By Sam Douglass

Former Lt. Governor Molly Gray is seeking a return to the state’s second highest office. She was first elected to the position in 2021 and served a single term before throwing her hat into the ring for the open US House seat vacated by then US Rep. Peter Welch, which she ultimately lost to Becca Balint. The Burlington resident is running again for Lt. Governor to stand against the Trump administration and tackle the pressures that working families in Vermont face. 

In the years since her first term in office, she led the Vermont Afghan Alliance as its executive director, which she said helped resettle more than 650 Afghans who had worked with the US government and fled the Taliban. Those individuals are now living throughout Vermont and working in fields including health care, housing, manufacturing, and education, she said.

“A lot has happened since I served as Lt. Governor, both in Vermont and in my own life,” Gray said. “It has been a time of big change and even bigger perspective—but I haven’t stepped back or given up.” She said she has also seen what she described as “the inhumanity and cruelty” of the Trump administration as well as growing economic pressures on working families. Her campaign, she said, focuses on protecting Vermonters’ fundamental rights, lowering costs, and making investments that can strengthen the state’s economy. 

Gray is running against Democrat turned Republican, incumbent Lt. Governor John Rodgers, whom she sharply criticized in her responses to questions about the race. She said Rodgers has “set Vermont back during critical moments when Vermonters’ rights have come under attack” and accused him of focusing on “name-calling” and dividing Vermonters rather than offering a comprehensive plan for rising costs and the state’s economic challenges. 

“For me the needs of rural communities, and those working our lands aren’t hypothetical, they’re deeply personal,” she said. Gray said growing up on a farm also taught her the importance of the skilled trades and the people who build and maintain Vermont’s communities. She has called for the creation of a Vermont Housing Corps, an initiative that would support apprentices entering Vermont’s home construction workforce with scholarships, loan forgiveness, and tax credits in exchange for committing to work in the state’s housing industry. 

Health care costs are another major focus of Gray’s campaign. She said Vermont faces the highest health insurance premiums in the country and called for a system of universal primary care that she claims would make basic preventive care affordable. She also supports limiting hospital executive compensation and requiring hospitals to bill at Medicaid rates, arguing that such measures could direct more health care spending toward patient services. 

On housing, Gray said Vermont should streamline regulations and eliminate unnecessary red tape while retaining appropriate environmental protections. This may include continuing reforms to Act 250, developing a statewide model zoning code, and expanding the 802 Homes program, an effort to create standardized housing plans that can be built more quickly and cheaply. Once those plans are finalized, Gray said projects using them should receive automatic statewide zoning approval. 

On Act 181, she said that after learning more about the law and its implementation, she concluded that portions of it were flawed. Gray has called for repealing the Tier 3 and Road Rule provisions, which she argues could make it harder and more expensive for rural residents to build homes and infrastructure. Gray said Vermont’s working landscape is both an economic asset and part of the state’s identity. She also proposed a moratorium on large artificial-intelligence data centers in Vermont until the effects on the electrical grid, energy rates, consumers, the environment, and public health can be studied.

On education, Gray said she understands the importance of small community schools and considers herself a product of Vermont’s public education system. At the same time, she acknowledged that Vermont’s school-age population has declined substantially over the past four decades. She supports the governor and Legislature’s voluntary school-merger proposal and said communities should have a role in reshaping the education system. She also supports restarting the state school construction trust fund to help ensure schools, particularly in rural areas, are safe and modernized.

On climate and energy policy, Gray emphasized the need for affordability rather than directly addressing whether she supports every component of the state’s current climate agenda, including whether she supports cap and invest programs. She said Vermonters need urgent action to stabilize energy costs and argued that investing in local renewable energy production could help lower those costs. She pointed to higher prices at the pump due to the Trump administration’s actions in the Middle East and said trade and energy policies coming from Washington could further affect Vermont. On environmental regulation, Gray said the state can protect its natural resources while eliminating redundant rules that make housing development unnecessarily difficult. She said she supports portions of Act 181 that remove certain state permitting requirements in areas with strong local zoning and adequate water and sewer infrastructure.

Gray described homelessness as a statewide problem requiring a statewide response. She attributed Vermont’s high rate of homelessness in part to the cost of housing and health care, saying people are more likely to lose stable housing when they cannot afford a place to live or access treatment for mental health or substance-use problems. 

Gray also responded to questions over criticism from voters over her 2022 congressional bid, with some viewing her decision to seek higher office after just one term as lieutenant governor as evidence that she saw the position less as a commitment than as a stepping stone to Congress. She said that her focus now is on serving as lieutenant governor and making full use of the position. 

“If I’m lucky enough to earn the support of Vermonters and to work for them again, I’ll serve as Lt. Governor for as long as I’m solving problems for Vermonters,” she said.