Kesha Ram Hinsdale Could Make History in Vermont
As Vermont Congressman Peter Welch launches his bid for U.S. Senate, we take a look the progressive State Senator vying for his old seat.
In November, Peter Welch — Congressman for Vermont’s at-large Congressional district — announced his campaign to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of U.S. Senate President Pro Tempore Patrick Leahy. However, that has now raised questions about who may succeed the self-proclaimed progressive Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Several notable names have popped up, all of them women.
One, however, stands out among them.
“Environmental justice is a way of ensuring that resources get to those who need them most. Some would call environmental justice the intersection of poverty, pollution and power.”
Vermont State Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, the daughter of Indian and Jewish parents, announced last Thursday that she would be launching a bid to fill Welch’s seat in Congress. Ram Hinsdale is the first woman of color ever to have been elected to serve in both the Vermont State House and State Senate. First elected in 2008 to the Vermont House of Representatives, Ram Hinsdale took office at 22 to represent Chittenden’s 3-4 District while studying at the University of Vermont. During her tenure in the House, Ram Hinsdale led the charge for environmental justice in Vermont by introducing the state’s first environmental justice legislation as Vice-Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee.
“Before the Green New Deal had a name, I wrote a bill tying economic and racial justice to environmental justice in 2007, which I worked to introduce to the Legislature,” said Ram Hinsdale. “Some were skeptical that a coalition could be built to actually make progress on this issue, but fifteen years later, we now have a strong enough coalition for this bill to be passed.”
In 2020, Ram Hinsdale made history yet again by becoming the first woman of color to be elected to the State Senate, where she currently serves alongside Senators Thomas Chittenden (D), Virginia Lyons (D), Michael Sirotkin (D), Philip Baruth (D/P), and Christopher Pearson (P) in a multi-member district that includes the states largest city, Burlington. In the Senate, she has continued to push for progressive priorities such as Senate Bill 148, an environmental and racial justice bill that has the backing of the Sierra Club and Vermont’s NAACP.
“Environmental justice is a way of ensuring that resources get to those who need them most. Some would call environmental justice the intersection of poverty, pollution, and power.”
“It’s not enough for elected officials to just attach their name to the Green New Deal or Medicare for All.”
Consistent with her fight for environmental justice, her campaign platform includes fighting for a Green New Deal and other trademark progressive policies such as the Medicare For All Act, sponsored in Congress by Vermont’s U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressional Progressive Caucus leader Pramila Jayapal.
“It’s not enough for elected officials to just attach their name to the Green New Deal or Medicare for All. For the young Vermonters who are wondering if their planet will stay habitable and for the Vermonters too poor to go to the doctor, Vermont needs to send someone to Congress with a track record of not backing down from tough fights.”
Like her predecessors Welch and Sanders, Ram Hinsdale has also pledged not to accept any corporate PAC donations.
In addition, Ram Hinsdale has received endorsements from local progressive officials in Vermont and nationally, including Vermont State Representative Taylor Small (P-Winooski) and former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner, who co-chaired Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.
In a district where Sanders, a progressive powerhouse, received upwards of 85.0% of the Democratic Primary vote in 2016 and 94.0% in 2018, Ram Hinsdale is expected to have an advantage over her more moderate opponents by embracing such progressive stances.
In the first 24 hours after announcing her candidacy, Ram Hinsdale raised almost $200,000 from all of Vermont’s 14 counties, with much coming from small-dollar donors. Her primary opponents, Lt. Gov. Molly Gray and State Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, raised only $50,000 and $130,000 respectively within roughly the same time frame.
The Open Primary will take place on August 9, 2022.