On this year’s Election Day, two Vermont State Senate seats for Addison County will be up for election. Democratic incumbents Ruth Hardy and Christopher Bray are facing challenges from two Republican candidates, Landel Cochran and Steven Heffernan.
State senators, who represent their constituent counties in the Vermont Senate, are elected for two year terms. On their ballots, voters are asked to select two candidates, and the two candidates who receive the most votes take office.
Hardy is seeking her fourth term in the Vermont Senate, where she currently serves on the Health and Welfare Committee, the Canvassing Committee — a subgroup of the Senate tasked with tallying votes for statewide positions — and the Judicial Retention Committee. She also serves as the chair for the Committee on Government Operations. Prior to serving in the State Senate, Hardy ran Emerge Vermont, an organization dedicated to preparing women to run for political office.
Hardy explained her motivations for running for a state senator position in an interview with The Campus.
“One of the reasons I ran for the State Senate was because I wanted to make sure our state was a good place for our children,” Hardy said. “What drives me is how can I make sure we’re enacting policies in support of families, young Vermonters and seniors.”
After surveying Vermonters across the county and the state, Hardy has chosen to focus her campaign on issues of affordability in many areas, including healthcare, childcare and education according to her campaign website.
Bray is running for his sixth term in the Vermont Senate, where he is currently the chair of the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee, while also serving on the Senate Finance Committee, Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules and the Joint Carbon Reduction Committee.
“There are many pressing issues for the next legislature to address; they include education; affordable housing; economic development; an aging population; affordable health care; mental health care and substance abuse treatment,” Bray said in a candidate statement to the Addison Independent in August.
The primary focal points of his campaign, however, are climate change and environmental action. In his statement to the Addison Independent, Bray explained that climate change is already proving significantly expensive for Vermont residents, and that if he were elected to his sixth term, he would continue to work towards more affordable and accessible clean energy sources.
Landel Cochran, who is seeking his first term in the State Senate, has been a member of the Huntington, Vt. Selectboard since 2018.
Cochran spoke with The Campus about what he sees the primary issue of this campaign season to be: affordability.
“Affordability is definitely the number one issue in this campaign season, and it's the issue that dragged me into this race here. I've been happy serving in local government for the past seven years or so, and seeing what the legislature did with the tax increases this year, I knew I'd stand up and do something about it,” Cochran said.
He also mentioned concerns about Vermont’s healthcare system, describing how insurance companies are slowly leaving the market and forcing continuous yearly rate hikes.
“We're seeing unsustainable year over year rate increases, and we're seeing insurance providers leave the market, and we're getting dangerously close to no one wanting to play in Vermont, and no insurance providers wanting to participate,” Cochran explained.
The Republican candidate stressed that while he admires Hardy and Bray, he felt compelled to act for Vermont families affected by the legislature repeatedly overriding Gov. Phil Scott’s vetoes.
“I know that our senators are good people. I know that they work hard, but I think the strategy that we've seen specifically in the last two years has crossed the line. There is a lot to look up to with the incumbent senators and some of the work that they've done, but we need results that don't clobber Vermont families the way that they did this year,” Cochran said.
The other Republican challenger to the two incumbents is Steven Heffernan.
“Without a doubt the biggest two issues will be education and s5 fuel tax. I believe most Vermonters are concerned about this because it will have an instant impact on their finances. Thirdly, transportation, our roads and bridges need many improvements around our state” said Steve Heffernan in his candidate profile in the Addison Independent.
Issues important to this election cycle include climate change — especially as it relates to community disasters like flooding in the state — affordable housing and education. On Oct. 10, the candidates had the opportunity to debate each other on these issues in a town hall in Bristol, Vt.
Hardy reminded students that voting is crucial for community engagement, and that in the state of Vermont, students can register on election day at the town clerk’s office, using their Middlebury IDs as their form of identification.
Editor’s Note: Managing Editor Cole Chaudhari ’26 contributed reporting to this article.
Addison County Senator Ruth Hardy is married to Professor of Film and Media Studies Jason Mittell, who serves as faculty adviser to The Campus. He had no editorial role in the publication of this article or the newspaper.
