknowledging that we need another chance to get this right. This is democracy at work, and democracy can be messy sometimes. 

I believe the Vermont Legislature can find a better balance between encouraging housing growth in our downtowns and protecting Vermont’s natural areas, without imposing undue financial or regulatory burdens on rural Vermonters.

This is the kind of public service I believe in: listening to our neighbors, acknowledging when our intentions missed the mark, and putting in the work to make things right.

Vermont, like many other U.S. states, is vulnerable to the chaos of the Trump administration. Economic instability is driving up prices, slashes to healthcare funding are forcing many Vermonters to go without insurance, local communities are being denied funding to recover from flooding disasters, and ICE enforcement is terrorizing immigrant communities and threatening free speech.

As a candidate and as your senator, I won’t shy away from discussing these impacts, and I’ll work tirelessly to ensure that Vermont can persevere and overcome these turbulent times. We must prioritize protecting the most vulnerable within our state as we build towards a brighter future.

Vermont can and should expand our renewable energy investments, but we have to respect local concerns and keep costs manageable for Vermonters. Vermont should absolutely move toward cleaner energy — but we have to do it in a way communities can afford and accept.

Local communities must have meaningful input on the scale and siting of renewable projects. State energy goals and local residents’ concerns need to be in dialogue with each other as goals and projects evolve.

As next steps, I support:

• Expanding grants and incentives to offer home efficiency and weatherization updates for more Vermonters. 

• Investing in retrofitting our old housing stock and creating new housing and infrastructure that is flood and weather resilient so our business owners and homeowners don’t lose everything in inclement weather.

• Making it a budget priority to fill in the support gaps around FEMA’s lack of assistance and Vermont’s flood recovery and resiliency funds.