By Sam Douglass

BRATTLEBORO – Incumbent US Rep. Becca Balint is running for reelection as Vermont’s only member of the US House of Representatives. Her political career has been built around progressive causes and the people she says are too often left on the margins.

A former teacher and Vermont lawmaker, Balint entered Congress in 2023 after defeating then Lt. Governor Molly Gray in a tense Democratic primary in 2022. Since beginning her service in Washington, she has made housing, mental health care, reproductive rights, gun safety, climate change, voting rights, and LGBTQ+ rights central to her work and advocacy.

According to her campaign website, Balint came to Vermont in 1994 as a rock climbing instructor and settled in the state in 1997. She later became a middle school teacher, working in four rural public schools in Windham County.

Before Congress, Balint spent years in the Vermont Senate, where she rose through Democratic leadership and became the first female Senate president pro tempore in 2021. Her time in Montpelier included work on reproductive rights, labor issues, and gun safety. She helped pass Vermont’s first gun-safety laws and played a role in the effort to establish constitutional protection for what Balint and supporters call reproductive freedom.

In Congress, Balint serves on the House Judiciary and Budget committees and has become a prominent member of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing. She has introduced legislation focused on affordable housing, mental health care, and rural health services. Her housing proposals include the Community Housing Act, which would make a major federal investment in affordable housing, renter protections, down-payment assistance, and new construction.

On her campaign website, Balint stated her support for abolishing the Senate filibuster and reforming the US Supreme Court. Balint has supported legislation protecting LGBTQ+ Americans and has advocated for reproductive freedom following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. She has backed the Green New Deal and federal gun-safety measures, including expanded background checks and an assault weapons ban. She has also placed a focus of her time in office in opposition to the Trump administration.

Balint’s first campaign for the House has been her most competitive Democratic race. In 2022, she defeated Gray, who was serving as lieutenant governor at the time, in the Democratic primary to replace Peter Welch. Balint then won the general election and became Vermont’s first woman and first openly LGBTQ+ member of Congress. She was not challenged in the Democratic primary in 2024 and again faced no Democratic primary opponent this year. 

Balint’s time in Congress has also been amidst a quagmire of questions about political money. In 2022, former FTX executive Nishad Singh gave $1.1 million to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which spent nearly $1 million supporting Balint during the primary. Singh later pleaded guilty to campaign finance fraud charges connected to the FTX case. Balint was not accused of wrongdoing and her campaign said it had no contact with the Victory Fund’s independent-expenditure operation. 

This November, Balint will face Republican Gerald Malloy of Weathersfield, an Army veteran making his third campaign for federal office. Malloy previously ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2022 and 2024 before seeking the House seat this year. 

Suz Seymour of Highgate is running for Congress as an independent.

Balint was contacted multiple times for this story and asked to participate in an interview or respond to questions.