Vermont Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale running for Congress
The U.S. and Vermont flags flying in Bridgewater, Vt. (Gareth Henderson File Photo)
A Vermont senator from Chittenden County has announced her campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives, joining a race that has grown quickly in recent weeks.
Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, a Shelburne resident who also served seven years in the Vermont House, will face Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint and Lt. Gov. Molly Gray in this year’s Democratic primary. Vermont has never sent a woman to Congress, and if elected, Ram Hinsdale would also become the first person of color to join the Vermont Congressional Delegation. The incumbent, U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, is running for the Senate after U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy announced he would not seek reelection.
Advocacy for Vermont’s working families and for action on climate change are prominent issues for Ram Hinsdale, as expressed in a campaign statement Thursday.
“I’m running for Congress to be Vermont’s fighter for working families, our democracy, and our climate,” Ram Hinsdale said in the statement. “Now is the time to dream and deliver, to advance a bold vision for our multicultural democracy while building a responsive government that meets the everyday needs of Vermonters.”
She told Vermont Public Radio that her commitment to progressive environmental policies began years ago.
“I was fighting for the Green New Deal before it had a name — that’s how I got into politics in Vermont,” she told VPR. “I introduced Vermont’s first environmental justice bill in 2007 as a senior in college.”
She also mentioned the impact of her upbringing in a multicultural, working class family, noting she felt the economic insecurity when the family’s restaurant failed.
“And I think my lived experience has propelled me to be someone who’s on the steps of the Statehouse with teachers fighting for their pensions, to be alongside working Vermonters fighting to create more access to housing and homeownership, and to recognize that the fight for our climate is also one that matters deeply to people who are mobile home park residents or migrant farmers,” she told VPR.
Ram Hinsdale moved from Los Angeles to the Green Mountains to attend the University of Vermont, and she graduated from UVM in 2008. She served in the Vermont House of Representatives from 2009 to 2016. Ram Hinsdale lost a bid for lieutenant governor in 2016, but returned to the Legislature when she was elected in 2020, becoming the first woman of color to serve in the Vermont Senate. She is a member of the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs.
— Gareth Henderson
