Marriage Still Matters to GOP Vermont: US Senate Race 2022

 Marriage still matters to the Republican base, even in liberal Vermont

‘Ahead-scratcher’: Vermont’s GOP voters nominate a surprising slate of candidates

Even those who
won Vermont’s Republican primary elections on Tuesday say they’re baffled by
the results.

In the race for
U.S. Senate, GOP voters rejected former U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan, a
moderate and institutional favorite, for Gerald Malloy, a Trump-aligned
conservative. 

Christina Nolan was an out-lesbian, and she was endorsed by Mitch McConnell. She had two clear strikes against her as far as the Republican base is concerned.

Perhaps the
biggest upset of the night was Malloy’s defeat of Nolan, though a July poll by
the University of New Hampshire Survey Center showed him with a slight lead.
Malloy, a West Point graduate and 22-year Army veteran who moved to Vermont
just two years ago, won close to 40% of the vote. Nolan, who picked up the
endorsements of Gov. Phil Scott and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell, R-Ky., garnered just 35%.

Vermont Governor Phil Scott is one of the most liberal Republicans in the GOP Governor's Association, probably more liberal than Massachusetts' own Charlie Baker.

Reached
Thursday, Malloy struck a unifying tone, saying that moderates like Scott
belong in his GOP.

“I see us as
one party, and I see us as rallying together for this general election,” Malloy
told VTDigger.

But his
association with the party’s conservative wing suggests he is not quite a Phil
Scott Republican. Which legislators does he admire? Malloy pointed to Rep. Art
Peterson, R-Clarendon, and Rep. Vicki Strong, R-Albany, whose endorsement he
earned.

“Just great
Vermonters, great Americans, just doing the best for Vermont,” Malloy said. (He
also cited President Abraham Lincoln, “the first Republican President,” as a
favorite.)

The two
representatives Malloy mentioned inhabit the outer edge of the GOP. Peterson
made the rounds at Thayer’s anti-Critical Race Theory rallies and, in a House
committee meeting, questioned whether systemic racism exists. Strong,
meanwhile, is among the Legislature’s most outspoken opponents of abortion
rights and has said she would not comply with mask and vaccine mandates.

I am surprised that there are Republicans in Vermont who still fight against abortion. I am certainly glad that members of the state legislature oppose Critical Racist Theory, too.

“I certainly
seek to emulate how they perform for the state,” Malloy said.

That emulation
might explain his success. Malloy cited his experience in business and in the
military as key to his victory, but others suggested it was Nolan’s lack of
conservative bonafides.

That lack of conservative credentials is the bigger deal. No question about it

“She refused to
answer the question of who she voted for (for president),” said H. Brooke
Paige, a regular on the Republican ballot who picked up nominations for
attorney general, auditor, secretary of state and treasurer on Tuesday. “She
started to blow off the debates and forums or whatever we were having.”

For once, an establishment candidate got crushed for ducking debates. That's the kind of thing we hope to see more of in future elections.

Paige said
Nolan was notably absent at four events he attended. In the week leading up to
the primary, Nolan’s failure to show up to a Vermont Republican Party economic
forum in St. Albans drew the ire of fellow Senate candidate Myers Mermel, who
picked up 17% of Tuesday’s vote and had throughout the race gone on the
offensive against Nolan. His attacks against Nolan left Malloy safe above the
fray.

“I was somewhat
surprised to see Gerald Malloy beat out Christina Nolan. I attributed a lot of
that to the third candidate, Myers Mermel, spending a lot of money and time
bashing Christina,” said Benning, the Caledonia County senator who won the
Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. “I think Gerald Malloy took
advantage of staying out of that.”

Asked about his
decision to target Nolan, Mermel said it was a service to voters. “I believed
it was the right thing for me to do to make sure that people knew the truth
about the establishment candidate,” he told VTDigger.

But rather than
his attacks, Mermel suggested, it was Nolan’s endorsements from McConnell and
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that cost her with Vermonters, as did her outspoken
willingness to disagree with her potential Republican colleagues in the U.S.
Senate. “I had heard repeatedly from the people I spoke to that they didn't
want to see a Republican like that get elected,” Mermel said.

(The Nolan
campaign did not respond to an interview request on Thursday.)

While Malloy
took hardline anti-abortion and anti-gun-reform stances, Nolan said she
supported Roe v. Wade and red flag laws. She is also lesbian and has spoken in
favor of marriage equality. On a night in which women dominated the Democratic
ticket, not a single woman won statewide for the Republicans.

And here's the issue I want to focus on: "She … has spoken in favor of marriage equality." That's a big dud with Republican voters still. In spite of the GOP political establishment's drive to run away from cultural issues, the GOP base wants the party leaders to support the natural family, stand up for natural marriage, and push back on the encroaching, destructive LGBT agenda.