Orange County Republican finds his footing in Montpelier
Published: 04-12-2025 12:02 PM
Modified: 04-14-2025 7:28 AM |
MONTPELIER — When it comes to his Vermont Senate voting record, the freshman lawmaker representing the Orange County District in Montpelier has followed his fellow Republicans.
State Sen. Larry Hart, of Topsham, supported bills such as repealing the Affordable Heat Act — a 2023 law that established a “clean heat standard” aimed at reducing Vermont’s greenhouse gas emissions and helping make the switch to green energy more affordable. He’s also sided with fellow Republicans in opposing spending bills proposed by Democrats.
But Hart, along with his GOP colleagues, has also voted in favor of bills more that traditionally have been proposed by the left side of the political aisle.
Last month, the 30-member Senate unanimously passed a resolution supporting Vermont’s transgender and non-binary community, a group that has become the center of a political culture war.
“I’ve got trans friends,” Hart said after the vote. “I have no problem with that.”
After more than two decades of a Democrat representing the Orange District, Hart, who had no previous experience in Montpelier, flipped the seat in November.
Hart, 61, easily beat out longtime Sen. Mark MacDonald, 82, of Williamstown, 7,218-5,512, receiving nearly 55% of the vote.
A former Topsham Selectboard member, Hart had considered running for the Senate before, but it wasn’t until ahead of the last election cycle that he fully committed. Community members and Bill Huff, the chair of the Orange County Republican Committee at the time, encouraged him to run, Hart said.
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In addition to serving in the Legislature, Hart works on Saturdays at Bargain Building Products in Fairlee. In 2024, most of Vermont’s lawmakers made $15,000 per year for the part-time job.
“People were saying we needed somebody who can listen representing us,” Hart said from a bench inside the Statehouse on Friday. “I’m a listener.”
Last session, Democrats held a supermajority in the Legislature, giving them enough votes to override Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s vetoes. Hart is one of six Republican senators who flipped a seat in November and helped eliminate that supermajority.
“I think there’s a different feeling in the building,” state Sen. Brian Collamore R-Rutland, who’s been a senator for 11 years, said last month. “(Republicans) have become more relevant.”
Democrats still hold a 17-13 majority in the Senate and Republicans hold 56 of the 150 House seats, but there’s less room for infighting.
“There’s a lot more internal agreement among Democrats,” state Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Woodstock, said.
Hart has not shied away from bipartisan collaboration. He, along with five other Republicans and 16 Democrats, is cosponsoring a bill based off a proposal from state Treasurer Mike Pieciak to spend $1 million to eliminate $100 million in medical debt for qualified Vermonters. The proposal also shield Vermonters’ credit scores by eliminating the reporting of medical debt to credit agencies.
“The big picture is unity,” Hart said. “We all treat each other with respect. We have to work together.”
Like anyone just starting a new job, the rookie senator is still finding his footing. “When I first got here I was a little nervous,” Hart said while walking through the halls of the Statehouse on a late January morning, about three weeks after being sworn in. “I just had to chill out and take notes.”
Although fresh on the scene at the Statehouse, Hart was not timid. He greeted everyone, and was not scared to strike up a conversation with a stranger, especially one in uniform.
“I’m an old Marine, I call people sir,” Hart joked after a brief conversation with Benjamin Kris, an officer in the Vermont Army National Guard, near the entrance of the Statehouse cafeteria.
The Marine Corps is where Hart learned leadership and the value of serving one’s community, values that contributed to his decision to run for office, he said.
Raised in Topsham, Hart graduated from Blue Mountain Union School in Wells River in 1982 and immediately joined the U.S. Marine Corps. After 4 years in the service, which took him around the globe, he moved back to Vermont.
He now resides in Topsham with his fourth wife Emily Waterman-Hart, a kindergarten teacher at Westshire Elementary School in West Fairlee.
Hart had four adult children from his previous marriages.
In 2016, one of Hart’s four biological children, Tasha, died of a drug overdose at age 28, while she was 8 months pregnant with her third child, Jason, who also died. In the wake of their deaths, Hart became a recovery coach.
“I can’t save my daughter anymore but I can help save somebody else’s,” he said.
