---
title: "Vermont’s last anti-Trump Republican governor meets a challenger from nowhere"
description: "Phil Scott, after ten years in Montpelier, trails or leads Amanda Janoo depending on the poll, and is now calling himself the change agent"
author: "Jan Sokol"
published: 2026-10-11T15:32:52.254Z
modified: 2026-10-11T20:46:53Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/vermont-s-last-anti-trump-republican-governor-meets-a-challe-35f56b
language: en
tags: ["politics", "trump", "economy", "ai", "climate", "us"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Vermont’s last anti-Trump Republican governor meets a challenger from nowhere

*Phil Scott, after ten years in Montpelier, trails or leads Amanda Janoo depending on the poll, and is now calling himself the change agent*

By Jan Sokol · October 11, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/vermont-s-last-anti-trump-republican-governor-meets-a-challe-35f56b

## In brief

- Republican Gov. Phil Scott, 68, faces his toughest race since 2016 as he seeks a sixth two-year term against Democrat Amanda Janoo
- A UNH poll showed Janoo ahead 49% to 43%, a statistical tie; a Vermont Public poll put Scott 10 points ahead
- The Republican Governors Association put $400,000 into a pro-Scott super PAC, its first spending in the race
- Janoo raised $706,000 through September to Scott’s $414,000 and backs a moratorium on AI data centers
- Scott attacks Janoo’s health care plan, funded by surcharges on income above $250,000 and $500,000

There is a particular kind of ruler who wins so often, and by so much, that the winning starts to look like part of the scenery. Phil Scott of Vermont has been that kind of ruler. He was first elected governor in 2016. In each of his last three races he won by more than 40 percentage points. For years people called him the most popular governor in America, and he got there as a Republican in one of the most Democratic states in the union, mostly on the votes of Democrats and independents.

Now, as [the *Boston Globe* reports](https://bostonglobe.com/2026/10/11/metro/vermont-governor-phil-scott-amanda-jano/), Scott, 68, is facing the hardest reelection of his career. He wants a sixth two-year term. His opponent is Amanda Janoo, a 39-year-old progressive Democrat who had never held office.

## The numbers turn

Two polls have broken the spell. The University of New Hampshire’s Green Mountain State Poll surveyed 835 people online from September 17 to 21 and [found Janoo at 49 percent and Scott at 43](https://vermontbiz.com/news/2026/september/25/unh-poll-janoo-edges-scott-partisan-headwinds-tighten-governors-race) among likely voters, with a margin of error of 3.4 percent. The pollsters called it a statistical tie. Scott’s campaign called the poll “misleading” and pointed out that Democrats made up most of the respondents. A second survey, commissioned by Vermont Public, [put Scott 10 points ahead](https://mountaintimes.info/2026/10/07/new-poll-shows-gov-scott-leading-amanda-janoo-by-10-points/), though about a fifth of its respondents had not made up their minds. On one thing the two polls agreed: for the first time, fewer than half of Vermonters approve of the job Scott is doing.

Andrew Smith, who directs the UNH Survey Center, reached for a cartoon to describe the governor’s position: “Phil Scott, as a Republican in Vermont, reminds me of Wile E. Coyote, who can continue running off the cliff until he eventually drops.”

![A headless figure in a cream suit and red tie strides off a dark green cliff against a turquoise background.](https://rews.cc/img/bd1866cc10d623950bef2f5a62982aa2ec9f121a.webp)

Money has started to move. Last week the Republican Governors Association made its first investment of the race, $400,000 for a super PAC backing Scott. According to filings reported by WCAX, the money went to [an independent-expenditure PAC called A Stronger Vermont](https://www.wcax.com/2026/10/09/outside-spending-is-pouring-into-vermonts-race-governor/), which has already spent about $160,000 on television and social media. The association has been generous to Scott before. It spent $3 million on ads for him in 2016, when he beat Democrat Sue Minter for an open seat, and another $800,000 in 2018.

## A candidate from outside

Janoo has no conventional path into politics. She grew up in a rural part of the Upper Valley and spent much of her early career abroad in international development. She came back to Vermont during the pandemic and now works in Burlington for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, a nonprofit that argues people and the environment should come before growth. She calls herself an economist, though she has no degree in the field. Better-known Democrats with statewide experience declined to run, and in August she [won the Democratic primary](https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2026-08-12/amanda-janoo-wins-vermont-democratic-primary-governor) against a Montpelier insider. She ran on an openly progressive platform and accused Scott of presiding over the state’s “managed decline.”

