The first thing you should know about me is that I know that politics is not leadership. I also know which I prefer. These last two years I have served in the General and Housing Committee where we find ourselves on the front line of the housing crisis. Our work impacts affordability as a whole, needs to help reverse our population trend, and overlaps the work of numerous other committees. My time in Montpelier is spent almost entirely in the review and writing of legislation, or networking with subject matter experts and decision makers. My vote is no-one's to sway until I have done so. It can be a heavy lift but that is why I am there: to do the job not just to look good nor go along with any group without question. Being a neighbor, home-owner, tax-payer, business-owner and builder is informative in the context of the work, but not perhaps as important as what is follows.

For 25 years I served as the pastor of a remarkable local church in Chester. The experience frequently brings the very best and the most challenging elements of a community into immediate view, along with direct acquaintance with everyone from regional leaders to the most forgotten. I am still regularly on the front lines with local families, walking through life with them at times of celebration, loss, challenge, and typical everyday life. I have sat at hundreds of kitchen tables listening to the stories, concerns and priorities of my neighbors. I know the “street level” promise and cost of our policymaking. I know life in Vermont from direct experience and from that of many, many others: from the roots of the grassroots. I am your friend, neighbor, classmate, sounding board and believe that you are more important than politics.

My family has been in Vermont for 250 years, and I have inherited their very long-view perspective on who we have been as a state. Chester has been home for 50 years, and I graduated from Green Mountain Union High School, as did all three of my sons. I have lived and studied in other states and countries, and know the incredible value of coming HOME.. I have been a volunteer with the Boy Scouts for 38 years, introducing scores of young people to active citizenship, outdoorsmanship and the environment. As a former wilderness trekking guide and a lifetime hunter and fisherman, I know the value of Vermont’s farms, forests, rivers, mountains and wild spaces, and I know the value of the people whose living comes from them. Since 2019 I have been growing a small business from the ground up, building post-and-beam cabins, barns, and other structures when not navigating state and federal taxes, licenses, permits, codes, fees and labor law.

I am convinced that we need to address a litany of issues. I am also convinced that working middle income Vermonters are an indispensable piece of our state’s identity. They are worthy of respect, protection and consideration as much as any of the other very real concerns we face. The issues at hand are complex. Creating practical solutions will require rare levels of cooperation, which I am well positioned to help happen in the Statehouse. I know how to learn rapidly, how to listen intently, how to think critically, how to speak cogently, and how to collaborate in the spirit of statesmanship. I know how to work. Who we are as a State and people is deeply embedded in who I am. We’re Vermont. We’ll figure this out.