No surprises in primary races for state Senate, House

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Yesterday’s primary election results, while predictable in many cases, set the ballot for state and local races in the Tuesday Nov. 5 election, which will include a much-contested presidential contest.

In the race for three Senate seats representing Windsor County, Democrats tapped incumbents Rebecca White of Harford (4,226 votes) and Alison Clarkson of Woodstock (4,123) as well as newcomer Joe Major of Hartford (3,268) to face Republicans Jack Williams of Weathersfield (1,341), Andrea Murray, also of Weathersfield (1,336) and Jonathan Gleason of Ludlow (1,135.)  Not making the cut were newcomer Democratic candidates Marc Nemeth of Royalton and Justin Tuthill of Pomfret. Major had been favored by both Clarkson and White.  Also, Republican newscomer Robert Ruhlin of Cavendish failed to make the primary cut.

Chris Morrow of Weston picked up 176 write-in votes in the Democratic primary for the Windham-Windsor-Bennington house seat and will face Janet Payne of Andover, who received 166 votes in the Republican contest. That district included Andover, Weston, Londonderry and Winhall.

In the Windsor-Windham House district, which includes Chester, Grafton, Windham and Athens, Democrat Heather Chase (319 votes) will face Republican newcomer Thomas Charlton (234) in November. Both candidates are from Chester and both ran unopposed.

The Windsor-2 House district (Cavendish and Weathersfield) will see a race between Democrat Mark Yuengling of Perkinsville who picked up 219 primary votes and V.L. Coffin of Cavendish who took 236 votes in the Republican primary.

There are two seats up for grabs in the Windsor-3 House district, which is basically Springfield, and Republican Judith Stern (358 votes) earned a spot on the November ballot to take on incumbent Democrats Alice Emmons (466 votes) and Kristi Morris (461 votes.) All are from Springfield.

And in the Windsor-Rutland House race, Democrat Adrienne Raymond of Shrewsbury (254 votes) will face Republican Kevin Winter of Ludlow (243 votes.) That district includes Ludlow, Mount Holly and Shrewsbury.

In the statewide races, Esther Charlestin of Middlebury handily won the Democratic primary over Peter Duval of Underhill, 24,016 to 9,387. She’ll face incumbent Gov. Phil Scott who picked up 23,064 votes running unopposed in the GOP primary.

Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman took the Democratic nod by a margin of nearly 10,000 votes from Thomas Renner. Zuckerman will face Republican John Rogers who beat Gregory Thayer 13,833 to 8,592.

In November’s congressional races incumbent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Burlington will face Republican Gerald Malloy of Weathersfield and Rep. Becca Balint of Brattleboro will face Republican Mark Coester of Westminster.