Vermont is not a state where campaigns usually depend on modern tactics, but Janoo has done well with videos shot straight to camera. In one recent clip, about the company whose license-plate readers local police use, she said: “F--- the Flock cameras, dude. Let’s ban ’em.” She also holds town halls where she listens and takes notes about as much as she talks. Filiberti, a retired paraeducator, went to one of them. “It wasn’t like a political speech,” she said. “It was almost like a community-building event.” She went on to volunteer for the campaign and then filed to run for the Vermont House herself, though she had never worked on a campaign before.

![A large cream and yellow megaphone rises above a central folding chair, surrounded by four matching chairs against a bright blue background.](https://rews.cc/img/3fd2f07e74989f5aa629e3965508f5bfd7481c78.webp)

Janoo says her rise reflects a widespread desire to confront what she calls “compounding crises”: inflation, climate change, artificial intelligence and the Trump administration. Data centers have quietly become an issue. In May Scott vetoed a bill to regulate them, and Janoo wants a moratorium on building them. By the end of September she had raised $706,000 to Scott’s $414,000, from many more donors. VTDigger reported that she had [$280,000 on hand against his $295,000](https://vtdigger.org/2026/10/02/amanda-janoo-bests-phil-scott-in-september-campaign-fundraising-blitz/).

## The incumbent as insurgent

Howard Dean, the only modern Vermont governor to have served longer than Scott so far, summed up the mood: “But that was then and this is now. Vermont is not as immune to the national trends as everybody thinks. People want change.” Scott himself has admitted he is “not immune” to a blue wave. “Ten years is a long time,” he said. “I think some are looking for change.” Then he made his argument: “I’m the change agent.”

His reasoning is that Democrats have controlled both chambers of the Legislature for more than a quarter-century, and for two years of his tenure they held a veto-proof majority. “I’m the one that has been putting \[policy proposals\] forward, and they haven’t been listening,” he said. Alex MacLean, who managed former Governor Peter Shumlin’s campaigns, said that argument used to work. “But I think it’s much harder to make that case when you’ve been in charge of the state for 10 years.”

![A stylized cream-colored tree with dark green foliage and sprawling roots stands against a teal background, with two small yellow wheeled platforms beneath its trunk.](https://rews.cc/img/08e101809bcf47fbf3d11abed65ff0c49f453eeb.webp)

Scott has also paid for a fight he lost. To slow the rise in property taxes, which pay for most of Vermont’s schools, he pushed to consolidate school districts. According to Paul Dame, the state Republican chair, that has alienated rural voters who fear losing their local schools. “I think we’re doing it for the right reasons, but you pay the price sometimes,” the governor said.

He has now started to attack. He says Janoo’s opposition to basing F-35s at Burlington International Airport could cost the Vermont Air National Guard more than 1,000 jobs. He calls her idea of relying less on federal money unrealistic. Her central promise is universal primary and preventive care, which she would pay for with a 2 percent surcharge on income over $250,000 and 5 percent on income over $500,000. She has also proposed raising $1 billion in new revenue from taxes on luxury second homes, vacation rentals and properties owned by private equity. Scott’s campaign compares the health plan to Shumlin’s failed single-payer effort: “Vermonters couldn’t afford it then … and certainly can’t afford it now.”

MacLean expects the outside money to try to turn Janoo into “a caricature: one who is too inexperienced and too eager to raise taxes.” Janoo’s campaign has said it does not want the Democratic Governors Association spending on her behalf. A spokesperson [told VTDigger](https://vtdigger.org/2026/10/09/pac-money-is-rolling-in-as-vermonts-election-nears/) that “she does not support outside interest groups getting involved in Vermont politics.”

Dame, the party chair, believes Scott will still win, but only if he does things “outside his nature” and starts promoting himself. After ten years, Vermont’s popular governor has to go out and ask for the job again, while next door in New Hampshire [another veteran Republican is trying a comeback](https://rews.cc/a/sununu-s-senate-comeback-runs-through-a-bedford-that-flipped-89316e) in a state that has also changed.