Vermont Senate

Districting and terms

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 districts elect three each. 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 non-staggered, two-year terms, rather than the more common four-year term. There are no term limits. The governor is empowered to fill legislative vacancies; the party of the previous holder of the seat almost always recommends candidates, and the governor usually chooses an appointee from that list, though this process is a tradition and not legally required.

Leadership

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. From 1997 to 2024 the third member of the committee was Richard Mazza. As of 2025, the third member is Ginny Lyons.

Composition of the Senate (2025–2027 legislative session)

Current leadership

Current members

• ↑: Member was originally appointed

Operations

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.

Secretaries of the Vermont Senate since 1836 include:

• Norman Williams, 1836–1840
• DeWitt C. Clarke, 1840–1851
• Samuel M. Conant, 1851–1853
• Joseph H. Barrett, 1853–1855
• Clark H. Chapman, 1855–1859
• Carlisle J. Gleason, 1859–1861
• Henry Clary, 1861–1872
• Mason B. Carpenter, 1872–1874
• Frederick W. Baldwin, 1874–1880
• Chauncey W. Brownell Jr., 1880–1890
• George M. Powers, 1890–1896
• Max L. Powell, 1896–1902
• Walter K. Farnsworth, 1902–1908
• Homer L. Skeels, 1908–1915
• Guy M. Page, 1915–1921
• Millward C. Taft, 1921–1931
• Murdock A. Campbell, 1931–1933
• Ernest W. Gibson Jr., 1933–1940
• Willsie E. Brisbin, 1940–1948
• Natt L. Divoll Jr., 1949–1955
• Earle J. Bishop, 1955–1957
• Franklin S. Billings Jr., 1957–1959
• Earle J. Bishop, 1959–1963
• Robert Grussing III, 1963–1966
• Robert H. Gibson, 1967–2000
• David A. Gibson, 2000–2010
• John H. Bloomer Jr., 2010–Present

History

Vermont originally had a unicameral legislature; most of the functions normally performed by an upper legislative house were the responsibility of the governor and council. The state abolished the governor's council and added a senate via an 1836 constitutional amendment.

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.

Former districts, 2002–2022

The following is from the Vermont Secretary of State.

Notable members

For more than 100 years from the 1850s to the 1960s, the Vermont Republican Party won every election for statewide office. In addition, the state legislature frequently included few or even no Democrats. For example, in 1878, the State Senate was made up of 30 Republicans and no Democrats, while the State House of 246 included 227 Republicans and 14 Democrats, with five towns unrepresented. 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 these offices were agreed upon by Republican leaders years in advance, and were often chosen for leadership positions in the House or Senate to groom them for statewide office.

Governors

Most individuals who have served as governor or lieutenant governor had experience in the Vermont legislature; many served in the State Senate. Governors who served in the Vermont Senate include:

William A. Palmer (post-governorship); Horace Eaton; Carlos Coolidge (post-governorship); John S. Robinson; 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).

Lieutenant governors

Vermont's lieutenant governors who served in the state senate include:

Waitstill R. Ranney, Leonard Sargeant, William C. Kittredge, Jefferson P. Kidder, Burnham Martin, Levi Underwood, Abraham B. Gardner, Stephen Thomas, George N. Dale, Russell S. Taft, Lyman G. Hinckley, Eben Pomeroy Colton, Henry A. Fletcher, Farrand Stewart Stranahan, Zophar Mansur, Nelson W. Fisk, Henry C. Bates, Martin F. Allen, Zed S. Stanton, Charles H. Stearns, Leighton P. Slack, Hale K. Darling, Roger W. Hulburd, Abram W. Foote, Walter K. Farnsworth, Consuelo N. Bailey, Robert S. Babcock, T. Garry Buckley, Barbara Snelling (post-lieutenant governorship), Doug Racine, David Zuckerman, and John S. Rodgers (incumbent).

Members of Congress

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).

Other notable members

Other notable members of the Vermont Senate include:

• James Barrett (1844–1845), Associate Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court
• Edna Beard (1923–1925): Vermont's first female state House member (1921 to 1923) and first female state senator; also the first woman to hold a leadership position in the Vermont legislature as Chair of the Senate Committee on Libraries.
• William Carris (2007–2013), businessman who served as president of Carris Reels (later Carris Financial)
• Lucius E. Chittenden (1856–1860): author and government official.
• George W. F. Cook (1959–1969): United States Attorney for Vermont
• William H. Gilmore (1882–1883): Adjutant general of the Vermont Militia.
• Daniel Kellogg (1865–1866): Adjutant general of the Vermont Militia.
• James L. Oakes (1961–1965): judge of the U.S. District Court for Vermont and judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
• William Wells (1886–1887): recipient of the Medal of Honor during the American Civil War.
• Hoyt Henry Wheeler (1868–1869): judge of the United States District Court for the District of Vermont.

Notes

References

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