Rep. Peter Welch won the Democratic nomination Tuesday in Vermont’s U.S. Senate race to succeed Patrick Leahy (D), the longest-serving sitting senator, who will retire at the end of his eighth term.
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Welch’s decision to seek the rarely open Senate seat sparked a game of musical chairs of sorts among Democrats for the Green Mountain State’s only House seat. Leahy’s retirement and Welch’s decision to seek his seat leave two of the state’s three congressional offices open, a rare opportunity to go to Congress in a state where lawmakers typically hold seats for decades.
Welch, 75, was first elected to the House in 2006, while Leahy was first elected to the Senate in 1974. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I), who was first elected to the Senate in 2006, is the state’s junior senator at 80 years old — at least until Leahy’s successor is sworn in in January. Sanders previously held Vermont’s House seat for 16 years.
Welch easily won the nomination in a race that also included activist Isaac Evans-Frantz and physician Nikki Thran.
Earlier this year, Welch faced scrutiny over stock transactions as the issue of members trading stocks rose to the forefront, with some calling for bans. An investigation revealed that in 2021, Welch’s wife sold stock in ExxonMobil several weeks before Welch questioned Darren Woods, the company’s CEO, in a House Oversight hearing on “Big Oil.” Welch later pledged to avoid owning any individual stocks.
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Welch will go on to face Gerald Malloy, an Army veteran who ran as a staunch conservative and faces difficult odds in the deep-blue state’s general election. The Republican primary also included Christina Nolan, a former U.S. attorney for Vermont under then-President Donald Trump, and Myers Mermel, a real estate banker.
