Vermont Senate

Upper house of the Vermont General Assembly

The Vermont Senate is the upper house of the Vermont General Assembly, the state legislature of the U. S. state of Vermont. The senate consists of 30 members elected from multi member districts. Each senator represents at least 20,300 citizens. Senators are elected to two year terms and there is no limit to the number of terms that a senator may serve. As in other upper houses of state and territorial legislatures and the U. S. Senate, the state senate of Vermont has special functions, such as confirming or rejecting gubernatorial appointments to executive departments, the state cabinet, commissions, and boards, as well as electing members to the Vermont Supreme Court. The Vermont Senate meets at the Vermont State House in the state capital of Montpelier.

The 30 senators are elected from 16 single and multi member senate districts. The districts largely correspond to the boundaries of the state's 14 counties with adjustments to ensure equality of representation. Each district elects between 1 and 3 senators at large depending on population. For the 2023–2033 districts, Seven districts elect one senator each, four districts elect two each, and five elect three. Senators in multi member districts are elected at large throughout the district. Vermont is the only state to have any senate districts represented by more than two senators each, as well as the only state to employ bloc voting for senate elections. Vermont is one of the 14 states where the upper house of its state legislature serves at a two year cycle, rather than the more common four year term in the majority of states. Senate district lines are drawn with an eye toward adhering to the boundaries of the state's 14 counties, and the districts are named after the county or counties in which the bulk of the district is located. However, due to equal representation requirements of the federal and state constitutions, most districts do not have precisely the same boundaries as their respective counties, containing either one or more towns from neighboring counties or not containing one or more from their own county (or both).

The lieutenant governor of Vermont serves as the president of the Senate, but casts a vote only if required to break a tie. In the absence of the lieutenant governor, the president pro tempore presides over the Senate. The president pro tempore is elected by the majority party caucus followed by confirmation from the entire body through a Senate resolution, and is the Senate's chief leadership position. The majority and minority leaders are elected by their respective party caucuses. Committee assignments are determined by the Committee on Committees. This panel consists of the lieutenant governor, the president pro tempore and one member chosen by the full Senate. For several years the third member of the committee has been Richard Mazza.

Position Name Party Residence District President David Zuckerman Prog/Dem Hinesburg – President pro tempore Philip Baruth Dem/Prog Burlington Chittenden Central Majority Leader Alison H. Clarkson Dem Woodstock Windsor Assistant Majority Leader (Whip) Andrew Perchlik Dem/Prog Montpelier Washington Minority Leader Randy Brock Rep Swanton Franklin

District Representative Party Residence First elected Addison Christopher A. Bray Dem New Haven 2012 Ruth Hardy Dem East Middlebury 2018 Bennington Brian Campion Dem Bennington 2014 Richard W. Sears Dem North Bennington 1992 Caledonia Jane Kitchel Dem Danville 2004 Chittenden Central Philip Baruth Dem/Prog Burlington 2010 Martine Gulick Dem Burlington 2022 Tanya Vyhovsky Prog/Dem Essex 2022 Chittenden North Irene Wrenner Dem Essex 2022 Chittenden Southeast Thomas Chittenden Dem South Burlington 2020 Virginia V. Lyons Dem Williston 2000 Kesha Ram Hinsdale Dem Burlington 2020 Essex Russ Ingalls Rep Newport 2020 Franklin Randy Brock Rep Swanton 2017 (appointed)(2009–2013) Robert Norris Rep Sheldon 2022 Grand Isle Vacant Lamoille Richard A. Westman Rep Hyde Park 2010 Orange Mark MacDonald Dem Williamstown 2003(1997–1999) Orleans Robert A. Starr Dem North Troy 2004 Rutland Brian Collamore Rep Rutland Town 2014 David Weeks Rep Proctor 2022 Terry Williams Rep Poultney 2022 Washington Ann Cummings Dem Montpelier 1996 Andrew Perchlik Dem/Prog Montpelier 2018 Anne Watson Dem/Prog Montpelier 2022 Windham Wendy Harrison Dem Brattleboro 2022 Nader Hashim Dem Dummerston 2022 Windsor Alison H. Clarkson Dem Woodstock 2016 Richard McCormack Dem Bethel 2006(1989–2003) Rebecca White Dem Hartford 2022

The full Senate meets Tuesday and Friday mornings only for the first seven weeks of the annual session. The Vermont Senate is aided by a small administrative staff, including the secretary of the Vermont Senate and several assistants. Since 2011, the Senate secretary has been John H. Bloomer, a former member of the Senate. Previous secretaries include Ernest W. Gibson Jr., Murdock A. Campbell, and Franklin S. Billings Jr. The longest serving member of the Vermont Senate was William T. Doyle; he was elected in 1968, reelected every two years until 2014, and defeated for reelection in 2016. Doyle served from January 1969 to January 2017; no other legislator in Vermont history—member of the Vermont House, member of the Vermont Senate, or member of both the House and Senate—has served longer than Doyle.

Most individuals who have served as governor or lieutenant governor had experience in the Vermont legislature; many served in the State Senate. For more than 100 years from the 1850s to the 1960s, the Vermont Republican Party won every election for statewide office. In keeping with the "Mountain Rule", which was created to ensure party unity, governors and lieutenant governors were from opposite sides of the Green Mountains, and were limited to two years in office. Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor were agreed upon by party leaders years in advance, and were often chosen for leadership positions in the House or Senate to groom them for statewide office.

Governors who served in the Vermont Senate include: William A. Palmer (post governorship); Horace Eaton; Carlos Coolidge (post governorship); John S. Robinson; Ryland Fletcher; Frederick Holbrook; Paul Dillingham; George Whitman Hendee; John Wolcott Stewart; Julius Converse; Horace Fairbanks; Redfield Proctor; Roswell Farnham; John L. Barstow; Ebenezer J. Ormsbee; William P. Dillingham; Carroll S. Page; Levi K. Fuller; Josiah Grout; John G. McCullough; Charles J. Bell; Fletcher D. Proctor; George H. Prouty; John A. Mead; Allen M. Fletcher; Charles W. Gates; Percival W. Clement; Redfield Proctor Jr.; John E. Weeks; Stanley C. Wilson; Charles Manley Smith; William H. Wills; Mortimer R. Proctor; Lee E. Emerson; Joseph B. Johnson; Philip H. Hoff (post governorship); Peter Shumlin; and Phil Scott (incumbent).

Many of Vermont's members of the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives also served in the Vermont Senate. U. S. senators include Samuel S. Phelps, George F. Edmunds, Jonathan Ross, Porter H. Dale, Frank C. Partridge, Ernest Willard Gibson, Jim Jeffords, and Peter Welch (incumbent). U. S. House members who served in the Vermont Senate include William Henry, Ahiman Louis Miner, George Tisdale Hodges, Frederick E. Woodbridge, H. Henry Powers, David J. Foster, William Hebard, Andrew Tracy, William W. Grout, Kittredge Haskins, Frank Plumley, Alvah Sabin, Homer Elihu Royce, Worthington Curtis Smith, Bradley Barlow, Augustus Young, Richard W. Mallary, Peter Plympton Smith, and Becca Balint (incumbent).