For Hart, recovery coaching is about asking his clients open-ended questions to get to the core reasons they’ve misused substances and what they want their life to look like in the future, he said. Hart stopped taking on new clients since becoming a state lawmaker.
Hart is adamant about adding the qualifier “moderate” in front of Republican when describing his political leanings. “If you’re not moderate in this building, you’re not going to get anywhere,” he said.
Still, several of Hart’s beliefs — including that Democrats rigged the 2020 presidential election — are debunked far-right conspiracy theories.
Hart voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2020 elections. In 2024, Hart said he only voted for state and local offices.
“Whatever happened on a federal level was going to take care of itself,” Hart said. “I had nothing to do with that.”
While Hart has yet to propose any of his own bills, he’s open to co-sponsoring legislation with Democrats.
But there have been missteps.
Early in the legislative session, Hart signed onto S.54, a proposed bill that would decriminalize sex work in Vermont.
While sitting around the Senate Government Operations committee’s meeting room Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, D/P-Essex, a sponsor of S.54, showed the bill to her fellow committee members.
“Senator Hart asked to look at the bill, looked at it, and said he’d sign on,” Vyhovsky said while waiting for the committee to reconvene one day in mid-March. “It was surprising.”
In late February, Hart came to realize that he wasn’t signing onto an anti-human trafficking bill after several constituents expressed their dissatisfaction with him signing onto it, he said. He swiftly had his name removed as a cosponsor.
“I’m against legalizing prostitution in Vermont, but the state can do what it wants to do,” Hart said.
In addition to the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Hart serves on the Senate Health and Welfare committee, a relevant post for someone with his background as a recovery coach. With Gifford Healthcare, a nonprofit medical provider with Orange District locations in Randolph and Chelsea, Hart’s committee assignment could give his constituents more of a voice in Montpelier.
Michael Costa, the CEO of Gifford since October, said in a recent phone interview that he met Hart at the Statehouse while talking with the Health and Welfare Committee about Gifford starting programs to train the next generation of doctors and nurses.
“This year the tone feels very different from previous years,” Costa said. “When I talk to legislators, regardless of their party, everybody is laser focused on how to solve big problems for Vermont.”
Recruiting and retaining staff and overhauling Vermont’s health care system to make it more affordable are pressing issues that Costa identified.
Hart is not currently cosponsoring any legislation to address these issues, but his committee responsibilities has him working on bills like S.1, which proposes to provide Medicaid-equivalent coverage to all Vermonters over time, regardless of household income.
Like many lawmakers, Hart used the break in the session the first week of March to attend Topsham’s Town Meeting.
Aside from seconding a few motions during the meeting, Hart remained quiet until the end when he made his way from his seat on the windowsill to the front of room.
“I brought a notepad to write down your concerns,” he said facing the crowd of about 70 people.
Waits River Valley School Board Chairwoman Stacy Emerson asked if anything is being done about increases in health care costs which are driving up school budgets.
“There isn’t anything that I personally can do,” Hart said.
“But you’re our senator and that’s why I’m bringing it up,” replied Emerson.
After the meeting, Selectboard member Carl Hildebrandt stacked chairs and expressed his delight in having a senator from Topsham representing the town. Hildebrandt declined to comment on which party he belongs to, but did say he voted for Hart.
“I couldn’t tell you what MacDonald looks like,” he said referring to the previous Orange District senator, “Larry’s an active voice in the community and brings the needs of rural communities to the Statehouse.”
Claire Zandstra, 14, was also at the annual Town Meeting. Claire serves on the Vermont State Youth Council, a group that meets monthly to prepare recommendations for the Governor and the Legislature on policies that impact young Vermonters.
In January, Claire testified in front of the Senate Government Operations Committee in support of continuing the Vermont State Youth Council, which is scheduled to sunset next February. Hart, along with the other four members of the committee supports extending the youth council to October 2032.
“Is there a possibility that we can create a bill or whatever to extend that ASAP, so we could get it done for this this group?” Hart said in a recording of the Jan. 30 meeting. “This group’s amazing.”
The Legislature is currently reconsidering repealing the council’s sunset date.
Claire has “fairly different political opinions” to the Senator, but “He was really lovely and he listened.”
“I really like him,” Claire said.
Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.